Thursday Movie Picks: Sports Movies

Hello Thursday. I'm back. As usual I'm armed with some suggestions based on a theme selected by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves as part of her weekly meme. I've had a great time participating in this. If not, I wouldn't still be doing it, silly. She's always open to having more bloggers take part, so check it out and join in.

This week's theme might be my favorite - sports movies. I'm a sports fan and yes, I do like sports movies. But what should I suggest? Just last Thursday, I suggested Bull Durham as part of "Movies Set Locally." On Sunday, I shared some of my favorite scenes from football movies. Rattling around in my head as I type this are titles like Raging Bull, Major League, Rocky, Rudy, Friday Night Lights, Hoop Dreams, He Got Game, The Fighter, Million Dollar Baby, The Bad News Bears, Little Giants, Hoosiers, Moneyball...and on and on. But you know all of these movies. Even if you haven't seen them, they are at least on your radar. When someone mentions them, you have an idea of what they're talking about. In other words, you know my style, let's journey a bit off the beaten path. Let's go with three movies that you may or may not have heard of.

Goon

(2012)

One thing to know about me right off the bat is that, while I don't hate hockey, I'm not really a fan. Another thing you should know is that, while I don't hate Seann William Scott, I'm not really a fan. So here I am recommending a hockey movie starring Seann William Scott. Well, it's that good. Scott stars as a guy with no ability to actually play hockey, or do much of anything else, but man can he fight. A minor league coach takes note of this due to an incident between the protagonist and one of his players. Next thing you know, our hero is suited up, thrown onto the ice and basically sent to fight whoever gets near the team's star player. However, despite the fact that there's plenty of fisticuffs with blood splattering all over the ice, it's a comedy. Scott plays against type, very well I might add, and we get an excellent turn from Liev Schreiber. (My full review)

The Heart of the Game

(2005)

When I say basketball documentary, most people automatically think Hoop Dreams. Believe it or not, there are others out there. A number of them are pretty good, too. That includes this one. In it, we follow the Roosevelt Rough Riders, a Seattle area high school girls’ basketball team. Their eccentric coach Bill Resler is infectious. He keeps things as loose as possible. However, the real heart of this documentary is star player Darnellia Russell and the trials and tribulations she goes through.

Rudo y Cursi

(2008)

I've already mentioned that I'm not much of a hockey fan. Well, I have no use for soccer other than games my own daughter is involved in. Even that's reluctantly. Okay, I'll occasionally watch the Women's World Cup whenever that rolls around because the US is actually good at that. Such an ugly American thing for me to say, but it is what it is. That said, I really am going with a soccer flick for my third sports movie. Though soccer is the vehicle through which it all plays out, this is really a movie about sibling rivalry. It's an entertaining ride with plenty of ups and downs as two brothers battle their demons, each other and themselves. However, as harsh as that sounds, this is no dark, brooding affair. It's light but builds nicely until we get to the appropriately heavy finale. It also includes a wonderful performance by fabulous Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal. Subtitleophobes beware: we're speaking Spanish.

Goon

Directed by Michael Dowse.

2011. Rated R, 92 minutes.

Cast:

Seann William Scott

Liev Schreiber

Alison Pill

Jay Baruchel

Marc-Andre Grondin

Eugene Levy

David Paetkau

Kim Coates

Jonathan Cherry

Ellen David

Fighting is woven into the fabric of hockey. It is also the only thing Doug Glatt (Scott) does well. He does it so well, it seems inevitable that he’ll wind up busting chops on the rink. While a spectator at a minor league game, he beats up a player in order to protect his obnoxious buddy Pat (Baruchel). This catches the eye of the home team’s coach who immediately recognizes that Doug’s talent for fisticuffs would be an asset and wants him on the roster. After a few quick lessons to sorta learn how to skate, Glatt is on his way to becoming known as Doug “The Thug”. Like an attack dog, he goes after whatever player his coach instructs him to. In hockey circles, he is what’s known as a goon, hence the title. The irony is that, away from the game, Doug is an incredibly nice and genuine guy. He’s not the sharpest blade on the ice, either, if you know what I mean. Still, as dumb luck would have it, he meets a girl. Her name is Eva (Pill) and she’s quite a bit less naïve than he. They have this Forrest and Jenny thing going, albeit a tamer version. Hockey fights and Doug’s awkward attempts to woo Eva ensue.

We also get to see the other side of Doug’s coin. His ascent coincides with the fall of Ross “The Boss” Rhea (Schrieber). He’s at the end of a long and illustrious career of doing just what Doug is doing. In fact, when Doug starts to get a little media attention he’s compared directly to, and even called, the next Ross. Rhea is definitely a more mean spirited sort, though. He’s just been served a lengthy suspension by the NHL for an illegal and damaging hit. He winds up playing in the same league as our hero.

Despite the obvious sports drama and the realistic gore of the fights, Goon is not some serious meditation on the triumph of the human spirit. Instead, it approaches the subject through humor. Indeed, this is a foul-mouthed and bloody comedy that somehow manages sweetness without detracting from the movie’s edgier portions. Many of the funniest moment spring from Doug’s naivete, which some might call his stupidity. Thankfully, he’s cognizant enough to have examined himself and learned his limitations. He’s no genius, but he’s far from the annoying fool played by Paul Rudd in Our Idiot Brother. Doug is an endearing character. We root for him. I’m hardly a Seann William Scott fan. I liked him as Stifler in the very first American Pie, but he’s been playing the same role ever since. Here, he’s broken free of that type-casting and given us a fine piece of acting.

The world around Doug is constructed almost perfectly to allow us to love him. The girl he’s after is cute, but not the unattainable, high maintenance supermodel type comedies usually insist on thrusting into leading lady roles. Ross Rhea’s villainy comes from a place of pride and pain. He’s no maniacal caricature, but a guy protective of his own legacy. We dislike him, but understand him. Doug’s parents don’t understand any of this. Mom (David) and Dad (Levy) are academic types lost in a world that celebrates Neanderthal like behavior.

The one guy who might understand the most is also the single biggest drawback to our viewing experience: Doug’s pal Pat. Everything about him feels forced to generate laughter, except he’s not funny. He’s obnoxious in a way that we hate him, which is problematic because he’s positioned as one of the good guys, someone who is always in our hero’s corner.

Thankfully, Goon overcomes that and a few other flaws, mainly predictability and not enough screen time for Schrieber, to give us a very fun, testosterone laced experience. How else to describe a comedy that begins and ends with copious amounts of bloodshed? Along the way, we laugh often enough, wince more often and still get a “feel good” picture when it’s all said and done. It’s just that the characters don’t look like it feels good.

Sticks and Stones

Directed by George Mihalka.
2008. Not Rated, 92 minutes.
Cast:
Alexander de Jordy
David Sutcliffe
Daniel Magder
John Robinson
Richard Fitzpatrick
Debra McCabe
Cary Lawrence
Lori Hallier
Scott Beaudin
Mark Camacho

A few days after America’s “Shock and Awe” campaign, which officially began “The War on Terrorism”, a youth hockey team from Brockton, Massachusetts travels to Canada for a tournament and is treated very rudely as anti-American sentiments run high. Feeling bad about the situation and going through some problems of his own, Jordan (de Jordy) one of the Canadian players wants to make it up to the kids from the U.S. He decides to try and organize a “friendship tournament” and invite the scorned team back to his country to show them that all Canadians aren’t jerks.

That’s pretty much all I got. It’s a feel-good made-for-TV movie so you should know how this goes down. Coincidentally, I had no idea this was a TV flick until the first long fade to black where there was obviously a commercial during its airing. The back of the DVD cover doesn’t tell you this. Not surprisingly, it’s all rather bland. There are a few tense moments when the Brockton team makes their first trip across the northern border, but that’s about it. The rest of the movie is Jordan trying to convince people his tournament is a good idea. So yeah, it tries to warm your heart whether you want it to, or not, and never lets up.

The two subplots are only vaguely interesting. One is about our hero’s parents seemingly in the early stages of a divorce. From the looks of things, they may have just bored each other to an unbearable degree. The other involves the Canadian team’s star player, Kyle (Beaudin). He’s only twelve but is already diligently working toward a career in the NHL. Of course, he’s also a jerk, making him and his even more of a jerk dad (Camacho), pseudo-villains. This latter storyline should’ve been much more intriguing. It possesses the potential for all sorts of social commentary. Alas, just like with the bigger issue at hand, the tournament, it lets us skate by unscathed rather than checking us into the boards.

When the credits finally roll, we’ve been inundated with all the warm and fuzzy clichés and breezed through all the conventional plot twists that seem to happen on cue. Early and pre-teen kids will probably like it a good deal, even the life-lessons about how to treat others. It’s cute, even enjoyable if you can take all the schmaltz, but we’ve seen it before. A lot.

MY SCORE: 5/10