In 2011's "A Warrior's Heart" Lutz plays a skilled lacrosse player who's not much of a team-player. His family moves from California to the East Coast where he learns to deal with his hotheadedness. Ashley plays his girlfriend and Beach his Native mentor while Gabrielle Anwar and Chris Potter play his parents.

To be honest, I didn't know much about lacrosse until viewing this movie. Turns out it originated with the Iroquois, inhabiting what is now New York, Pennsylvania, and other parts of the NE America. In some aboriginal traditions the games lasted all day for 2-3 days straight and were played as part of ceremonial ritual, a kind of symbolic warfare, to give thanks to the Creator or Master.

This was a small production, only costing $2.5 million, but it's generally well made with a likable cast and quality soundtrack. Some people have criticized it as predictable, but this is only true in the sense of the sports film maverick who must be broken in order to be a team-player, which ultimately ushers in victory. Beyond this, I wasn't able to predict where the story was going, like a certain person's sudden meltdown and the arduous wilderness lacrosse camp.

The cast is great, but it felt like the story needed something more to hook the viewer, such as edgier drama or deeper subtext, but something. Another flaw is the final game where it's clear there aren't that many people in the audience (or maybe lacrosse doesn't draw that many spectators, but this was a NATIONAL championship). Another glaring flaw is that the wilderness camp is supposed to be in the Northeast when it's clear that it's Southern California. A superior sports movie of this low-budget sort is 2010's "Cutback" (see my review). Nevertheless, "A Warrior's Heart" is a must for fans of lacrosse or sports movies in general, not to mention fans of Lutz, Greene and Beach.

The movie runs 86 minutes and was shot in Santa Clarita (College of the Canyons) and Pasadena, California.

GRADE: C+ (almost B-)

OMG. Usually I can laugh during bad movies. Or sometimes we'll make a drinking game & drink at every cliché, etc. This was so bad, we just drank. & we didn't laugh. Even the girls didn't like it. But I do have to admit that ever since Greene broke out a little- I've thought she is a Hottie. And that did go into the mix when selecting this one. So maybe we were asking for what we got. But watching this I can see why Greene got 2nd billing (Or maybe she's 3rd billing? or maybe even "Cameo plus"?)in the Twilight series. I guess youthful cuteness will only carry you so far. Don't get me wrong, she's still a Hottie but seeing her in a school girl outfit kinda makes it hard to remember she's 25 and I kinda felt bad for thinking that she's sexy. BUT anyway, in her defense-maybe she can act, you just couldn't tell in this thing. My advice-AVOID this one. If you need any help deciding, Xenon Pictures is apparently the only studio that would make this straight-to-DVD production. & Xenon films are, on the whole, best avoided.

*if your wondering why I gave it 4 stars*

2 reasons:

1. because we didn't really watch the movie after about a quarter/third of the way thru the movie. It may have gotten better but if it did, we never noticed.

2. The actors are young & the screenplay, direction & editing were pretty poor. ALL young actors do the coming of age, bittersweet movie. It's expected. So I hate to hold it totally against the two Twilight starlets just because someone made a bad choice of films...

A Warrior's Heart – CATCH(Beginning)TRASH(Middle)CATCH(Ending) (C+) I personally love sports movies and I have never seen a movie about Lacrosse. A Warrior's Heart is about a hotheaded boy Conner who loses his temper when his father dies in war. The movie starts well and ends well but it gets tedious in the middle. Especially all the lectures and scenes in the woods are extremely boring.

Kellan Lutz is charming and acted pretty well compare to his few lines in every Twilight movie. Ashley Green is cute and does a decent job of a girlfriend. Chord Overstreet is fine along with rest of the Lacrosse team players.

Overall, it's a teenage pastime movie and whoever has hearts for Lacrosse can enjoy.