Sports to Rent

In 1966, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter was a top-ranked middleweight boxer whom many fight fans expected to become world champion. When three people were shot to death in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey, Carter and his friend John Artis, driving home from another club in Paterson, were stopped and questioned by police. Although the police asserted that Carter and Artis "were never suspects," a man named Alfred Bello, himself a suspect in the killings, claimed that Carter and Artis were present at the time of the murders. On the basis of Bello's testimony, Carter and Artis were convicted of murder, and Carter was given three consecutive life sentences. Throughout the trial, Carter proclaimed his innocence, saying that his African-American race and work as a civil rights activist were the real reasons for his conviction. In 1974, Bello and Arthur Bradley, who also claimed that Carter was present at the scene of the crimes, recanted their testimony, but Carter and Artis were reconvicted. In the early 1980s, Brooklyn teenager Lesra Martin worked with a trio of Canadian activists to push the State of New Jersey to reinvestigate Carter's case; in 1985, a Federal District Court ruled that the prosecution in Carter's second trial committed "grave constitutional violations" and that his conviction was based on racism rather than facts. Carter was finally freed, and he summed up his story by saying, "Hate got me into this place, love got me out." The Hurricane is based on Carter's incredible true story and stars Denzel Washington as Carter, Vicellous Shannon as Lesra Martin, and John Hannah, Liev Schreiber and Deborah Unger as the Canadian activists. Veteran filmmaker Norman Jewison directed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The producers of Wedding Crashers are back with the comedy The Comebacks. Spoofing countless inspirational sports movies, the film stars David Koechner (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy) as Lambeau Fields, a football coach who suffers from a streak of bad luck that has become the stuff of legend. As a last resort, he takes a job coaching a college football team populated with some of the least desirable players imaginable. He must pull this ragtag crew together in order to salvage his career. Carl Weathers plays rival coach Freddie Wiseman. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Baseball lovers have Bull Durham, football lovers have Friday Night Lights, and now volleyball enthusiasts get a chance to see their favorite sport shine on the silver screen with this tale of a fallen sports star who gets his second shot at greatness. Cameron Day (David Charvet) was a college basketball player whose proficiency on the court came at the sacrifice of his sanity. The mental demands of being a professional athlete were just too much for Cameron to handle, and just he was set to break big in the world of professional sports, the once-promising athlete mysteriously vanished for ten long years. Now that Cameron has learned how to effectively harness his inner anger, the time has come for him to have another go at greatness -- only not on the basketball court but on the pro beach volleyball circuit. Upon arriving in Manhattan Beach, CA, from Manhattan, the wayfaring athlete finds inspiration in Mia (Torrey DeVitto), an artistically inclined beach beauty who has never cared too much for jock types like Cameron. Regardless of her reluctance to date an athlete, however, Mia helps to enlighten Cameron by teaching him about the Green Flash: that fleeting moment when the sun falls over the horizon and all of nature become completely brilliant for a fraction of a second. Despite his early success, Cameron feels as is he has not experienced his own personal Green Flash just yet, though now as he makes it his mission to win the Manhattan Beach Open, he senses that true greatness could finally be within reach. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Jeepers Creepers director Victor Salva takes a break from the horror to offer an inspirational tale about the remarkable power of the human spirit as the pages of Dan Millman's best-selling autobiographical novel come to life onscreen in this life-affirming film starring Nick Nolte, Scott Mechlowicz, and Amy Smart. A talented college gymnast with serious Olympic aspirations, Dan Millman (Mechlowicz) leads a charmed life of first-place trophies, fast girls, and rowdy parties until a career-threatening injury and a chance meeting with a mysterious stranger named Socrates (Nolte) show him how little he truly knows about living. In the months that follow his tragic injury, both Socrates and elusive beauty Joy (Smart) impart to the growing young man the wisdom that he needs to leave the past behind and follow the path of destiny and fulfill his transformation into the peaceful warrior. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A disgraced former ping pong champion is drawn back into the world of high-stakes table tennis to carry out a top-secret mission in the feature directorial debut of Reno 911! writer/director Ben Garant. Far removed from the rigidly regulated world of professional sports, clandestine ping pong tournaments offer thrilling competition where only the strong survive. There was a time when the mere mention of the name Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler) was enough to make even those most hardened ping pong player cower in fear, but these days Randy has fallen out of favor with ping-pong fans. The former champ soon receives a much-needed shot at redemption, however, when he is recruited by a determined FBI agent named Rodriguez (George Lopez) to win a coveted spot in the upcoming underground table tennis tournament and ferret out the nefarious Feng (Christopher Walken), whose thriving criminal empire has transformed him into a true menace to society. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide