Starring: Ryan Merriman, Haley Joel Osment, Danielle Panabaker, Kenneth Mitchel
Written & Directed By: Rusty Gorman
Grade: B-
Home of the Giants is part inspirational sports movie and part conspirator thriller. It isn’t too clichéd aside for the “Will the star basketball player save the day in the big game?” type of ending. The film actually focuses more on the star player’s journalist best friend and a drug bust theft gone wrong, putting our characters’ lives on the line.
Gar (Osment) is covering a story on his best friend and star of his school’s basketball team, Matt Morrison (Merriman). The Giants are headed towards the state championships and in their town, basketball is the most important thing. Bridgette (Panabaker), a girl Gar likes in his journalism class, is irritated by all of the special treatment that the basketball players receive and in particular how Gar seems to drop everything when Matt comes calling. One thing that Bridgette doesn’t know is Gar and Matt have gotten in to trouble that could either get them arrested or killed. Matt’s older brother, Keith (Mitchel) just got out of jail. He owes some guys a lot of money and plans on robbing a drug dealer’s home in order to get the money. Matt is insistent that they need to help him do this and that Gar should be there too.
During their stake out, things get far more violent than Gar or Matt ever anticipated. Keith has a gun even though they are in an empty house. Before long they have a hostage and Keith tortures information out of him. At this point it becomes too much for the boys to handle. Matt wants to believe the best in his brother but is horrified by what’s going on. He continues to be haunted by it, especially when the hostage begins stalking him. He gives him one and only one choice: skip out of the championship game or he’ll come after him and possibly hack off a limb or two.
Written & Directed By: Rusty Gorman
Grade: B-
Home of the Giants is part inspirational sports movie and part conspirator thriller. It isn’t too clichéd aside for the “Will the star basketball player save the day in the big game?” type of ending. The film actually focuses more on the star player’s journalist best friend and a drug bust theft gone wrong, putting our characters’ lives on the line.
Gar (Osment) is covering a story on his best friend and star of his school’s basketball team, Matt Morrison (Merriman). The Giants are headed towards the state championships and in their town, basketball is the most important thing. Bridgette (Panabaker), a girl Gar likes in his journalism class, is irritated by all of the special treatment that the basketball players receive and in particular how Gar seems to drop everything when Matt comes calling. One thing that Bridgette doesn’t know is Gar and Matt have gotten in to trouble that could either get them arrested or killed. Matt’s older brother, Keith (Mitchel) just got out of jail. He owes some guys a lot of money and plans on robbing a drug dealer’s home in order to get the money. Matt is insistent that they need to help him do this and that Gar should be there too.
During their stake out, things get far more violent than Gar or Matt ever anticipated. Keith has a gun even though they are in an empty house. Before long they have a hostage and Keith tortures information out of him. At this point it becomes too much for the boys to handle. Matt wants to believe the best in his brother but is horrified by what’s going on. He continues to be haunted by it, especially when the hostage begins stalking him. He gives him one and only one choice: skip out of the championship game or he’ll come after him and possibly hack off a limb or two.Usually I find Ryan Merriman’s acting very cheesy and laughable. This was definitely one of his better performances though. I was actually able to believe him as his character. Haley Joel Osment’s performance was so-so. It worked well enough, but there just seemed like there was something very off. It was hard to really dive in to the story with his character since it was hard to think of him in real terms as this character. Part of this was in the writing, the character really could have been developed a lot more. Danielle Panabaker was my favorite performance of the film. She portrays a very smart, grounded, and down to earth girl, making the character immensely likable. She usually have this effect on the roles she takes on, adding a sense of charm to the film itself.
The movie was lacking in a few areas. It really felt like it ended a bit abruptly. Yes, there was the finish with the big game, but I really was not concerned with whether the team won or lost. It seemed like there were much bigger things going on. Matt never really got the confrontation with his brother. He had such high faith in his brother even when he got him in this life or death situation and didn’t take any responsibility for involving his younger brother in this in the first place. The discrepancies of the give and take between their relationship are acknowledged and then dropped just as quickly. This initially brings out the theme of the film of the dangers of idolizing your heroes. This same thing happens with Gar and Matt, Gar always putting himself on the line for Matt who doesn’t seem to ever put Gar’s wellbeing before his own. This relationship worked out better, but I still would have liked to see more of their friendship before all of the life-threatening complications to really understand why Gar was so loyal to him.
Some of the darker turns the film took were refreshing to find in a sports movie. Usually you always get the same thing so it was nice that they switched things up a bit, keeping the audience on the edge of their seat and establishing that this movie won’t be following the typical formula. The film could have used a little more development at some points, but it was entertaining enough with the twists and turns, making you question the decency of a few of the characters.
The movie was lacking in a few areas. It really felt like it ended a bit abruptly. Yes, there was the finish with the big game, but I really was not concerned with whether the team won or lost. It seemed like there were much bigger things going on. Matt never really got the confrontation with his brother. He had such high faith in his brother even when he got him in this life or death situation and didn’t take any responsibility for involving his younger brother in this in the first place. The discrepancies of the give and take between their relationship are acknowledged and then dropped just as quickly. This initially brings out the theme of the film of the dangers of idolizing your heroes. This same thing happens with Gar and Matt, Gar always putting himself on the line for Matt who doesn’t seem to ever put Gar’s wellbeing before his own. This relationship worked out better, but I still would have liked to see more of their friendship before all of the life-threatening complications to really understand why Gar was so loyal to him.
Some of the darker turns the film took were refreshing to find in a sports movie. Usually you always get the same thing so it was nice that they switched things up a bit, keeping the audience on the edge of their seat and establishing that this movie won’t be following the typical formula. The film could have used a little more development at some points, but it was entertaining enough with the twists and turns, making you question the decency of a few of the characters. 
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