This one blindsided me. With some of the worst reviews of the Christmas season I thought that this was going to be time wasted, instead I found one of the more enjoyable movies I've seen in along while. The first half hour of this film is a great capsule of the events leading to and aftermath of the plane crash that wiped out the 1970 Marshall football team. At that point the film shifts gears as Matthew McConaughey is brought in to rebuild the team and be its coach. A feel good movie thats more about rebuilding the cracked soul of a community than football (though football is front and center) this is a movie that works because of the characters, we care about them so we care about the story. Its also got a great pop score. Though far from perfect, and probably not "great", its a better than really good movie that the critics completely missed the boat on.