Post by StevePulaski on Apr 26, 2016 17:08:08 GMT -5
23 Blast (2014)
Directed by: Dylan Baker
Directed by: Dylan Baker
Alexa Vega and Mark Hapka in 23 Blast.
Rating: ★★
If I didn't know Christian values and doctrine any better than I do, just by the films of the dubious "Christian film" genre I watch, I would guess that football games are as common of a practice for practicing Christians as going to church is. In the last fifteen years, we've gotten Woodlawn, When the Game Stands Tall, Invincible, Facing the Giants, Touchback, My All American, and now 23 Blast, which isn't the worst of them all, but far from the best. While not as infused with theology, sermonizing, and blanket characters, there's still that oppressive and ableist idea that if a person "believe" or "hope" enough all of their problems will evaporate. This kind of thinking seems to only be prevalent in dime-a-dozen Christian films.
The story revolves around Travis Freeman (Mark Hapka), a local high school football star in Corbin, Kentucky. This is a kid that has it all and you know the type: attractive girlfriend, supportive parents, and a best friend/fellow teammate all by his side. One day, after experiencing severe headaches after a game, he is taken to the hospital when his face begins to swell. It turns out that Travis has a meningitis infection, and while doctors manage to successfully remove the infection, Travis is now permanently blind, unable to play football with his entire life ostensibly downgraded in just a matter of days.
Travis' blindness results in his girlfriend leaving him and with the decision to leave his friends to receive an education at the school for the blind, following sitting in his room for an indeterminate amount of time where it seems his parents didn't even bother to clean for him. All seems hopeless until his football coach and personal mentor Coach Farris (Stephen Lang) offers him the ability to play center on a football team, a position where sight really isn't required as much as touch and the ability to react swiftly is. Travis winds up working with his old team again, in addition to helping his pal with his problems of alcoholism, as his temper begins to get out of hand.
23 Blast, similar to last year's Woodlawn, despite focusing on a true story, still has that incredulous element that makes the film difficult to believe as a whole. Even with the authenticity element, the film feels like a too-good-to-be-true story when put into the context of a narrative. This is the kind of story that would've been better served in the context of an ESPN 30 for 30 special, or an "E60" for shorter, less detailed stories about significant events in sports.
The immediate problem most of these faith-based sports films encounter is they're already bogged down by such triumphant themes of courage, perseverance, and overcoming adversity, and with a limited budget, a largely inexperienced cast, and the other primary goal of sermonizing or evoking faith, the scope of the projects often can't help but make these stories into caricatures. Aforementioned themes become nothing but buzzwords, the only difference is they're spouted by the common people rather than by talking heads or people in power. 23 Blast is little other than a dimestore, buzzword-filled faith-based drama that lacks any kind of urgency or energy necessary to make this film something that could stand out in its genre. It just might remind us how we haven't been to a high school football game in eons or that there are people that take high school football this seriously.
Starring: Mark Hapka, Stephen Lang, Bram Hoover, and Alexa PenaVega. Directed by: Dylan Baker.