Director Gary Fleder’s inspiration sports drama THE EXPRESS follows all the rules of the sport film genre, playing it safe from start to finish.  Based on the true story of the first black football player to win the Heisman award, the film is a sort of rags to riches to tragedy story.

Through extremely hard work and perseverance, Ernie Davies (Rob Brown) overcomes all odds – poverty and racial prejudice to succeed.  But after gaining the fame sought and romance, fate strikes in ways unexpected. 

Fleder’s film is a generally fell good film that gets serious towards the end.  The football games are executed excitingly enough and one can forgive Fleder for all the film’s clichés, which is sort of expected in this kind of film.

The film jumps about a bit too much at the start (from place to place and from year to year) and the script never explains how Davies overcomes his speech impediment.  Good performances by both Brown and Dennis Quaid as Ernie’s no-nonsense growling head coach make the movie.