Film Review By Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune Movie Critic

There are times during "The Express" when you expect the phenomenally talented and sadly short-lived running back Ernie Davis, played by Rob Brown, to turn to top-billed Dennis Quaid and say: "Put me in, coach! It's my movie!"

Too often "The Express" sidelines its own main character in favor of the lemon-sucking, jaw-jutting glower patented by Quaid. At any rate, I doubt any football picture should rely so heavily on slow-motion game footage and still asked to be called "The Express." It should be called "The Express, in Slow Motion."

Despite Davis' overwhelming widely reported real-life niceness, the man is well worth a full-length story, simply because of what he achieved (first African-American Heisman Trophy winner) and when he achieved it (in the early years of the civil rights revolution). Born in 1939 and laid low by leukemia in 1963, at age 23, Davis never got the chance to play pro ball. Yet he accomplished a great deal in the time he had, mentored first by pre-legendary Jim Brown, his predecessor at Syracuse University, then by coach Schwartzwalder, played by Quaid.

Screenwriter Charles Leavitt has a prosaic way with dialogue, and director Gary Fleder never does anything you couldn't anticipate if you were playing defense. The editing rhythm of "The Express" is choppy in the extreme, which is very hard on the performances. Quaid seems to be forcing the tough-guy act, not letting it come naturally. The genial but bland Brown, by contrast, doesn't do enough to suggest what's inside the all-around competitor's brain, and his drive. The most effective actors are on the supporting tier, among them Charles S. Dutton as Davis' coal miner grandfather; Nelsan Ellis as Davis' itchy, impatient cousin; and Saul Rubinek as the owner of the Browns. Danny McCarthy adds some zip to the role of assistant coach.

While I got caught up in the Cotton Bowl climax, in which Syracuse wages war against the vicious bigots playing, and rooting, for the Texas Longhorns, I wish the characterization of Davis came to more than general goodwill and great on-field maneuvers. Everything in "The Express" has a stilted and slightly artificial air, from childhood taunts tinged with racism to Davis' college romance. The film does the job, in its conventional way. But it's geared to throw the prime screen time in the direction of the guy playing the guy coaching the guy who's supposed to be running the movie.

MPAA rating: PG (for thematic content, violence and language involving racism, and for brief sensuality).

Running time: 2:09.

Starring: Dennis Quaid (Ben Schwartzwalder); Rob Brown (Ernie Davis); Omar Benson Miller (Jack Buckley); Aunjanue Ellis (Marie Davis); Clancy Brown (Roy Simmons); Darrin Dewitt Henson (Jim Brown); Saul Rubinek (Art Modell); Nelsan Ellis (Will Davis Jr.); Charles S. Dutton (Willie "Pops" Davis).

Directed by Gary Fleder; written by Charles Leavitt, based on the book "Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express" by Robert Gallagher; photographed by Kramer Morgenthau; edited by William Steinkamp and Padraic McKinley; production design by Nelson Coates; music by Mark Isham; produced by John Davis. A Universal Pictures release.

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