JinRoz
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Motompa
Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.
Jonah Abbott
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
moonspinner55
Robby Benson co-wrote and stars in this simplistic basketball drama about a short but energetic high school basketball star who graduates to a university team on scholarship, immediately butting heads with the hard-ass coach when he appears not to be living up to his reputation. Of course there's also a spunky female graduate student assigned to the faltering phenom as a tutor (no growing pains portrait should be without one). Derivative sports drama with a soft-spoken hero who refuses to give up, leading to his participation in the Big Game (complete with his new sweetheart in the stands). G.D. Spradlin is over-the-top as the coach; his menacing quality and hayseed-sheriff persona are far heavier qualities than this flimsy script can support. Benson constantly wants to manage our responses to him: he's the naïve kid who is conned by a nubile hitchhiker, he's the quiet guy who's shy around girls, he's the budding rebel who tells the coach "I'm gonna beat you!" We're not allowed to perceive any of his angelic attributes for ourselves--it's spelled out in the writing. Young audiences at the time naturally responded to the climax (which is well-mounted by director Lamont Johnson), but the movie is a connect-the-dots job. ** from ****
John T. Ryan
BEING SORT OF yet another entry into the underdog vs. the rest of the known world genre, we review and respectively submit for your approval, our recollections and perspective on this Robby Benson vehicle. . And proud it should be as this ONE ON ONE joins in lock step with such entries as the recent THE BLIND SIDE, ROCKY (and his friends: II, III, IV, V, BALBOA & now CREED) and HOOSIERS. ALTHOUGH WE HAVE dared to classify this perhaps forgotten little family picture from 1977, it does have some inherent elements that fly in the face of any attempt at pigeon holing it. In addition to the obligatory struggle that indeed is at the center of any drama like this, ONE ON ONE dares to break away on its own, pursuing a definite different route in its path to a successful conclusion.MORE SPECIFICALLY, THE film introduces an additional obstacle to the chagrin of protagonist, Henry Steele (Robby Benson). The iron fisted and authoritarian rule by Head Basketball Coach Moreland Smith (G.D. Spradlin).* The Coach takes as a personal affront the young Steele's open display of being a free spirit. The Coach pulls the rug out from beneath him; voiding his athletic scholarship.IT IS AT this juncture that the young student athlete's future becomes most dependent on his student tutor, Janet Hayes (Annette O'Toole). Whereas the slightly older co-ed had been less than sympathetic to his plight, her attitude quickly shifts as her prepping him for his various courses continues after her stipend is also spiked by the coach. In spite of earlier hostilities, the two become L-O-V-E-R-S!THE STORY REACHES a climax, a crescendo and a conclusion (all three)when young Steele, who managed to not only remain on the Varsity hoops squad, but also manages to win the big game. Rather than offering any apology with his congratulations, the coach offers to reinstate his tuition free ride. To this, young Steele replies by referencing the coach. Quoting a previous tirade of Coach Smith's of: "Up your ass with a red hot poker.THE TWO YOUNG lovers are the shown going off somewhere, embracing and enthusiastically swapping spits. (Shocked, Schultz?)THE ENDNOTE * Veteran character actor was well cast in the role of Coach Moreland Smith, which was very similar to his characterization of head Coach B.A. Strothers in NORTH DALLAS FORTY (1979). As a matter of fact, Mr. Spradlin most usually played unsympathetic, snake in the grass types. Remember him as Senator Geary in THE GODFATHER: PART II? The only "good guys" in his resume that we recall are those appearances as a LAPD Police Captain on the DRAGNET TV Series in the late 1960's o mid '70's!
bloobarooo
during the game in which "Western" is blowing out the visitors, the camera pans the crowd, who look bored. I was picked to be one of the "early leavers" and I think it's because I coincidentally (I didn't know what the mythical U would be called) was wearing my WESTERN track shirt.Also amusing, is that the crowd shots for the games were shot at CSU (Ft. Collins, Colorado) basketball auditorium in the winter. Since we were supposed to be in sunny southern California, we had to HIDE all our winter clothing -- hats, scarves, gloves, parkas. Quite a feat to get all the thousands in attendance to hide all that stuff.
dave4248185
Thumbs down.************POSSIBLE SPOILERS************ Saw this movie on ESPN classic last night. Sorry, can't sympathize with Henry at all. His coach was absolutely right. The kid was a hot dog, an undisciplined show-off. And like the coach pointed out, greedy and hypocritical. He even pops amphetamines during practice. I wondered why the coach took so long to try and throw him off the team. I would have done it much sooner, and much harsher. Then when he finally redeems himself and the coach gives him another chance, does he thank the him? No, he returns to his wise-ass self. Jerk.
