Movies

The Longshots is a certifiable crowd pleaser, an agreeable variation on the kid sports movie formula whose family-friendly messages outweigh its corny over familiarity.

It's set in the world of Pop Warner (pre-high school) football and the first girl to play in the Pop Warner version of the Super Bowl.

This kid-friendly dramedy from the musician-turned-filmmaker Fred Durst (of Limp Bizkit) hits its marks and tugs its strings. It works. Especially if you've never seen a formula sports dramedy before, something most of its audience will be able to say.

Longshots is about Jasmine Plummer, an outsider in her school in the rust belt down of Minden, Ill. Her dad left five years before. She keeps her head in her books and tries to avoid being picked on.

Mom (Tasha Smith) works long shifts and since the shy Jasmine (Keke Palmer) won't sign up for after-school programs, she needs a baby sitter. Her brother-in-law, Curtis, Jasmine's uncle (Ice Cube), has nothing to do, so she talks him into it.

Curtis hasn't worked steadily in years. He doesn't bathe. Back in the day, Curtis was a star. He puts down his beer and teaches her football. She's a natural.

Longshots is packed with positive messages, about family and community pride, about sportsmanship (no showboating in the end zone, kids), about finding your niche. It's messy, with loose ends left dangling as we march toward that next sports formula benchmark. But Durst and Cube and Co. have done a decent job with a movie that never set out to be more than an average crowd pleaser.