The Alamo (2004)
Directed by John Lee Hancock
Based on the 1836 standoff between a group of Texan and Tejano men, led by Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, and Mexican dictator Santa Anna's forces at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
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What critics compared The Alamo to
After the fiasco of “The Alamo,” Hancock is solidly back in his wheelhouse with another compelling sports story that echoes the human touch he brought to the 2002 sleeper hit “The Rookie.”
And that is the one great failing of John Lee Hancock’s (“The Alamo”) adaptation of Michael Lewis’ “The Blind Side.”
Based on Michael Lewis’ book, it was adapted and directed by John Lee Hancock, who made the equally pleasant baseball drama “The Rookie,” as well as “The Alamo” (which, ironically, has been forgotten).
More the problem is how that story, adapted from the Michael Lewis book by director John Lee Hancock ("The Rookie," "The Alamo"), is told.
It’s a shame that writer/director John Lee Hancock (“The Rookie,” “The Alamo”) doesn’t always trust the natural energy of the performances to carry the film, chasing some dispiriting clichés of prejudice to threaten the beguiling innocence of Michael’s presence.
Unfortunately, that is a far as a good heart can carry things when the finished film in question proves to be nothing more than offensive, self-satisfied treacle.Written and directed by John Lee Hancock (2004's " The Alamo "), "The Blind Side" is what might have resulted if the stupendously powerful recent "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (another film about a troubled African-American teen) had been watered down by studio execs and gone disastrously wrong.
Director/writer John Lee Hancock—whose other films include Saving Mr. Banks , The Blind Side , The Rookie and The Alamo —certainly knows how to put little things, all the details, into crafting a well-built movie story.
Hancock, who for every “The Blind Side” makes “The Alamo,” overcomes nonsensical elements of his twisted screenplay in part because Thomas Newman’s fantastic score is blasting at the right moments, and John Schwartzman’s glistening cinematography of the faded Pasadena streets are intoxicating.
Director Hancock has some hits (“The Blind Side,” 2009) and misses (“The Alamo,” 2004) to his name, as well as movies very good (“The Founder,” 2017) and less so (“Saving Mr. Banks,” 2013).
By this point, writer-director Hancock (“The Alamo,” “The Blind Side,” “The Highwaymen”) has set the tone for an unnerving thriller via an extended sequence involving a young woman (Sofia Vassilieva) who is driving alone on a desolate stretch of road when a motorist begins to stalk her.
Director John Lee Hancock seems like a perfectly amiable gentleman, but his work here is as pedestrian and uninspiring as his filmography suggests (does anyone get wistful when discussing Saving Mr. Banks, or The Blind Side, or The Alamo?
Director John Lee Hancock (The Alamo) has gone from Davy Crockett to Ray Kroc—arguably a lesser kind of American hero.
The filmography of Texas-born director and writer John Lee Hancock indicates a fascination with major pieces of Americana like baseball, football, and Walt Disney, the latter serving as both a subject ( Saving Mr. Banks ) and a sometime employer (Banks, along with The Rookie and the ill-fated Touchstone production The Alamo ).
Sincerity, in fact, is the hallmark of Hancock’s filmography as a whole, which includes earnest dramas like The Rookie, The Alamo and The Blind Side.
While the visual component is excellent, the screenplay by writers Evan Daugherty (another first-timer), Hossein Amini (Wings of the Dove, Drive), and writer/director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, The Alamo) is less impressive.
Chris Hemsworth, better known now as Thor , is a muted huntsman, struggling to make the most of a screenplay from The Blind Side and The Alamo director John Lee Hancock, Drive adapter Hossein Amini, and Evan Daugherty.