Forever Strong (2008)

A rugby player is put up in a juvenile detention center. There he plays for the Highland Rugby team and ultimately plays against his father in the National Championships.

Director:

Ryan Little

Writers:

David Pliler, Dony West (song)

Stars:

Gary Cole, Sean Astin, Sean Faris

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gary Cole	...	Coach Larry Gelwix
Sean Astin	...	Marcus Tate
Neal McDonough	...	Coach Richard Penning
Sean Faris	...	Rick Penning
Julie Warner	...	Natalie Penning
Penn Badgley	...	Lars
Eliot Benjamin	...	Marty
Michael J. Pagan	...	Kurt
Nathan West	...	Quentin
Max Kasch	...	Griggs
Arielle Kebbel	...	Emily
Kepa Kruse	...	Tumo (as John Kepa Kruse)
Junior Salt	...	Peeta
Jeremy Earl	...	Sanchez
Larry Bagby	...	Coach Cal

Storyline

Rick Penning, the 17-year-old star player on his coach/father's rugby team, lands inside the Wasatch County Juvenile Detention Center following his second drunk driving conviction (and where his father leaves him to rot). Mistrust and dislike of the situation makes Rick anything but a model prisoner, but counselors at the center nonetheless hook him up with the Highland Rugby Team, a team renowned for its long string of successive state championships. Its coach, Larry Gelwix, has a surprisingly unexpected philosophy: train boys to be champions in life first, then on the field. Rick doesn't buy into this, which could earn him some time in State Prison if he doesn't turn his life and attitude around by the time he turns 18.

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Plot Keywords:

rugby | coach | father son relationship | drunk driver | montage | 

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Taglines:

The Greatest Victories are Born in the Heart

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Genres:

Drama | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving teen drug and alcohol use, and for some disturbing images

Details

Official Sites:

Official Movie Site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 September 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Ryan Little Project

Filming Locations:

Springville, Utah, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$68,283 (USA) (3 October 2008)

Gross:

$630,649 (USA) (31 October 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Go Films, Picture Rock Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sean Faris sprained his ankle during the shooting.

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Quotes

Coach Larry Gelwix: Son, when are you gonna dig down and first-string the real Rick Penning?

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Crazy Credits

After the full credits roll, the team can be seen chanting on the field.

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Soundtracks

"Mele Kalikimaka"
Written by Alex Anderson & R. Alex Anderson
Performed by Mugsy
Courtesy of SBI America

User Reviews

They bastardized rugby!

First off just let me say that I live in South Africa where rugby is our biggest sport by far, and our national side, the Springboks, have won the Rugby World Cup twice, so it's quite a big deal over here. I've played all my life and I'm shocked at the poor attention to detail in this movie! At first I thought it had the potential to be a great movie considering the cast of Neal McDonough, Nick Ferris, Gary Cole and Sean Astin for goodness sake, but it turned out to be a mockery of the sport. They basically mashed it together with your normal everyday American Football movie.

My first problem is that this movie supposedly captures the values of rugby, but the discipline or should I say the total lack thereof during the games are contradictory to this. In the final it looks more like an NFL game with Penning being tackled of the ball numerous times, in front of the referee...that would've immediately led to a couple of red cards, because foul play like that would never go unpunished in by a referee, of that I can assure you! You'd also not be able to find a coach in world rugby who would have so little control over his team. Any coach would take a dump on a players head if he intentionally stiff arms an opposing player or double teams him like they did in the final...red card and certain suspension, full stop.

Secondly, it's absurd that a coach would take a brand new player, who has played wing all of his life I gather, move him to hooker which is a highly specialized position and say that it's for the good of the TEAM?! What?! Hooker is a highly specialized position in the front row where you have to be able to scrum extremely well and preferably be able to throw the ball in at line-out time, which Penning NEVER does for some or other reason. By moving a wing to hooker without any extensive long term training it would firstly lead to your team's demise at scrum time & secondly the poor kid would probably break his neck! How is that good for the team I ask you? Finally, the overall high emotional pitch of the movie is way too much, because even though rugby is a great sport, and it builds great friendships & team spirit, it rarely gets that out of hand & corny. I've seen true-life football drama's with less emotion than this movie & it turned out great, but in this one Sean's (Penning) acting skills is dragged way too far and the movie attempts too force an emotional response out of the audience, which ends up being boring and hard to watch at times.

Hollywood have made some great sports movies over the years, but next time they venture into a sport which has just recently picked up in the states, they should try and do their homework & maybe get some experts into the fray.

DO IT RIGHT OR DON'T DO IT AT ALL!