A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Blistering performances.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This is a great sports movie, and the beginning and the end both show kids playing basketball (the difference is seeing Henry (Robbie Benson) watching as opposed to actually playing at the end works). My favorite scene is with the Hitchhiker, because I am a huge Melanie Griffith fan (this is just one of 23 films I have seen of hers), so obviously seeing Melanie as the hitchhiker is a treat. The single biggest flaw is the Promo for the movie which is "There comes a time when love stops being a ball and becomes a woman." If you actually see the movie (Spoilers ahead). You see that he still loves basketball AND Janet (Annette O'Toole), and is able to have both. What the movie is about is really character growth. Henry has no idea how Big Time College's work (Athletically and especially Academically). Watch how he first meets Coach Moreland Smith G.D. Spradlin, who has no idea that he recruited him. Smith is a real piece of work, he basically uses his secretary as a prostitute for the team and when he wants Henry off the team, has another player beat him up, and tries to get him expelled from School. As bad as Smith is, the worst character is Malcolm (James G. Richardson), an arrogant teacher who is sleeping with his Graduate Student (Janet), and looking down on Henry because he plays basketball. The Henry/Janet relationship is complex, it goes from her looking down on him, to being a couple. There is about a 5 year difference between the two, but in my opinion, the reason it works, is because of not only the character growth in Henry, but Janet as well. She stops looking down on him, and learns that Henry works hard at everything, is not stupid, and he stands up for her, and treats her in a respectful way that no one else does. Obviously, we know in the end that Henry helps win the game, and is able to walk away from Smith, head held high (that is obvious right from the beginning). But for his future, watch the scene where he mocks talking to his father on the phone: He knows his dad will not approve of him being with an older woman, but it does not matter. Why? Because he made a choice (which is Janet), So wherever he goes in life (maybe even playing in the NBA one day), Janet will be with him side by side. 10/10 stars

BEING SORT OF yet another entry into the underdog vs. the rest of the known world genre, we review and respectively submit for your approval, our recollections and perspective on this Robby Benson vehicle. . And proud it should be as this ONE ON ONE joins in lock step with such entries as the recent THE BLIND SIDE, ROCKY (and his friends: II, III, IV, V, BALBOA & now CREED) and HOOSIERS. ALTHOUGH WE HAVE dared to classify this perhaps forgotten little family picture from 1977, it does have some inherent elements that fly in the face of any attempt at pigeon holing it. In addition to the obligatory struggle that indeed is at the center of any drama like this, ONE ON ONE dares to break away on its own, pursuing a definite different route in its path to a successful conclusion.MORE SPECIFICALLY, THE film introduces an additional obstacle to the chagrin of protagonist, Henry Steele (Robby Benson). The iron fisted and authoritarian rule by Head Basketball Coach Moreland Smith (G.D. Spradlin).* The Coach takes as a personal affront the young Steele's open display of being a free spirit. The Coach pulls the rug out from beneath him; voiding his athletic scholarship.IT IS AT this juncture that the young student athlete's future becomes most dependent on his student tutor, Janet Hayes (Annette O'Toole). Whereas the slightly older co-ed had been less than sympathetic to his plight, her attitude quickly shifts as her prepping him for his various courses continues after her stipend is also spiked by the coach. In spite of earlier hostilities, the two become L-O-V-E-R-S!THE STORY REACHES a climax, a crescendo and a conclusion (all three)when young Steele, who managed to not only remain on the Varsity hoops squad, but also manages to win the big game. Rather than offering any apology with his congratulations, the coach offers to reinstate his tuition free ride. To this, young Steele replies by referencing the coach. Quoting a previous tirade of Coach Smith's of: "Up your ass with a red hot poker.THE TWO YOUNG lovers are the shown going off somewhere, embracing and enthusiastically swapping spits. (Shocked, Schultz?)THE ENDNOTE * Veteran character actor was well cast in the role of Coach Moreland Smith, which was very similar to his characterization of head Coach B.A. Strothers in NORTH DALLAS FORTY (1979). As a matter of fact, Mr. Spradlin most usually played unsympathetic, snake in the grass types. Remember him as Senator Geary in THE GODFATHER: PART II? The only "good guys" in his resume that we recall are those appearances as a LAPD Police Captain on the DRAGNET TV Series in the late 1960's o mid '70's!

"One on One" is an average 70s sports flick with a couple of unlikeable characters that spoiled the film for me. While Henry is certainly likable in his quest to overcome academic and athletic adversity at college, I found nothing redeeming in the Janet (his tutor) and Malcolm (Janet's boyfriend) characters.What makes Janet & Malcolm unlikeable? Janet is intellectually arrogant, condescending, and insulting toward Henry, and thinks herself way more intelligent than she really is. But her boyfriend Malcolm was twice as arrogantly "intellectual" and insulting than her toward Henry. They act like they think they're Ivy League students (or even more intelligent than Ivy League students), yet they're at a low-ranked college in the West. What a laugh. What gave them the right to treat anyone the way they treated Henry? The worst was the scene where they team up to insult Henry's intelligence. I felt sorry for Henry because of the treatment he had to endure from Janet & Malcolm.Or was it common for "above average intelligence but nothing special" college kids in the 70s to act as arrogant, insulting and condescending as Janet & Malcolm did in this movie? Yeah, Malcolm's a professor, but my point stands. I'm wondering why they were written in the script to be as insulting and condescending as they were.Other than those 2 characters, the film was a decent way to spend a couple hours on an afternoon, and it's a somewhat interesting view into 1970s college athletics.

Henry Steele grows up playing basketball in small town USA, doing well at his high school he is soon signed by a college. There he enjoys easy money and special treatment in many ways. However when he begins to fall for Janet, who is teaching him extra classes, he loses his focus on the basketball. This causes his coach to regret his pick and ask Henry to resign his scholarship. When Henry refuses it begins a war of attrition between the two.At heart this is a tale of a little guy who overcomes obstacles in his attempt to do well in life and in sport. When I taped it all I knew was that it was a basketball movie, so I thought I'd give it a try. At the start I thought it was going to be all innocent as opposed to sports movies now that focus on the real side of it as well as the game (Any Given Sunday, Blue Chips etc), however this had layers of brutality, drugs, money being `given' to students etc. The story at core is one of Henry battling against his coach and it is quite good, but the added layers add more too.It may never be excellent but it is better than expected and was quite enjoyable (even if the basketball is played at a bit slower pace than now!). Benson is a bit too innocent and whiney at times as Steele but once you get used to him it's ok – he also co-wrote, not bad for a 21 year old! O'Toole is OK but isn't really anything other than a device for moving the plot on. Spradlin is good – but for the first 20 minutes I could hear his voice giving better lines in a better film – it bugged me until I placed him in Apocalypse Now. An almost unrecognisably young Melanie Griffith makes a brief appearance – but overall the cast is good enough to keep this just above the level of a TVM.Overall it may seem a little naive compared to modern college sports films but it's actually quite enjoyable, even if it won't change your life!