Not Coming to a Theater Near You
What do you think she meant when she said “a huge black monster with giant claws”?
What do you think she meant when she said “a huge black monster with giant claws”?
I’m not really sure why exactly the entire movie looks like they marinated the film stock in tea, but I’ll admit this is a fairly entertaining, albeit flawed and formulaic, football movie. Considering this is a Disney movie, I’m not sure I can really complain about the inspirational sports-movie checklist that the filmmakers run through, but it’s all there: downtrodden blue-collar city obsessed with football, losing professional football team, young idealistic outsider coach prone to making stirring speeches as an attempt to bring in a new attitude based on character to a skeptical front office and staff, unemployed regular guy hero with a malicious and mean-spirited wife who refuses to believe in him, ideal new hot girl who shares our hero’s interests and cheers his efforts, hostile (mostly black) professional athletes suspicious of the outsider, demoralized close-knit crew of friends desperate to believe in something, cautionary-tale father who has given up on dreams and settled for mediocrity, moving talks with friends about how everyone can share in our hero’s glory … and I’m just getting started here.
Still, since I’m a sports fan, there are moments I really enjoyed. I appreciate the fact that they focus on a special-teams player and keep the goals modest, instead of turning the protagonist into some sort of mythic quarterback who wins the Super Bowl or something equally ridiculous. Plus, since I’m such a sucker for Bring It On’s tooth-brushing flirtations, I do love how the sports banter concerning football history between Vince and Janet serves as seduction. However, what really made me applaud was the unbroken shot that leaves Vince isolated and withering on the sidelines after his embarrassment in order to set up the next down of football, which turns into a touchdown. It was a nice cinematic touch within a film often stricken by extremely sloppy editing.
Considering he was portraying Dick Vermeil, I am rather disappointed that they didn’t allow Greg Kinnear a scene where he gets to weep uncontrollably during a press-conference.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Walt Disney Pictures DVD
28 Dec 2006 12:21 PM | Submit Comment
