''Church Ball'' is a 2006

sports comedy film A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport or a sports-related topic is prominently featured or is a focus of the plot. De ...

written and directed by Kurt Hale. It follows an underdog

Latter-day Saint The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded b ...

church

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team and their attempts to make it to the championship in the league's last season. The film stars Andrew Wilson,

Fred Willard Frederick Charles Willard Jr. (September 18, 1933 May 15, 2020) was an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his work with Christopher Guest in his mockumentary films ''This Is Spinal Tap'' (1984), ''Waiting for Guffman'' (1996), ''Be ...

Clint Howard Clinton Engle Howard (born April 20, 1959) is an American actor. He is the second son born to American actors Rance and Jean Howard, and younger brother of actor and director Ron Howard. His more than 200 acting credits include feature films ...

, and

Gary Coleman Gary Wayne Coleman (February 8, 1968 – May 28, 2010) was an American actor, known as a high-profile child star of the late 1970s and 1980s. Born in Zion, Illinois, Coleman grew up with his adopted parents, and a kidney disease; due to the co ...

Plot

A local Utah LDS Church holds the record as having the worst basketball team in the church ball league. The team has failed to make it into the church tournament in the past 20 years. Due to rumors of this being the last year of the league, former team coach, and now

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Linderman (

) has called Dennis Buckstead ( Andrew Wilson) to coach a team made of clumsy misfits to the championship. Church expectations of brotherly love, sportsmanship, and fellowship fall prey to competitive fierceness in the effort to win, while Dennis works to bring unity and cooperation.

Cast

* Andrew Wilson as Dennis Buckstead *

Linderman *

as Gene Jensen *

as Charles Higgins * Amy Stewart as Susan Buckstead

Production

Development and casting

The original script for the film was written years beforehand by Kurt Hale, Paul Eagleston, and Stephen Rose.

Halestorm Entertainment Halestorm Entertainment was a film production and distribution company based in Orem, Utah. It was founded in January 2001 by Kurt Hale and Dave Hunter, who were both film majors at Brigham Young University. Halestorm films were largely create ...

began production of the film in 2005.

was cast as Charles Higgins. Andrew Wilson,

, and

were later cast as Dennis Buckstead, Gene Jensen, and

Linderman, respectively.

Filming

Filming took place primarily in

Orem Orem is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States, in the northern part of the state. It is adjacent to Provo, Lindon, and Vineyard and is approximately south of Salt Lake City. Orem is one of the principal cities of the Provo-Orem, Utah Me ...

and

Provo Provo or Provos may refer to: Places United States * Provo, Kentucky, an unincorporated community South Dakota * Provo, South Dakota, an unincorporated community * Provo Township, Fall River County, South Dakota Utah * Provo, Utah, a city ** P ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

in 2005. The former Douglas Ward meetinghouse at 721 S 1200 E in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

and the former Wallsburg meetinghouse in Wallsburg were both used for filming. During filming,

met his now wife, Shannon Price, on set. Price was an extra in the film.

Reception

The

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

surveyed and reported a 17 percent approval rating. Among the reviews, it determined an average rating of 4.3 out of 10. It received a 39% approval rating from audiences. On

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

, it holds an average of 4.2 out of 10 star audience rating.

Actor's responses

Gary Coleman described his dissatisfaction with the film's quality. Although he stated he enjoyed the process of making the film, he remarked that watching the production process was like "giving monkeys cameras and lights." Despite this, the project introduced Coleman to Utah, and he moved to

Santaquin Santaquin ( ) is a city in Utah and Juab counties in the U.S. state of Utah. It is part of the Provo–Orem metropolitan area. The population was 13,725 at the 2020 census. Geography Santaquin lies southeast of Utah Lake in southern Utah Coun ...

soon after filming. He later commented that he was thankful to Kurt hale for introducing him to the state. Clint Howard praised Halestorm Entertainment for producing family-friendly entertainment.

References

External links

* * * 2006 films American basketball films 2000s sports comedy films American sports comedy films Christianity and sports 2006 comedy films Halestorm Entertainment films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language sports comedy films {{2000s-US-film-stub