42 (2013) 7/10

Starring : Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie, Christopher Meloni, Andre Holland, Lucas Black, Hamish Linklater, Ryan Meriman
Director : Brian Helgeland
Running Time : 129 mins

It’s 1946 and baseball player Jackie Robinson (Boseman) is picked to play in the Major Leagues, becoming the first black player to do so, but faced with the racist attitudes of the time Jackie finds his life constantly under threat from those that don’t want blacks and whites to mix and he is challenged with trying to make a success of his career while many try to put him down.

The first half of this movie was something of a waste, but once Robinson gets to the Major Leagues and starts really suffering racial abuse in front of the crowds it really gets to be interesting and educational. Sadly, from what this portrays, Robinson doesn’t seem to know how to pick his fights, largely ignoring an overtly racist Alan Tudyk yet when one of his team mates says Jackie might have some friends who can put the team up for the night he goes ballistic. The sad fact is that Robinson isn’t given enough of a personality in this so-called biopic and, if he had been, then this would have made the movie more effective.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Blind Side