REVIEWED - COACH CARTER: This true story concerning a high school basketball coach, who, by insisting that his charges should be able to at least write their own names, became something of a national hero, probably contains pleasures for those who can bring themselves to give a toss about it.

Samuel Jackson is dignified in the slightly priggish leading role - though it's hard not to snigger when the star of Jackie Brown tells off African-American students for using the word "nigger" - and Thomas Carter, who directed the much livelier Save the Last Dance, has a sure feel for the rhythms of urban life.

But the sad truth is that films about inspirational American sports coaches - and there are dozens and dozens of the wretched things - simply do not play on this side of the Atlantic. The picture's main concern is the way high schools overlook the academic failings of successful student athletes. With apologies to our American readers, is there anybody out there keen to sit through 136 long minutes of repetitive drama built around the dysfunctional behaviour of some school administrators in some parts of another country? Who cares?

For the record, Coach Carter, a sporting goods salesman who used to be a fine player himself, urges his team to wear ties to games, train from six in the morning and sign contracts promising to maintain a 2.3 grade-point average. (Or a 3.2 average.Or a 32.6 average. Or something. What does this mean, exactly?).

When the boys start failing their exams, the coach locks the gym, cancels the next game and thus invites the wrath of the parents upon his shoulders. "When one person struggles we all struggle. When one person triumphs we all triumph," he says as foreheads in cinemas from Ballybunion to Vladivostok loll drowsily forwards.