Coach

I like to think of this film as the one that started it all; the great Teenage Sexploitation film. Truth be told that's not true. With all the bikini films made in the 60s Coach merely heralds in the 80's version of the genre (even though it was made in 77/78).

The topless scenes are pointless, and the gags are substandard. But there is heart and chemistry between Cathy Lee Crosby and Michael Biehn. And Crosby's character does find a good mesh with the team she's supposed to be coaching. The acting on the part of the team members is fair enough, but the film itself is horribly shot.

Technically the film is OK. That is it gets a passing grade. However it's looks like it was shot by film students rejected from USC's program. The lighting is horrible, the cinematography is bland as can be, and all the sound in the film was stuff recorded on the set (no looping or other effects).

The only shot worth anything in the film is Cathy Lee Crosby's opening Olympic sequence. If you see that, then you've seen the best part of the movie.

I won't give this film a complete thumbs-down, as both leads try to do their best with the material at hand (and make it work after a fashion), and the film does have a kind of raw energy that shows some modicum of talent among the film makers, but it's largely a dissapointment.

There's of course the "sex" aspect of it. If you bought or rented the film for that alone then you're in for a huge let down as the sex in the film is romantic (as it should be), and appropiately does not placate to the baser aspects of the genre. Back then, as a preadolescent boy with raging hormones, I admittedly found it a cheap thrill. But as an adult I can appreciate the scenes for what they are; tender moments between the characters.

A reshoot would be an interesting undertaking. With a reworked script to subtract the T&A and revamp the "comedy" the story could be properly told, and enjoyed. As it is now it's worth a night's rental, but not much else.

This one acts as a satire during the women's rights movement era. Of course, that doesn't mean COACH (the movie) is a wonderful experience to behold. It runs into the same vein as FASTBREAK (which was better, but still tame), and is basically standard fare fluff. What I mean for this movie being uninteresting is simple to recognize. Anybody who serves time away from a normal job by training a bunch of lunatics earning their way to sudden victory makes waste. It's the same feeling you may get after watching this. A nice attempt at casting the opposite sex for a man's duty, but I expected better things.

I watched this movie when I was a young lad full of raging hormones and it was about as sexy a movie as I had ever seen-or ever was to see. It may not have been a great movie. My guess is it wasn't. I don't really remember much about it, to tell you the truth. I only remember the sexual chemistry between Crosby and Biehn. No woman in ANY movie has ever done it for me as the unbelievably sexy Cathy did in this movie. I haven't seen it since that first time I caught it on TV in the 70s and I don't think I'd want to see it again since I'm sure it would be a disappointment-my hormones aren't as raging and I've become more jaded over the years. Still, when I think back on the shower scene I can still remember how great it felt way back when.

Added later: After watching the movie again, I discovered that it's dangerous to go home again. What was once erotic is now pretty tame. The older woman-younger man thing still works for me, just not as much as it once did, probably because I'm no longer eleven or twelve. That older woman is now younger than I am (although still quite sexy-Cathy was always the one doing the dangerous things on "That's Incredible"-beautiful, strong woman *sigh*). Also, the amateurishness of the whole thing wasn't perceived by my young mind.

Moral: Sometimes it's better not to revisit the past.

A high-school boys' basketball team keeps losing games, resulting in the firing of their coach. The school head hires a renowned athlete called Randy Rawlings as a replacement. The only trouble is, it turns out the new coach is a woman and the sexist school head expected a man. Needless to say, the female coach mixes things up somewhat and even begins a relationship with one of her students.

Coach is another film from those arbiters of good taste, Crown International Pictures. Unlike quite a few of the films from these guys, however, this one isn't very salacious or schlocky. It has, at best, some throwaway, half-hearted nude scenes. In fact, I thought that this was one of the more thoughtful teen-oriented movies from its time. The main reason for this is that the central relationship is played out in a quite realistic and unsensational manner. It works pretty well and is pretty engaging due in no small part to the fine chemistry between leads Cathy Lee Crosby and a young Michael Biehn. Both actors both do very good work here and really go some way to elevating the material overall.

It was quite interesting to see the whole storyline about the coach having an affair with one of her students be played out in such an underplayed manner though, like this was the most normal turn of events imaginable. After all, this behaviour would nowadays generally result with a swift prison sentence! But I think most of us truthfully find it kind of difficult getting too upset when it's a hot female teacher taking a young male student under her wing – I reckon most of us guys would have been up for a bit of that when we were younger to be perfectly honest! And in any case, it's a scenario that is genuinely played out in a pretty mature manner here by the leads and is much more cute than ever salacious. By contrast, on a completely different tone, there is a silly sub-plot about a gangly boy who is unwittingly put under hypnosis in order to turn him into a superstar basketball player. This nonsense offsets the relationship stuff and ensures that this movie has at least one foot in the comedy genre. On the whole, I found this a kind of likable affair. It's predictable fluff in many ways, yet it is also well acted and has a definite fun factor to it. I say, yes.

A high school principal (Keenan Wynn) with a losing basketball team unwittingly hires a coach who turns out not only to be a gorgeous blond woman (Cathy Lee Crosby) but a catalyst for their new winning ways. Are you really surprised? Along the way a romance grows between the coach and the team's star player Jack (Michael Biehn). The police are never notified.

Packaged along with other Crown International Pictures as a grindhouse movie really does this film no service. This can easily be edited into a television movie of the week. Cathy Lee Crosby looks great as coach Randy Rawlings especially in her skimpy outfits but I expected more than mere titillation from an R-rated film. A side plot involving a dorky center who is hypnotized by his teammates into thinking he is former NBA player Sydney Wicks is the actual reason for the team's new success rather than Cathy Lee's coaching. Too much tease and not enough sleaze makes this a major disappointment.