Lot's of catch-up to do in this marathon, and so I will just do some shorter reviews and hit some points I want to make and move along...
The Last Boy Scout (Tony Scott, 1991)
First viewing of this one and I found it to be fairly rough. The football action was eye-rollingly bad, especially the opening scene. It was oddly dark for some reason, and we get to see the star running back (played by Taebo founder Billy Blanks) carry a gun in addition to the ball, and pull it out to shoot down a fellow player to avoid losing and having the sharks after him. At first I thought this was like a joke or something with how ridiculous it was, but no, we're meant to take this seriously. It's been awhile since I watched this, so I don't remember much else other than the overly foul language which seemed overdone, much like everything else in this film
★★ - Didn't Like ItRudy (David Anspaugh, 1993)
I had seen this one before and remembered loving it. But it had been a while and I had heard some mixed feeling about it from some film circles. It's a cherished film by many, but I have also heard it criticized, so I was very curious to re-evaluate and see for myself. Conclusion: This is a great sports movie. Yes, it's idealistic. Yes, it's cheesy. Yes, it's schmaltzy. And yes, it even fails to really tell much of a story as much of the second half of the film is just Rudy practicing football and hoping to see the field. But man is this moving and inspirational. It's cheesiness is a strength. It's idealism is its strength. We see a hard working kid pursue his dream and come across tons of obstacles, but he worked his ass off to achieve that goal, even if it was as small as playing a single down of football in college. But we miss the forest for the trees. By pursuing his dream, he got a degree from Notre Dame. The lessons he learned will last a lifetime. This is not just a single down accomplishment. It's so much more and for that reason we should all cherish this as a great sports movie and a great football movie.
★★★★ - Loved ItThe Program (David S. Ward, 1993)
Another first time viewing for this one, which I've been curious about for a while. I was underwhelmed to be honest, and found it to be very middling. It has a ton of promise with the different characters at play, but I found I was very disappointed with the type of season that played out for this fictional college football powerhouse. Now, college football has changed a ton in the last 25 years, but with how many losses this team suffered, I stopped caring much about their success. It's a fairly paint-by-numbers story otherwise, with no real surprises or revelations. Some nice cameos, decent and believable cast. But just kind of bland overall.
★★★ - Liked ItLittle Giants (Duwayne Dunham, 1994)
1993/1994 was such a great year for sports movies. Take a look at my
Baseball Marathon list to see. This one is one I remember fondly as a kid, and it lived up to those memories. In many ways, this is just
Bad News Bears on the football field. It doesn't quite live up to those lofty levels, especially since it's naturally derivative, but the story and values remain. This is a very rag tag group of kids who just want to play football against the juggernaut team of all stars who take the sport too seriously given their age. The classic underdog story. Again, no surprises narratively, but an easy movie to root for, an easy cast to get behind, and generally a crowd-pleasing, exceedingly pleasant movie experience.
★★★ - Liked ItJerry Maguire (Cameron Crowe, 1996)
Okay, so this is probably the biggest "cheat" movie on my list of football films, but I love Jerry Maguire, and a revisit was on the docket. This actually had more football in it than I remember, even if it is just a sappy love story. Cuba is fantastic here as Rod Tidwell, as is Regina King, Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger. It has a pace to it. It's kind of this weird conglomeration between a standard rom-com and slick sports movie, which is probably why it was able to have the success it did. Perfect date movie? Something for the man and woman? Regardless, this is an overly sappy, over-the-top romance with on-the-nose musical cues, but screw it, I love it. It's so easy to fall for, in some ways just like Rudy is. I don't think this is great filmmaking, but it remains one of the quintessential examples of how to make a movie like this. Sort of like how Love Actually is so great, and yet, every copycap movie since seems to suck. Jerry Maguire is great, but the style lends itself to cheap knockoffs which don't work.
★★★★ - Loved ItThe Waterboy (Frank Coraci, 1998)
The Waterboy has definitely been a guilty pleasure for me my whole life. So quotable, and yes, so ridiculous, but it lands firmly in the realm of Adam Sandler movies in the late 90s which were entertaining for those who went for his brand of comedy (spoiler alert: that included me). He has since gone on to a couple impressive dramatic roles and a slew of crappy movies. I think looking back on this one after all these years, it's a crappy movie, and Bobby Boucher is a ridiculous character, but I sort of still kind of love it? It has enough laughs, enough good moments and character interactions to make this a nostalgia darling for me. I recognize it's badness, while embracing its greatness at the same time.
★★★ - Liked ItVarsity Blues (Brian Robbins, 1999)
After being, probably, too soft on a lot of these movies for nostalgia purposes, I come down a lot harder on this one. It's basically Friday Night Lights before Friday Night Lights, what with the edgy high school football, but man, this is not a good movie. Lots of cringeworthy moments and performances, especially Jon Voight at the head coach. The cast is actually really good otherwise with Van Der Beek, Paul Walker, Scott Caan, et al., but you can painfully tell this is an MTV movie since its tries way too hard to be cool and puts these characters in very stupid, unrealistic positions and storylines. I didn't have much of a memory of this one to begin with, and now I see why.
★★ - Didn't Like ItAny Given Sunday (Oliver Stone, 1999)
WORST UNIFORMS IN SPORTS HISTORY. How can the costume designer throw the Miami Sharks in overly simple all-blacks and then design those atrocious, eye-sore uniforms for the Dallas Knights!? Okay, whatever, that's not important. This movie is fine. I'd seen it before and only remembered that the language managed to be more foul throughout than even The Last Boy Scout, but in reality, this is the harshest take on professional football we've yet seen in this marathon, and for that reason, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the most accurate. Shady doctor (James Woods) who doesn't care about long term health of his players, washed up, once great head coach (Al Pacino), aging star quarterback (Dennis Quaid), young superstar quarterback (Jamie Foxx), defensive stud (Lawrence Taylor) who will do anything to make more money, even risk his life. It's really a great cast and a great set of varied characters and Stone delicately balances everything together. And yet, I feel like this is a hard movie to love, perhaps simply because of how brutal it is. But I definitely appreciate it a great deal.
★★★ - Liked ItThe Replacements (Howard Deutch, 2000)
Official Keanu Reeves Ohio State QB Power Rankings:
1. Johnny Utah (Point Break)
2. Shane Falco (The Replacements)
I dare you to challenge those rankings! So, this is another semi-guilty pleasure here too. I know it's not a great movie, I know it's overly standard and predictable and bland. But I have a lot of fun with this movie, and was glad to see it's still there with this viewing. It's silly, but this "professional" band of misfits is very likable. I think I've found that I'm all about the misfit group type movies. They work for me. Not sure I have much else to say about this one. It's very standard and predictable, but it's such a watch it on TBS type movie, that I don't really have any complaints. It's not trying to be Any Given Sunday, and that's fine.
★★★ - Liked ItRemember the Titans (Boaz Yakin, 2000)
I think cheesy schmaltz is what works best for football movies, perhaps all sports movies. This one certainly fits that bill, and it's no surprise given Disney's penchant for the style. And talk about a great cast! Denzel is everything in this movie. We even get baby Ryan Gosling and Donald Faison in bit roles. To be honest, Ryan Hurst is not great as Bertier and Hayden Panettiere is grating in so many ways, even though this is sort of what made her famous. But I want to talk about Will Patton and Wood Harris here, because they're two faces I always enjoy seeing. Patton is very one note and overall not great, but he's consistent and reliable. As for Harris, I think he's very underrated as an actor and love seeing when he pops up. He should get more roles, and I was definitely happy to see him in Creed II recently. But overall, Remember the Titans falls into the Rudy category where the film is fairly formulaic and definitely has that soft-touch style around the narrative which depicts a story through rosy lens. But it works. And it works well in my opinion. I could come back to this all the time and always be entertained.
★★★★ - Loved ItNOTE: This marathon will be shut down for the time being in order to catch up with 2018 films. I might pick it back up in February and try to finish it rather than waiting all the way until next football season. Maybe I can wrap it up before the NFL Draft in April.