Haunted by his mysterious past, a devoted high school football coach leads a scrawny team of orphans to the state championship during the Great Depression and inspires a broken nation along the way.... (Full plot summary below)
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Haunted by his mysterious past, a devoted high school football coach leads a scrawny team of orphans to the state championship during the Great Depression and inspires a broken nation along the way.
Leave your thoughts about 12 Mighty Orphans.
| The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerWith its old-fashioned look, quaint unsophistication and self-consciously big heart, this film is Hoosiers meets The Longest Yard, with an Oliver Twist. |
| The Film StageJared MobarakThe delineation between good and evil maybe a bit too black-and-white throughout, but none of those aspects remove the potency of the lessons learned along the way. |
| VarietyPeter DebrugeIt’s all engineered to pay off in familiar ways, though the movie isn’t quite as predictable as you might think. |
| Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayCredit Wilson and Sheen . . . Nothing that happens in 12 Mighty Orphans is unexpected, but these two pros still react with infectious wonder as the messages they send to their students take root and then sprout. |
| San Francisco ChronicleCary DarlingThe results may be sports-movie predictable in many ways, but the Mighty Mites’ impossible story is one deserving of resurrection from the dusty archives of Texas history. |
| RogerEbert.comCarlos AguilarWholesome in the most “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” brand of mythical Americanism, 12 Mighty Orphans is engineered to rouse emotions with uncritical pride, never reaching the less immaculate corners of the historical period it employs as canvas. |
| The PlaylistAndrew CrumpUltimately it’s very little about football. It’s about class. This is a theme worthy of a spotlight, too — but 12 Mighty Orphans isn’t the place for it, or it shouldn’t be. |
| Washington PostMichael O'SullivanIf you’re looking for that kind of moral-rich message, delivered with equal amounts of sincerity and syrup, congratulations: You may have found the mythical source from which all other malarkey springs. |
| The A.V. ClubMike D'Angelo12 Mighty Orphans tells the true story of a Depression-era high school football team improbably formed at a Texas orphanage, but the screenplay may as well have been invented from whole cloth, given its relentlessly formulaic nature. |
| Movie NationRoger MooreAs a director, Roberts comes off as more of a producer. He can get a movie made, he’s just damned artless in making it. |
