Customer Reviews

Coach [VHS]

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have to disagree with the negative comments regarding this movie. I love "Coach." I loved it when I first saw it on television when I was 15, and I love it today. Cathy Lee Crosby's character just breathes intelligence and decency. Her on-screen chemistry with the Michael Biehn character (in his first movie role) is nice to watch. Their relationship is based on a fair amount of sexual attraction (and shouldn't that be the case with a person with whom you're going to have a sexual relationship?) but it's also based on mutual admiration and respect. They LIKE each other. And they don't simply jump into bed together, they spend time over numerous dates getting to know each other before nature finally takes its course.

Perhaps many might argue that a 30ish female high school basketball coach shouldn't be having sex with one of her 18-year old players, no matter how perfect they are for each other, aside from the difference in their ages. In a typical movie, this would a morality tale, we'd see them both exposed, disgraced, Randy would lose her job, etc. Ah, the course of true love ne'er runs true. Downer! What I love, perhaps most of all, about this movie, is it doesn't do that. This is an anti-morality tale. (Not to be confused with an immorality tale - I consider both the main characters wonderfully principled folk.) In this movie, the two main characters defy convention, fall in love despite the fact many blue-noses might disapprove, they have a wonderful time, truly enjoy each other....and they GET AWAY WITH IT.

I loved this movie back when it came out.Now it is timely and Cathy lee is great.

... There's a bit more to "Coach" than a high school accidentally hiring a woman coach for their basketball team. She goes on to have an older woman/teen boy romance. Nothing too steamy, but you see some slight skin from actress Cathy Lee Crosby, who a year later went on to fame as co-host for TV's "That's Incredible."

Oh yeah, there's a "big game" coming up. If the team loses, it'll "prove" that the small town fuddy duddies and sexists and are right, and that women are no good at coaching. So it becomes a sort of "battle of the sexes" with the opposing team having a male coach. The home team (led by the teen lover) rallies behind their gal coach -- they're not just playing to win, they're playing to prove that she's a great coach despite her sex.

Can you feel the suspense as that "big game" is being played out on the court ... don't you wonder who'll win? -- NOT!

"Coach" is part of a mini-cycle of older women/teen boy films that were released in the 1970s, early 1980s. The cycle was started by "Summer of '42" and included "My Tutor," "Playing With Fire," and a few others.

Nothing radical there. While older woman/younger men films are rare, "older" twentysomething women/teen boy films are a common male fantasy.

plot outline:

A young, blonde, and beautiful athlete is hired to coach a team of underachieving high school basketball players. Against all odds, she transforms them into a winning team.

I'm gonna keep this shorter than my usual movie review. That's because there really isn't much of anything going on in "Coach". The basketball coach of a high school boys basketball team is fired and the school then looks for a replacement. They accidentally hire a woman (gasp!) to coach their team. Yup...that's it. There isn't much more to the story...It's difficult to watch because it is so uninspired.