JACKSON picks up the true story of a basketball coach who demanded excellence on and off the court and drops it clean through the hoop.

His portrayal of Ken Carter brims with strength and solid principles, the sort of beliefs that see him turn around a bunch of inner-city toughs and make them shine.

A former sports star and now a businessman, Carter agrees to return to his dive alma mater to train the squad at a California High School.

He's met with scorn and plenty of lip, but that doesn't last long. The whole team is forced to scrub up and sign up to a charter demanding stronger academic attendance and grades.

When the team fluff that up, he stops them playing, thus missing key matches until they realise that exams are important too.

A role model movie then, but the moves fit together well and Carter's message that poor kids shouldn't over emphasise sport as their only way out makes an inspiring change from another guns and ghetto drama.

Basketball is an easy sport to understand and the game action thumps crisply to an R'n'B beat - as you'd expect from an MTV film.

The film is over-long though, and Carter's uplifting speeches need to lose some ballast as they descend into hackneyed motivational rants. Side stories that add a bit more scope include singer Ashanti's acting debut as a player's pregnant girlfriend and the drug drama of a bad 'un called Timo Cruz.

But the involvement of Carter's wife and his son Damien (Ri'chard), who joins the squad, fails to add much understanding to the workings of this solid, hard-as-nails coach.

A sports story that starts off at rock-bottom generally only heads one way, and there are few surprises in Coach Carter, but it's quite emotionally involving, with far more at stake than a ball game.

Mono rating: five out of ten.

Paul Platt