Rebound (PG, 2005)

After he loses his college coaching job, Roy (Martin Lawrence), is a laughing stock the "loser of the week" named by John Salley and Tom Arnold, on Fox's The Best Damn Sports Show Period. He lands a new gig at his former middle school. His team is comprised of predictable misfits, each cute and also troubled in his own way: talented Keith (Oren Williams) hogs the ball, little Ralph (Steven Anthony Lawrence) throws up when he's nervous, Goggles (Gus Hoffman) is fond of snack foods, One Love (Eddy Martin) needs to play defense, and Fuzzy (Logan McElroy) can't make a free throw. Coach adds a couple of more irregulars, tough girl Big Mac (Tara Correa) and six-foot, very sweet geek boy Wes (Steven C. Parker), in order to complete a team who will learn to rely on one another and do all Coach's drills without complaint.

Tired before it begins, REBOUND never figures out how to handle Martin Lawrence's vibrant spacticity. As arrogant, bling-obsessive college basketball coach Roy McCormick, Lawrence is contained by clichés. The movie is most bearable if you consider the adults subsidiary and focus on the kids, in particular Big Mac and Wes, who develop something of a romance once he tutors her in math and she starts punching out kids who tease them.

The plot, such as it is, is rendered mostly by montages of familiar pop music -- practices, pep talks, games, rides on the herky-jerky school bus that Roy and Newirth take turns driving, and headlines announcing the team's miraculous winning streak. By the time you're hearing House of Pain's "Jump Around" on the soundtrack, you know the formula has run its course, that Roy will make the right choice, and the championship game will end unsurprisingly.