Dwayne Johnson, leading role ofthemovie "Gridiron Gang" (FilePhoto)

Photo Gallery >>> BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, known as "People's Champion" in the wrestling ring,playshis first leading role of big screen in the new movie "Gridiron Gang," about forging a winning team of kids in juvenile prison as a football coach.

The movie, openedFriday,is based on an award-winning documentary about an inspiring real-lifefootball coach, Sean Porter . In 1990, Porter, who was working at a juvenile detention facility in California, recruited 11 of his toughest inmates to create the "juvie" version of a high school football team. That year he took the Camp Kilpatrick Mustangs all the way to the championships, along the way saving several of his charges from the usual path of jail or early death, as the media reported.

Porter peppers them with uplifting messages about grit and determination and not being losers anymore. And -- surprise, surprise -- after numerous hardships and disappointments, the Mustangs, as they are called, become a self-respecting team that wins enough games to make it to the regional championship.

Director Phil Joanou, making his first feature in seven years, does a nice job giving the film a gritty, lived-in quality (much of the picture was shot at the real Camp Kilpatrick in the Santa Monica Mountains), and the football sequences, coached by Alan Graf, look and sound like the real thing.

Thoughthefilmdoesn't really teach us anything new, It serves as another reminder of how far we have yet to go to provide opportunities to kids who are given very little in life -- and often have even that snatched away from them, without warning. Enditem

(Agencies)