Akeem Sharp is the next big hopeful when it comes to sprinting for Jamaica, but can he focus on the training when he is struggling with his mother leaving him to live in the US, left with his alcoholic father.
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Sprinter is not fully what I expected it to be and therefore I was left extremely disappointed, to begin with I really thought it was going to be a full on sports drama where we would get a look at the training and preparation for the next big thing. Which is what it felt like at the start but the middle act where we are drawn into the strange behaviour with random sex scenes thrown in that don't really add anything to the story was something that left me a little bit baffled in all honesty.
It had a good story at its core but was very poorly executed as Akeem moved out from living with his father with the emotional and sometimes physical abuse he suffered. His mother leaving him and communicating online was something that he did not deal with very well at all. Eventually moving in with his brother who was once an athlete as well, never fulfilling his potential. Being involved in illegal dealings was something that Akeem's coach did not want to happen to him as well.
So while it does have some good moments it just wasn't enough with the middle of the film really dragging and not fully linking very well with the sport side. Something that did give it a pick me up at a very good time was Usain Bolt giving Akeem some much needed advice which was a nice little surprise.
I usually adore sports films even if they are not the best so will pretty much watch any of them. Hence giving this one a try, something else I thought was strange was that it was subtitled but I could understand everything all of the characters were saying! Although I wasn't fully convinced with David Alan Grier's attempted accent, seemed like hard work!
Something that did impress me though was Dale Elliott in the leading role of Akeem, I thought he was engaging and was given enough to go through different emotions. Considering this is his one and only film role currently even more impressive!
I wanted to love this, I really did but it was just lacking the edge that you need for truly outstanding sports films. More focus on the sport and how it was actually helping Akeem would have worked.
