Minden, Illinois, is a former factory town with no money and a pathetic football team. Curtis Plummer, a down-and-out former football player is going nowhere, until he meets his niece Jasmine, the daughter of his no-good brother. Jasmine has worn her father's watch ever since he left five years ago, in the hopes that he will return. Her mother Claire asks Curtis to take care of Jasmine after school, because Claire has to work at the town diner. Curtis realizes Jasmine has a talent for throwing a football, which he nurtures into a passion for the game. He then persuades her to try out for the town's Pop Warner football team, the Minden Browns, because he thinks it would be good for her and the team. The team, including the coach, are against it, but her abilities gain her a spot on the team. However, the coach keeps her on the bench. In the fourth game, after much prodding from Curtis, the coach puts Jasmine in the game, and although they lose, everyone said they could have won if she had played from the beginning. Jasmine becomes the starting quarterback and the Minden Browns become a winning team. Everything is going great, until Coach Fisher has a heart attack, and the assistant coach asks Curtis to help coach the team through the last two games. He hesitates at first, but is eventually talked into it. They win the two games and are able to go to the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Miami Beach. Jasmine's father, Roy, suddenly shows up after he sees her on TV. Claire and Curtis are both unhappy about his returning, but Jasmine is ecstatic. The Browns are able to go to the Super Bowl after raising the money for the trip, including Curtis' donation of his life savings. Jasmine plays poorly in the first half when her father does not show up. Curtis talks her through her feelings for her father and Minden rallies for the second half. They lose the game after a teammate drops the ball on the last play. They are glad that they did their best. After they get back, Jasmine gives Roy back his watch, cutting him out of her life. She then accepts her Uncle Curtis as a father figure.
The Longshots received mixed reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 41% based on 71 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Longshots means well, but it's a largely formulaic affair, rarely deviating from the inspirational sports movie playbook." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Ruthe Stein of San Francisco Chronicle opined that Keke Palmer's "winning manner and incandescent smile" made her "a perfect fit" for her role in the film.
Box office
The Longshots opened on August 22, 2008 and grossed $4,080,687 in its opening week. It flopped at the box office, grossing $11,767,866 worldwide, on a $23 million budget.
Home media
The Longshots was released on DVD on December 2, 2008. It opened at #18 at the DVD sales chart, selling 143,000 units for revenue of $2,858,950. By January 2009, 471,000 DVD units had been sold, translating to $11 million in revenue.
