Synopsis
Several players from different backgrounds try to cope with the pressures of playing football at a major university. Each deals with the pressure differently, some turn to drinking, others to drugs, and some to studying.
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Cast
- James CaanSam Winters
- Halle BerryAutumn Haley
- Omar EppsDarnell Jefferson
- Craig ShefferJoe Kane
- Kristy SwansonCamille Shafer
- Abraham BenrubiBud-Lite Kaminski
- Duane DavisAlvin Mack
- Jon PennellBobby Collins
- Andrew BryniarskiSteve Lattimer
- Michael FlippoCoach Humes
Recommendations
- 75
Chicago Sun-Times
By the film's end, I found myself simultaneously hoping that ESU would win its big game, and that the school would pull the plug on its football program. I guess that's how I was supposed to feel. - 60
Los Angeles Times
The Program tries to travel light and heavy, and the combination of noggin-banging action and deep-think doesn’t gel. Latham, who has previously bestowed upon us the ersatz pop reportage of “Urban Cowboy” and “Perfect,” doesn’t tunnel very deep into the world of college athletics. What he and Ward come up with is fairly standard stuff that seems derived mostly from old movies. - 60
The New York Times
A routine Joe College movie. - 60
Washington Post
As noisy and ludicrous as all this sounds, the movie does have its share of guilty pleasures. Like the kid on steroids, it's revved so high that it's out of control. And just as his coach does, it is possible -- though not easy -- for us to make the best of it. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
THE PROGRAM was a surprisingly thoughtful entry in a season glutted with sports films. (RUDY; BLUE CHIPS; THE AIR UP THERE; ABOVE THE RIM; D2; and MAJOR LEAGUE 2.) The game sequences, in particular, are deftly choreographed and charged with a real sense of drama. - 50
Chicago Tribune
But once the action wanders off the playing field, "The Program" shows all the cleverness, originality and depth of the Chicago Bears' offense. - 50
Variety
The Program starts in a fourth-down situation by being a sports movie with virtually no one for whom the audience can root — a major drawback, no matter how hackneyed those “Rocky”-ized finishes have become. Instead, Ward and co-writer Aaron Latham seek to indict big-time college football through a collection of cliches (money-doling boosters, steroid abuse, academic negligence , shady recruiting practices) and still want us to care about whether these players and coaches win the big game. - 50
ReelViews
The Program has its high points, but there are too few of them, and I suspect that many of the film's "insider's touches" are a combination of fact and fiction. Principally, this a formula football movie. Those hoping to see a hard-hitting drama about life off the field should instead prepare to be inundated by a load of feeble, unimaginative material that's almost impossible to take seriously.
