Wednesday, July 9, 2008

LWITM: Remember the Titans

Today, I am again at a loss for a truly decent blog posting. Nothing has truly transpired in my life worth writing about in the past few days - and I have not seen a movie, nor finished a television series.

So, I felt it was time for another Look Who's In That Movie (LWITM).

Today's movie: Remember the Titans.

The major star of the film is Denzel Washington, who was obviously a well known talent well before signing up to play Coach Herman Boone in this film. Will Patton, who plays assistant coach Bill Yoast in the movie, was also well respected in the film world before this movie.

However, most of the players and secondary characters were relatively unknown at the time of this movie - which was released in 2000.

A list of some of the characters who, today, are up-and-coming stars.

  • Wood Harris - Played Julius Campbell in the film, a pivotal character in the film, who helped pave the way for the combining of the white/black football players. Harris has not blown up as of yet, but was a key character in the hit series The Wire playing Avon Barksdale. He currently has five different films releasing this year.
  • Ryan Hurst - Played Gerry Bertier in the film, the other part (along with Campbell) that formed a friendship helping the combining of the two schools. Hurst has been in a handful of movies since Remember the Titans, as well as being a star of a few television series' like Wanted.
  • Donald Faison - Played running back turned defensive standout Petey Jones in the movie. Faison had been in a few movies like Clueless and Can't Hardly Wait, but he was still a couple years away from making it big as Turk on Scrubs.
  • Ethan Suplee - Played lineman Louie Lastik in the movie, a player with a heart of gold and brains of mush. Suplee was also known before this movie for his role on Boy Meets World as well as his time in Kevin Smith movies Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma. He has blown up even larger with his role as Randy Hickey in My Name Is Earl.
  • Kip Pardue - Played Ronnie 'Sunshine' Bass, the replacement quarterback from California, who his teammates mistake for being homosexual. Pardue hasn't become very large in Hollywood, but has still been plenty busy with roles in television and in movies.
The final three on this list have become huge since this movie was released.

  • Ryan Gosling - Played Alan Bosley, a cornerback who had a hard time keeping up with a lot of the faster opponents. Gosling has become a major Hollywood player with large roles in such films as The Notebook, The Believer, Lars & The Real Girl and was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Half Nelson.
  • Kate Bosworth - Played Emma Hoyt, Bertier's girlfriend who had a hard time accepting the fact of the races mixing at first. Bosworth made a name for herself in movies such as Blue Crush and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. She has since been Lois Lane in Superman Returns and a card counter in the fun movie 21.
  • Hayden Panattierre - Played Sheryl Yoast, daughter of Bill Yoast and football enthusiast. Panattierre was only 10 years old while filming this movie, but has since become a huge star thanks to her role as Claire in the hit television series Heroes.
Well that was LWITM #2. A look back at a pretty terrific movie filled with (at the time) relatively unknown actors. But, trying to get this group together for this film today might prove a difficult task.

Grade:

4 comments:

  1. I think it's a terrible film but the cast has definitely blossomed, and is worth catching at some point in the future just to see them. Though that Kip Pardue guy bothers me...as does his name. He was known, and I think Will Patton's a fun addition to any cast, but he's a terrible actor. Or maybe he just bothers me, too. ;)

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  2. wow, how can you hate Remember the Titans? You are like the first I have heard to not like it.

    First, it's a sports movie. It involves the mixing of races in a town not too familiar with the idea, and how a football team can bring that town together.

    I agree with Kip Pardue, though.

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  3. If it makes you feel better, I can't stand any of Disney's feel-good "sports" movies, because I don't think any of them are really sports movies. They're Hallmark cards featuring people that play sports.

    I think they're simple, "inspirational," and unimaginative. I can already hear "Spirit in the Sky" playing in the background...

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  4. Personally, I'm sick of Remember the Titans. I'm not a fan of sports... and therefore sports movies... (ESPECIALLY football, which I think is one of the stupidest sports ever created, no offense). However, Remember The Titans was alright (Now, as Fletch said, it's just way overdone). BUT, when I was in high school, this was the movie that teachers would always play CONSTANTLY on down-time days. I saw this movie enough to last me a lifetime.

    And imagine living in South Texas and hating football :P . Though I do love Ethan Suplee.

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