Spiker Reviews

NORTH DALLAS FORTY looked at the tainted world of professional football, then came THE NATURAL, with its story of a baseball player who struggles against external corruption and his own demons to emerge victorious. Following in their wake was SPIKER, an unflinching look at the world of men's volleyball, and it'll be hard for anyone who isn't interested in the sport to maintain an interest in this movie--which contains some great volleyball footage, but a rather predictable plotline. Michael Parks plays the tough-as-nails coach who turns a group of green kids into a lean, mean Olympic volleyball playin' machine. Along the way a few personal crises arise among the teammates, as well as some important matches against foreign opponents, but SPIKER never amounts to anything particularly memorable. Unlike other sports films, the emphasis isn't on a climactic Big Game, but on how tough it is to make the team and compete. The cast includes members of the US National Volleyball Team.