Variety
A crowd-pleasing, uplifting, feel-good and not-so-rare hybrid -- the sports/prison movie -- in which Los Angeles gangbangers are taught the virtues of trading violence on the streets for violence on the field...
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Gridiron Gang
Marking the beginnings of the 2006 NFL season State-side is 'Gridiron Gang'. Tells the story of juvenile detention camp probation officer Sean Porter (The Rock), who, along with another officer, Malcolm Moore (Xzibit), turns a group of hardcore teenage felons into a high school football team in four weeks. Confronted with gang rivalries and bitter hatred between his teammates, Porter teaches some hard lessons (and learns a few himself) as the kids gain a sense of self-respect and responsibility. 
97 minsUSA
DramaSport
- Director:
- Phil Joanou (Heaven's Prisoners)
- Writer:
- Jeff MaguireJac Flanders
- Cast:
- Dwayne 'The Rock' JohnsonXzibitL. Scott CaldwellLeon RippyKevin DunnJade Yorker
Gridiron Gang / Reviews
USA Today
The best thing about Gridiron Gang is the performance of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. He is engaging, affable and wholly believable as a former football star turned officer in a juvenile detention center...
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The New York Times
The movie's good intentions are consistently undermined by its simplistic notion of redemption, and its inspirational thrust is diluted by an epilogue that suggests the program still has a ways to go in the life-altering department...
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Premiere Magazine
Can he (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson ) act? Surprisingly, for the most part, the answer is yes, and the film is a success for it...
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Entertainment Weekly
Parades itself as an ''honest'' message movie, a call for troubled kids to choose life over street nihilism, but the picture is so earnest that it leaves out the easy, old-school pleasure conjured by the last few years of Disney sports flicks (Invincible, Miracle, The Rookie)...
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