Sports Movies

Just a short post today, because I'm also watching the 'Riders play (See? I can multi-task ... okay, I can't, I just get bored easily and need to constantly switch tasks). Onwards!

I like sports, and I like movies. Naturally, when these two collide (well, combine), I like the results. That’s not to say I like all movies with sports in them (ahem, Jerry Maguire), but I’m also more tolerant of bad movies than others (martial arts movies count as sports … right?)

It seems a bit odd to me that my least favourite sport to watch (baseball) is also the main sport in my favourite sports movie (Field of Dreams). Although that could be that Field of Dreams is centered around baseball, but there’s so much else in there (the soundtrack, James Earl Jones). Baseball also offers The Natural (where the iconic shot of exploding stadium lights comes from) the great comedy Major League, as well as a bunch of movies starring Kevin Costner (he’s not all bad).

Golf gives us The Legend of Bagger Vance (which I have successfully avoided) as well as Tin Cup (hey, Kevin Costner again) and Happy Gilmore.

Football (my favourite sport to watch) gives us We Are Marshall, a movie I recommend everyone watch once. Or I used to, until I found out Matthew Fox cries in everything he’s in. Then it lost a bit of its emotional edge. Football also has Remember the Titans, Varsity Blues, and Friday Night Lights (the High School Football “Let’s Overcome Adversity” trilogy). For takes of professional football, it has The Replacements (Keanu Reeves! Gene Hackman! Contrived Plot!) and Any Given Sunday (home of one of the greatest speeches of all time).
Football movies can get a little tedious though, because there’s only so many times you can win the game on a last second 75-yard Hail Mary.

Hockey is a little barren. Maybe it’s because Hockey is less popular than other sports. The only ones that come to mind are Slapshot (a great comedy) and Youngblood (not so much). I’ve avoided both. I guess there’s always the Mighty Ducks movies, but I give them as much weight as the entire Air Bud franchise.

Basketball is a little barren as well. Glory Road. Blue Chips, He Got Game. The Sixth Man. Like Mike. I’m sure there are more actually quality basketball movies around, I just haven’t seen them. I supposed I enjoy seeing real basketball more. There'll never be a movie character as awesome as Ron Artest.

Other sports offer up there own movies. Dodgeball has … well, Dodgeball. Poker (probably not a sport) has Maverick and Rounders ("In the game of life, women are the rake."). Swimming has Pride. Boxing has the Rocky Series.

And that’s about it. Sometimes it's easy to get bored of sports movies (how often can an underdog win before it gets boring?) but if you have any more, be sure to mention them. I’m sure I’ll be a fan.