Rebound (2005)

Rebound is a film where its prefix "re" can apply to a lot of adjectives used to describe the quality of the final product. For one, it's a retread of a formula that needs some reworking, and it's gotten to the point where the film industry should reconsider this unattractive and wholly uninteresting formula be retired.

But why bother retiring a successful formula? Even though Rebound was a pretty hefty financial failure, the demand for these kinds of cheery, harmless family films is quite high. For one, they are the best kinds of babysitters, for they keep the little ones marginally silent for an hour or two and don't need much explaining, and secondly, they are so innocuous to the point where very few, if any, jokes, innuendos, or references need be explained. These kinds of films bathe in their own clichés, and usually drag the leading actor or actress down with their lackluster conduct.

Rebound is unfortunately not an exception; it's a miserably safe affair, so much so that the jokes feel like they were rewritten a few times over in act of screen writing desensitization to make sure nothing dirty snuck through. You know the plot by simply looking at the film's poster, so there's not much purpose in reiterating its contents. Martin Lawrence plays Coach Roy McCormick, a once respected and dignified college basketball coach turned endorsement-mongering sellout, who gets kicked to the curb by the NCBA after his latest episode involves the death of the opposing team's mascot's pet bird, McCormick's manager (Breckin Meyer) is now scrambling to find McCormick some sort of coaching opportunity to which he responds to a request for a rag-tag, middle school basketball team by the name of the Mount Vernon Smelters, who haven't won a game in years, much to the principal's (Horatio Sanz) dismay. McCormick does the gig for free to show that he is in it for the kids and the love of the game, and it becomes unsurprising when we see McCormick actually develop a love and appreciation for the students of Mount Vernon Junior High School, in true, predictable film fashion.

Even after summarizing the basic idea of the plot, the mean-spirit of the film's leading character just sticks out to me more. Here we have another leading male in a film who we are supposed to resonate with and support after he throws a colossal temper-tantrum and is passive-aggressive to a group of misfit tweens he is now forced to coach. If it wasn't the attitude on our lead character that was such a deal breaker to this film, the abundance of indifference is the nail in the coffin. Now, predictability doesn't always have to be a bad thing, for just because you predicted the ending or a certain plot-twist to a film shouldn't corrupt the surrounding elements of a movie entirely. However, when a film is erected from the ground-up on what seems to be nothing more than petty formula is when this becomes my main complaint.

Rebound is one of those films; a film so content on striving for mediocrity that it manages to be almost instantaneously forgettable all around. Further mix in elements that come directly from The Bad News Bears to the point of almost being classifiable as a rip-off or plagiarism, to not developing any of the children Coach McCormick is sent to coach, and seal the deal with grating sentimentality at the end and you have the recipe for a disastrous and unsubstantial family affair. With the wealth of invaluable film entertainment geared towards families made only more readily accessible by Netflix and other streaming services, you'd be beyond foolish to settle for the incorrigible rehash that is Rebound.

Starring: Martin Lawrence, Wendy Raquel Robinson, and Breckin Meyer. Directed by: Steve Carr.