FULL COUNT -- DVD review by porfle

FULL COUNT (2006) is one of those stories about a group of high school friends having their last big, meaningful experience together before going off to find separate lives for themselves. It's told from the perspective of T.J. ("Third Watch"'s Josh Stewart, who reminds me of a cross between Ed Norton and Brent Spiner), the most melancholy, introspective member of the group, and his wistful return to the story's setting years later bookends the movie.

T.J. and his friends Hickey, Shane, Rick, and Dan live in a small Kansas town where there isn't much to do but play sports, drink a lot, and get into trouble. All of these factors come into play when they beat a group of local cops on the basketball court and clean them out of a tidy sum. After a night of getting way too drunk, they're pulled over by one of the cops, Russ (Michael Rooker), an intimidating bastard who roughs them up and takes back all their money under threat of arrest. The boys respond by breaking into his house and trashing it. The next morning, Hickey (Jason Ritter) is found dead on the side of the road, the apparent victim of an auto accident. Was Russ responsible?

After the funeral, Hickey's dad reveals that his son had big plans for transforming the group into a softball team, so the guys dutifully carry them out along with Dan's lothario dad (William Baldwin) and Rick's older brother Andy (Chris Klein), who woulda been a football star if he hadn't blown his knee out in high school. When their main competition turns out to be the cops' team headed by none other than Officer Russ, it looks as though we're in for a baseball movie. But no, baseball itself is peripheral to the story.

FULL COUNT is about the value of friendship, sticking together when the chips are down, and learning to appreciate what you have while you have it. The seemingly episodic nature of the story (it comes together later on) plunges us into the exploits of the main characters before they're properly developed, and all we know about them are the basics--Shane's the combative future hockey star, Rick's the smooth, talkative ladies' man from Noo Yawk, Hickey's the nice kid who's Princeton bound, etc. So it takes awhile for us to really start caring about them or what they do, or to get a feeling of why they're so devoted to each other. When they join forces to save Hickey's reputation after a sudden revelation threatens it, and to realize his goal of uniting them as a city league softball team while also getting back at Officer Russ, we finally get a sense of the depth of their comraderie.

The performances are mostly okay, though some of the young leads aren't totally convincing. Michael Beach (WAITING TO EXHALE, "ER") is good as the sympathetic cop Paddy, who lets T.J. in on Hickey's secret. Jason Ritter's brief appearance as Hickey is effective--aside from the resemblance to his dad, he also looks and acts a bit like a young Val Kilmer. The standout, of course, is Michael Rooker as Russ. Justly celebrated in horror fandom for his title role in HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, Rooker is perfect as the crooked, sadistic cop, especially when circumstances push him over the line and he starts getting scary. But even this character is given enough depth to keep him from being merely a one-sided stock villain.

Presented in 2:35:1 widescreen, the DVD's only bonus features are optional Spanish subtitles, a trailer, and previews of other Allumination Filmworks releases. Actor Jason Wiles (HIGHER LEARNING, "Third Watch") does a pretty good job here as first-time writer (with Shem Bitterman), producer, and director. The film also benefits from a catchy blues score.

There's a climactic baseball game to determine the league championship, but we don't see it. By that point the important thing is the simple fact that our heroes are playing it, acting out their absent friend's wishes and reveling in a fellowship that will soon be dissolved when life leads them on different paths. FULL COUNT isn't entirely successful at getting us emotionally invested in all this, but it's fairly effective nonetheless. Best of all, it features another memorable Michael Rooker character, and that alone makes it worth watching.