Radio

Radio
by Michael Tollin

Radio
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Alfre Woodard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Debra Winger, Ed Harris, S. Epatha Merkerson
Director: Michael Tollin
Brand: Team Marketing
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-07
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures

Movie Reviews of Radio

Movie Review: Almost Too Good To Be True
Summary: 4 Stars

This was unusual: a modern-day film which was ultra-nice. In fact, it was so nice it bordered on being too hard to believe in parts. As I watching this based-on-a-real-life story, I was thinking, "nobody is this good, this tolerant."

Mainly, I was referring to Ed Harris' role as "Coach Jones." I think they went a little overboard on his character, but that's better than the reverse: showing him worse than what he was in real life. Anyway, I never complain about a nice, feel-good film, and it is nice to see a bunch of well-meaning, kind people.

Those folks direct their friendship, love and compassion to "James Kennedy," better known as "Radio," a mentally slow high school kid played by Cuba Gooding Jr. The story takes place in the mid 1970s in South Carolina. Gooding does a nice job with the role, too.

Note: It was interesting in one of the documentaries on this DVD to find out that, in real life, in took years for "Radio" to make his transformation, not months as shown in the film.

Summary of Radio

Football coach Harold Jones (Harris) befriends Radio (Gooding), a mentally-challenged man who becomes a student at T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson, South Carolina. Their friendship extends over several decades, where Radio transforms from a shy, tormented man into an inspiration to his community.
Since winning an Academy Award for his exuberant performance in Jerry 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 a Sports Illustrated story, Radio was adapted for the screen by Mike Rich, screenwriter of The 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

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