Reception
The Program received largely negative reviews. James Berardinelli said "prepare to be inundated by a load of feeble, unimaginative material that's almost impossible to take seriously." Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C+ in what was a largely negative review. Norman Chad referred to the film as "one big cliche."
The film was not without its fans, however. Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review with three stars out of four, putting particular emphasis on the amount of time spent on the relative ease in passing an NCAA drug test, saying "nd the movie seems expert on how a lineman could pump himself full of steroids and still pass the NCAA drug tests." Janet Maslin gave the film a somewhat favorable review and particularly praised the performance of Andrew Bryniarski, saying "hen high on steroids, he turns into a competition-crazed monster, but the film manages to make him likable anyhow."
Despite the mostly negative reviews, the doping subplot was met with universal acclaim, with most critics hailing the performance of Bryniarski as the steroid-riddled behemoth defensive end Steve Lattimer.
The film bombed at the box office, failing to recover its budget.
Read more about this topic: The Program
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)