Based on true events, 23 Blast is the inspirational story of high school football star Travis Freeman, who loses his eyesight overnight due to bacteria meningitis. The film is directed by famed character actor Dylan Baker and does its best to emulate the emotion of other installments in the genre such as Friday Night Lights. The tale is heart-warming, but the overall film itself feels unfortunately mediocre for the duration of its run time.
While watching 23 Blast, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was watching the pilot episode of a television show on one of the lesser networks. Travis is played by Mark Hapka with a good amount of earnest and small town charm, but it’s obvious he is an actor still trying to find his footing. He’s not the only one, as much of the supporting cast turn in fairly corny performances with line delivery that would feel more at home in a made-for-TV film. Hapka does his best work when paired with his teammate and buddy, the rebel Jerry Baker (Bram Hoover), as they display very natural friendship chemistry together.
The script itself seems a bit too predictable and at times a bit manipulative to the tell the story. The fact that it’s based on a true story does allow the audience to forgive some of the moments that would normally call for eye-rolls (and still sometimes do), but some moments are just too over the top. The number of liberties taken are unclear, but the story still progresses in a manner predictable for anyone that has ever watched a sports film.
Stephen Lang (Avatar) also stars as Coach Farris with a performance that feels natural enough that he might have just walked off a high school football field. The coach’s belief in Travis and his ability to recover and reclaim a spot on the field provides a nice core relationship for the film. Alexa Vega also turns in a nice performance as an extremely likable love interest for Travis, but isn’t given much to do other than being that cliché archetype.
The supporting cast is a bit shaky and continues the theme of uneven performances from a majority of the cast. Travis’s parents Larry (Dylan Baker) and Mary (Kim Zimmer) certainly feel small town authentic enough, but Baker chews scenery with even some of the smallest lines and Zimmer is sometimes just a bit silly. Baker’s real life wife Becky Ann also stars as Travis’s physical therapist and has a much more even performance, but is still playing the stereotypical “inspirational therapist” from a sports film.
The normally great Timothy Busfield (The West Wing) turns in a hammy, puzzling performance as the cartoonish high school principal that is continually at odds with Coach Farris. It’s a small role, and normally actors of this caliber in the supporting cast are meant to anchor the film for the younger cast, but performances like this one become more distracting than helpful.
If you eat up a good underdog story and love football films, 23 Blast certainly won’t be offensive to you, and some may really find some enjoyment in the overly sincere based-on-a-true-story film. But too many uneven performances and a lack anything audiences haven’t already seen numerous times, limits the film to a small target audience for recommendations.