About a boy from the wrong side of the tracks whose dream of attending the U.S. Naval Academy becomes a reality. Brewster plays an upper classman who helps Franco's character train in the ring as the two fall for each other, even though it is a violation of academic policy.
Release Date: January 27, 2006 Studio: Touchstone Pictures Director: Justin Lin
Screenwriter: David Collard Starring: James Franco, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana Brewster, Donnie Wahlberg, Chi McBride, Vicellous Shannon Genre: Drama MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some violence, sexual content and language) Official Website: Annapolis.movies.com
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some violence, sexual content and language.
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SYNOPSIS
It’s known as one of the toughest institutions in America -- a home for the best and brightest who are driven to serve their country and a training facility where only the strongest survive. It’s a rarified world that, by necessity, makes or breaks tomorrow’s heroes. And for local Maryland kid Jake Huard, the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis has been a lifelong dream he never thought could come true. Only now that it has, he is about to realize that his battle to become the man he always wanted to be is only just beginning.
Jake (JAMES FRANCO) was raised to believe his future lay as a laborer in the Annapolis shipyards -- like everyone else in his family before him. But to his disbelief, Jake has defied the odds and become one of the rare few accepted to Annapolis along with some of the most elite young men and women in the country. When he arrives, his dream soon looks like it might turn into a nightmare. As a freshman “plebe,” Jake is immediately thrown into a pressure-cooker atmosphere that threatens to be his undoing. Just as it seems Jake could become another Annapolis statistic, he takes one last shot at proving his potential. He meets an unlikely ally in his beautiful, stunningly strong military superior, Ali (JORDANA BREWSTER), who also happens to secretly be a skilled boxing trainer. Jake decides to train for the legendary Navy boxing competition, a creator of future leaders known as the Brigade Championships. Now, there remains only one thing standing between Jake and the triumph he needs -- the steel-jawed company commander, Midshipman Lt. Cole (TYRESE GIBSON).
Everything Jake has ever hoped for stands in the balance -- the chance to make his father proud, the chance to stand up for his fellow plebes and, most of all, the opportunity to fight for a better future.
Each year approximately 50,000 hopeful young men and women apply to enter the venerated 160-year-old U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Of that number, only a very special 1,200 are accepted -- and of those lucky few, even fewer will go on to survive the Academy’s notoriously relentless path of discipline and devotion to become the leaders, heroes and elite of the United States military. Annapolis might very well be at the top of America’s most intense collegiate atmospheres -- filled with the most heightened ambitions, hopes, dreams, rivalries and hungers.
Directed by critically acclaimed indie director Justin Lin ("Better Luck Tomorrow"), comes this exhilarating comeback story of a courageous young sailor who discovers that some opportunities in life are worth fighting for. Jake's fellow classmates are comprised of a dynamic young cast that includes Jordana Brewster as the alluringly tough, female commander who helps to train Jake; Donnie Wahlberg as Lt. Cmdr. Burton, the officer who first decides to take a chance on Jake; and Chi McBride as the boxing coach who takes Jake from amateur swinger to focused warrior.
Hopefully we can learn from the trials of Jake Huard, ‘plebe no more.’ We are all equal, none greater than the other, and accordingly, we cannot accomplish our goals without each other. When one struggles, we all struggle, as Jesus said, ‘what you have done to the least of these, you have done to me.’ We stand and fall as one! —Review by JACON SAHMS
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