Radio (2003)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Jeff "

  
  Radio is yet another in a long list of feel good movies. But I believe that this is the best feel good movie since October Sky. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ed Harris deliver strong performances here. Cuba Gooding Jr. portrays Robert "Radio" Kennedy a young man with mental problems,… More
  Radio is yet another in a long list of feel good movies. But I believe that this is the best feel good movie since October Sky. Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ed Harris deliver strong performances here. Cuba Gooding Jr. portrays Robert "Radio" Kennedy a young man with mental problems, and Ed Harris portrays Coach Jones, the coach of the local High School who befriends Radio after Jones's team terrorizes him. Radio At first doesn't open up, but after a while he warms up to Coach Jones. However this friendship is hard because of the obvious mental issues that Radio has. Radio is said to be a distraction by many of the parents, and teachers. However Coach Jones ignores this, and defies what some parents say, and he builds a strong friendship with Radio. The film has all the usual feel good traits of a feel good movie, and is the type of film that you can watch with the entire family and enjoy it for what it is. A very moving stoiry, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ed Harris performances are believable enough and the rest of the cast do a good job acting alongside Harris and Gooding Jr. Radio mixes elements of a feel good film with sports drama, and theres nothing here that you can't hate. The film is not perfect of course, I mean it's a film we've seen a hundred times before, but Radio is still a good enough film to provide you with two hours of good family entertainment. Radio is a powerful film about what it truly means to be human, and how some situations can bring out the best out of people. A well done film that is a must see, not the best ever made, but definitely a film to watch and make you feel good.

• Eric S

  
  This is quite a powerful film. Cuba Gooding Jr. turns in a brilliant performance as the mentally challenged loner James Robert Kennedy nicknamed "Radio" due to his vintage radio collection in which one is always in his hand playing music he loves, and gives a… More
  This is quite a powerful film. Cuba Gooding Jr. turns in a brilliant performance as the mentally challenged loner James Robert Kennedy nicknamed "Radio" due to his vintage radio collection in which one is always in his hand playing music he loves, and gives a "score" to his lonely existence of pushing a grocery cart up and down the streets of a South Carolina town. Ed Harris is brilliant as usual as the town's popular high school football team coach who takes an interest in Radio upon seeing him watching a practice session. His friendship and concern for Radio develops into something that means much more than football to the very well respected coach, Harold Jones. Jones allows Radio to be part of the team's practices and games on the sidelines, and sit in on his classes in school which opens up a whole new world for James(Radio), and essentially gives him a life that he is in dire need of.

• ♥˩ƳИИ &

  
  This movie is based on a true story and that makes it even more amazing. I loved this movie. It was funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking too. This has to be my favorite movie with Cuba Gooding Jr. He did such an amazing job, his best work yet. This movie gives a lot to learn from.… More
  This movie is based on a true story and that makes it even more amazing. I loved this movie. It was funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking too. This has to be my favorite movie with Cuba Gooding Jr. He did such an amazing job, his best work yet. This movie gives a lot to learn from. How we should and shouldn't treat others, how to be compassionate for other human beings, and just to help others in their time of need. The coach was inspiring. Great movie and a great story. Definitely touches the heart.

• Coxxie M

  
  Cuba Goodings pretty good at playing a retarded guy, but Dane Crooks been doin it for way too long!!

• Josh L

  
  A little too melodramatic, but a decent movie with good performances.

• Tim S

  
  A very touching story.

• Jon L

  
  I really liked this one. Good performances by all.

• Jose Z

  
  This movie is great. So touching and emotive. Maybe one of the best sports movies I ever seen. The performance of Cuba Gooding Jr is excellent, and Ed Harris role is very good also

• Drew S

  
  The most treacly, awful, stomach-churning piece of dreck I've ever paid money to see. Good Lord. I am truly ashamed that someone created a movie so obviously manipulative and actually suscepted unsuspecting audiences across America to it. I'm so ashamed at the film-going… More
  The most treacly, awful, stomach-churning piece of dreck I've ever paid money to see. Good Lord. I am truly ashamed that someone created a movie so obviously manipulative and actually suscepted unsuspecting audiences across America to it. I'm so ashamed at the film-going public for actually patronizing a formulaic, dull, poorly-written movie like this one. And the director did Good Burger too. Seriously, why does this man get work?

• Leigh R

  
  Pretty good.

• Dillon L

  
  Cuba Gooding Jr. overdoes the handicap persona, and apart from that, the film is over sentimental and overtly incoherent.

• Juan C

  
  charasmatic, yet firm. soft, yet solid, that what's the ingredient of radio. B-

• Deb S

  
  Radio is inspired by a true story of an actual friendship in South Carolina between a white football coach and a mentally disabled black man and Mike Rich's adaptation smartly focuses on the friendship between these two radically different yet similar men who forged a lifelong… More
  Radio is inspired by a true story of an actual friendship in South Carolina between a white football coach and a mentally disabled black man and Mike Rich's adaptation smartly focuses on the friendship between these two radically different yet similar men who forged a lifelong relationship. Cuba Gooding Jr. did an excellent job portraying the title character of a mentally-challenged young man in the mid 1960's who spends his time routinely pushing a shopping cart around town. He especially likes to watch the high school football team practice, the T.L. Hanna Yellow Jackets and become a fixture around the local high school. Coach Jones (Ed Harris) forms a friendship with this man, who barely speaks dubbing him `Radio' and later we learn his name as James Robert Kennedy. Naturally some prejudices will take place as some of the football-crazed townspeople look at Radio as more of a distraction as the kindly high school football coach lets him help the team. Set in the south in the late 70's this film portrays the continued existence of racial intolerance back then. The movie itself tugs at the heartstrings. Yes it is emotionally manipulative; nevertheless it's one of those movies that are just enjoyable to watch and we cannot over look Ed Harris's performance as Coach Harold Jones and S. Epatha Merkerson is fantastic as Radio's mother.

• Naughtia N

  
  I really liked this movie, Cuba Gooding Jr plays a psycholigically handicapped young man who loves to listen to music. He is called Radio because of his interest for the radio. He likes to wander around the local football field and watch the players play football. Several players like… More
  I really liked this movie, Cuba Gooding Jr plays a psycholigically handicapped young man who loves to listen to music. He is called Radio because of his interest for the radio. He likes to wander around the local football field and watch the players play football. Several players like to harrass Radio but the coach sees some qualities in Radio that he really likes. So the coach starts fighting for Radio's rights and wellbeing. A very touching story and very well played by these talented actors.

• Joseph E

  
  Sappy? Heavy on tear-jerking syrup? Yes it is. It is chock full of them. Yet, one thing we have forgetton is to watch with an open-mind and an even bigger,opener heart. That is why, I saw Radio for what it was, and not what it could have been, and although, I sometimes wonder if… More
  Sappy? Heavy on tear-jerking syrup? Yes it is. It is chock full of them. Yet, one thing we have forgetton is to watch with an open-mind and an even bigger,opener heart. That is why, I saw Radio for what it was, and not what it could have been, and although, I sometimes wonder if "Radio" could've been an Oscar contender,that is something we will never know. Radio, is a crowd-pleasing, heartwarming tale, that is true, not fake lie "The Notebook", so why care if the film is overly drowning in That sappy tear-jerking syrup, cause, it is a true story, a film trying to explain the diffuculties of one's life. The pain he felt. The love he felt when he met such a nice person in the football coach. I kind of took Radio for granted, and drowned myself in it's syrupy story, and felt for Radio, cared for Radio, and that one Scene , is just so, so painful, you feel shocked how someone can do that. In retospective, many people can and have the capaibilites to do that, and we will never know when, or if that is still happening. Yet, I do know one thing. What do I know? Tha Radio is a heartwarming,sensationally acted film, that no matter how much you drown in that sappy, tear-jerking syrup, it never feels like a "Nicholas Sparks" film or novel. It also never quite reaches the sappyness of you're standard Melo-Drama, such as "Unfaithful".

• Andrew F

  
  This movie is really good. It may look like a sports movie, but that is not what it is really about. Cuba Gooding Jr. is perfect and deserved an Oscar nomination. A very touching movie.

• Nay Nay B

  
  trashy oscar bait.

• Lea L

  
  Amazing, heartwarming movie..

• Erin C

  
  One of my favorites. So sad how mentally challenged people are treated by people who just have no idea. But it all came together in the end :)

• Lee K

  
  Awesome tear jerker with a brillaint performance from cuba good ing jr.

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