This item is currently not available. If you have this item,
Join and post it to share with others.
Since winning an Academy Award for his exuberant performance inJerry Maguire, Cuba Gooding Jr. has gotten little but static from critics for a spate of calamitous career choices not seen since '80s-vintage Burt Reynolds. But he triumphantly returns to Oscar-worthy status with his moving performance as Radio, a mentally challenged young man, whom South Carolina high school football coach Harold Jones (Ed Harris) takes under his nurturing wing. This does not play well with the school's patient but questioning principal (Alfre Woodard); the school's biggest athletic booster, who views Radio as a distraction; the man's son, the team's star player, who plays cruel pranks on the trusting Radio; and the Coach's teenage daughter, who feels neglected. Almost all will be won over by Radio's trusting and good nature. Based on aSports Illustrated story,Radio was adapted for the screen by Mike Rich, screenwriter ofThe Rookie, and as in that superior family film, the heroics are mostly off the field. As Coach says, with all the subtlety of a blitz, "We're not the ones been teaching Radio; he's the one been teaching us." The ending, in which we see the actual Radio, still cheering his team on 26 years later, will melt the most cynical hearts.--Donald Liebenson
Spotlight on Radio Radio has been one of the saddest movies I have ever saw. It made me cry so much that my eyes were bloodshot red. I think everyone should watch this movie children and adults. In this movie there are many people starring in this movie but the main character was Cuba Gooding Jr. He was a mentally challenged high school student who really didn't have that many people to depend on besides his mother. He loved the game football and would stay by the feild everyday after school with his radio in his shopping cart to watch the football players play football. Everyone didn't treat him the way he was supposed to be treated but that all changed quickly. He lost his mother and need some help because he didn't have any other family members near by. His coach heard about that and took him in without any regrets. Radio showed him that he should care for all people. The coach let him participate in the game he loved so much and that meant alot to him. After everyone took notice of how nice and generous he was they treated him alot different. They treated him as if he was like everyone else and he loved it. The purpose of this movie was to show that no matter how the person is or who the person is they should be treated like a person not a thing. One thing I can say about this movie was that it showed that people can be nice and people can be mean but if you show them how u act they might treat you a lot different. Radio was a kid who didn't have that many friends but at the end of the movie he was popular everyone loved him. I suggest that everyone that has someone in your school,neighborhood,job or maybe even church should watch this movie. Trust me it can teach you so much. It can also help you see that not everyones perfect. Really it's not finding a perfect person but being able to see an imperfect person perfectly.
Mawkish and insipid Cuba's performance is an embarrassment, and the script is so laden with well-meaning platitudes that it grows nauseating after a while. I felt bad for Gooding; he really seemed desperate for another Oscar nomination, and to my eyes he seemed to be trying way too hard. Toward the end it gets so sugary sweet I felt my teeth begin to ache.
Unless you're easily manipulated by cheap sentiment, or are a sucker for "inspiring" true stories, then stay far away. I had to turn off this movie several times and walk away, just to control my gag reflex, it was so bad. I'm amazed people are giving it such good reviews...but then, there are people who will praise anything.Very funny but in questionable taste. I think we all have laughed at the expense of retards before, it sure is fun AND easy but sometimes it makes us feel less than perfect about ourselves. I feel the same way about this film. It was hard not to laugh when Radio was tied up but as a father to a retarded son I couldn't help but to feel bad about my laughter.
So as a comedy it gets the job done but if you want to feel good about yourself afterwards I recomend Mel Brooks' Spaceballs
