National Champions is far from a perfect movie, but it’s one hell of an entertaining one.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 21, 2022

Even when maybe it’s one twist too far, it’s still a deeply compelling expose on the hypocrisy of the NCAA and the danger of the “warrior” mentality that makes college athletes second-class citizens in their own sports.

| Jun 15, 2022

National Champions treads preachy, but makes an overall compelling argument against a skewed college athletics system.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 4, 2022

Paying college athletes - a timely subject for a movie...

| Original Score: 6/10 | Jan 3, 2022

'National Champions' is a winner.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 3, 2022

There is some melodramatic juice here to be squeezed from the plot, but the overripe dialogue and tonal missteps make it all a bit listless. The more lunkheaded version of 'High Flying Bird.'

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 25, 2021

It's very intense, very present day, and I liked it a lot.

| Dec 24, 2021

While not a perfect film, National Champions does express the discourse around an important issue in a compelling way.

| Dec 18, 2021

Writer Adam Mervis has a lot to say on the subjects, and director Ric Roman Waugh makes it feel tense and suspenseful.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 17, 2021

It's true that many of the greatest sports films are more about the characters' heart, emotion, and struggle than they are about the actual competition. But director Ric Roman Waugh punts on delivering any athletic payoff here -- there's zero game play.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 16, 2021

Melodramatic contrivances and logical exaggerations undermine the message in an earnest effort that seems more interested in stirring the pot than galvanizing actual change.

| Dec 15, 2021

A bit clunky yes, but this is a sports movie with a surprisingly radical viewpoint.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 15, 2021

While the film is riveting, the generic, titular blah-ness is unfortunate. It needed a really memorable title. It's an important issue that needs debating in America: to organize or not to organize college sports. That is the question.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 14, 2021

For all its faults, however, National Champions is a well-intentioned film.

| Dec 13, 2021

Ric Roman Waugh scores a touchdown, a few field goals, some point-afters, and then some...A powerhouse film with one of the strongest first-string ensemble casts of the year...a human story of conviction and principle with all of the shades of grey.

| Dec 13, 2021

It's hard to focus on the performances when the direction is so bland, and Waugh's play-calling is safer than Urban Meyer's. Every time he has a chance to take a risk, he kicks a field-goal from the one-yard line.

| Original Score: C | Dec 12, 2021

Arguments -- and endless speeches from film players on both sides of the serious NCAA isssue -- abound in a story that lost some bite a few months ago when court rulings paved the way for college athletes to make money.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 11, 2021

The message is still worth contemplating, but lacking a better vehicle to convey it, feels more deserving of analysis on sports pages than the entertainment space.

| Dec 11, 2021

He's fighting for compensation for other student-athletes, but other meandering, arbitrary plotlines keep slowing the story's momentum.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 11, 2021

The movie is so flaccidly put together that it takes a very interesting subject matter that should have a spotlight on it, and it can't even focus that spotlight.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Dec 11, 2021