What a trio: Walt Disney Company, Jerry Bruckheimer, and director of Fresh, Boaz Yakin. Based on that lineup I'd expect a movie that's sentimental, crass, and smartly made. The only question is the proportion. Having seen Remember the Titans, I can happily report the following order: sentimental, then smartly made, and only lastly crass.

Remember the Titans is the true story of a T.C. Williams high school in Virginia, newly integrated in 1971. The Titans football team, headed by coach Boone (Denzel Washington), has training camp in the summer before the start of the school year--the boys' first taste of integration.

The black players and white players, most of them thrust together for the first time, are initially bitter rivals--the whites won't block for the blacks, the blacks won't block for the whites . . . will the team come together and win the big game? Of course--this is a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Will there be plenty of teary hugs and inspiring speeches? Of course--this is a Disney movie. Will it all pretty much work? Sure--this is a Boaz Yakin movie.

The movie is pretty much in two halves--the first is the boys' rigorous training under coach Boone as they find themselves--with a few holdouts--putting race differences aside and becoming a functioning team. The second part begins as the school year starts and they realize that they've evolved a little farther than most of the community. Racial tensions are high at their newly integrated school, and they threaten the tenuous interracial bonds formed over the summer.

This picture pulls all the expected strings--if most Hollywood product is conventional, this picture is more conventional than most. But what the hell? This sort of sappy, heartwarming, inclusive story has been around since the birth of film--long before, really--and I see no reason to condemn it just because it's corny.

There are plenty of good performances in this picture, from Will Patton as the white coach forced to take a demotion to assist Boone, Hayden Panettiere as his precocious daughter, Ryan Hurst as the team captain, and others. There are lots of moments in the picture that will make you smile--and one or two that will make you cringe, most involving singing--but if you aren't rooting for the Titans by the end, well then you've just got no heart, you damn cynic.

Remember the Titans probably doesn't belong in the pantheon of great sports films, but it's worth checking out as rainy day entertainment.