The Saints of Mt. Christopher (2011) – Review

Where to watch The Saints of Mt. Christopher

1 Star

The Saints of Mt. Christopher is like Hoosiers if Dito Montiel was directing. It’s a jumbled maddening film occasionally punctuated by a good scene that doesn’t ever build toward a satisfying climax. Scenes aren’t cut together so much as jammed into one another with jarring incompetence. Recognizable faces, such as the oft wonderful Clifton Powell and the always interesting Tom Sizemore, are limited to playing caricatures of roles they previously portrayed in far better movies. To suggest this is a sports film in the tradition of Remember the Titans (as the cover art suggests) is as bold a proclamation as you’re likely to hear all year.

The opening few moments are admittedly gripping, particularly the haunting score and effective acting from Rus Blackwell as a coach suddenly faced with answering to the national media. The central problem with the film is that the character of Delroy is so uninteresting it’s difficult to garner much sympathy for his trials and eventual death. A secondary character that the film dwells on for large chunks of its running time is a white player on a mostly black team in the racist south. This may have been compelling material in theory, but as written it’s flat and unconvincing.

Director Shane Dean stages scenes in an unremarkable fashion and the tone veers all over the place. I congratulate Mr. Dean on getting this onto video store shelves and compiling a catchy soundtrack with top level artists. It’s a shame the advertising materials are selling this as an inspirational sports saga, there is nothing uplifting or remotely interesting enough to recommend The Saints of Mt. Christopher. Only for those brave souls who never miss a Tom Sizemore flick, you’ve been warned.

Director: Shane Dean
Stars: Sean Alexander, Analiese Anderson, Tom Sizemore