Drumline (2002)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Charles Stone III

Writers (WGA):

Shawn Schepps (story)
Tina Gordon Chism (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

13 December 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance | Music

Tagline:

Half time is game time

Plot:

A band director recruits a Harlem street drummer to play at a Southern university.

Plot Keywords:

University | Drummer | Fish Out Of Water | Marching Band | Dancing

Awards:

10 nominations

Cast

Nick Cannon	...	Devon Miles
Zoe Saldana	...	Laila (as Zoë Saldana)
Orlando Jones	...	Dr. Lee
Leonard Roberts	...	Sean Taylor
GQ	...	Jayson
Jason Weaver	...	Ernest
Earl Poitier	...	Charles (as Earl C. Poitier)
Candace Carey	...	Diedre
Shay Roundtree	...	Big Rob
Miguel A. Gaetan	...	Trey
J. Anthony Brown	...	Mr. Wade
Afemo Omilami	...	President Wagner
Angela Elayne Gibbs	...	Dorothy Miles (as Angela E. Gibbs)
Tyreese Burnett	...	Henry
Brandon Hirsch	...	Buck Wild

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for innuendo and language.

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #39207) | Iceland:L | Australia:PG | Finland:K-7 | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Canada:PG | Germany:6 | Philippines:G | Spain:T | UK:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Company:

Fox 2000 Pictures

Trivia:

One of the bands performing at the "BET southern classic" is Clark Atlanta University, whose campus is used as the setting for Atlanta A&T University in the movie.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Jayson is challenge the first time, Sean silences the drumline and puts his sticks behind his back. But in the next view, he has his sticks in front of him, like the rest of the line.

Quotes:

Devon: They don't tell you about all this when they recruit you.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Robot Chicken: Robot Chicken Christmas Special (#1.21)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Funky Drummer/Devon's Revenge

Open up your mind and enjoy the movie for what it is!

Drumline is a great movie -- but you have to see it for what it is ... not what your preconceived notions lead you to believe it might be.

This movie is all about exposing people to the world of Black College marching bands. You couldn't have a movie that was 2 hours of nothing but band performances so you HAD to wrap a formulaic story around it. "Boy meets girl/boy loses girl/boy gets girl back and learns the value of teamwork in time for the big showdown" is a formula that has worked for years -- and it works here!

Another poster remarked that the band camp scenes were unrealistic because they were too "militaristic" ... he didn't believe that (among other things) that the students would be made to run around holding their drums and so forth. Well, believe it!

I marched in one of these bands (Southern University in Louisiana) 20 years ago and back then, band camp was FAR MORE INTENSE than anything you see on the screen in this movie. YES, it is that competitive. YES, it is that grueling. YES, it is that disciplined. Black College marching band is serious business and this film gives you only a small sample of what it takes to "make the band."

The actual band performances are AWESOME and will definitely be an eye-opener to anyone who has never seen this type of thing before. More importantly, there is no sex, violence, drug use, and very little bad language (just the requisite "d*mns" and "h@lls" - nothing any more intense than prime-time television.) Equally important, the movie features strong male figures who resolve differences without resorting to pathological violence.

One last point -- the movie grossed 13+ million dollars in its opening weekend. And this was against Star Trek (18.7 M) and the Jennifer Lopez (19 M) movie. Although it finished in third place, it was shown in about 1,000 fewer theaters than those two. It had (by far) the highest "revenue per theater" for the weekend!

Do yourself a favor -- open your mind and see this movie -- you and your family will enjoy it!