Not
to brag, but I'm the guy who gets recruited for trivia teams as a
ringer, especially if music and film are the main topics. The trivia
team for which I regularly play is more of a general knowledge kind of
thing. Every time one of the questions is categorized as "Sports,"
everyone at our table simultaneously and sarcastically utters, "Yay,
sports." It is our weak spot both collectively as a group, as well as
for me personally. I was always the kid chosen last for whatever we
were doing in PE class because I have no discernible athletic ability or
understanding of the rules of many of the games. When I was a young
boy, I genuinely thought the whole point of football was to run and fall
down because that's what I saw football players do on television. In
spite of the fact that I do actually admire people with finely tuned
athletic abilities, this developed into a genuine apathy toward sports
that continues to this day, my fondness for baseball notwithstanding
(for more on this, please see this week's Album of the Week "sermon").
The
interesting thing to me is that while I'm not really a sports fan, I do
love sports movies. I don't know how this works exactly. The only
thing I can figure is that the event itself is usually reserved for the
last third (maybe even the last quarter) of the film with the rest of
the movie devoted to the trials and tribulations of how the protagonists
of the film got to the championship game, match, or whatever. As a
result, we don't have to watch the whole sporting event which, let's be
honest, can drag on an excessively long time--especially if it's aired
on CBS on a Sunday evening. (Seriously? The football season finally
ends and now "60 Minutes" has to be delayed because of friggin' GOLF?
Note to CBS--we have a TV format for this sort of thing that won't delay
your prime time programming. It's called ESPN! Look into it!) As I
said a few months ago, I'm particularly fond of boxing movies--and I
like boxing about as much as I like basketball (which isn't much). I
wrote, "I don't think you could pay me to watch an actual boxing
match--yet I'll watch Rocky at the drop of a hat."
Last
week was the NFL draft. I didn't watch any of it. Not because the NFL
has no concept of time (it should not take 30 minutes to play the last
60 seconds of a game!), or that I dread each upcoming season because the
NFL has no concept of time. I didn't watch any of it because I
honestly don't care. They run, they fall down--I don't understand the
hype. In lieu of following the draft, when I heard that it was going
on, I decided to watch this week's movie instead. Because, unlike the
real draft, a movie about it at least makes the subject interesting for a
guy like me.
In
the film, Kevin Costner stars as Sonny Weaver Jr., the General Manager
of the Cleveland Browns. Trying to get out of the shadow of his highly
revered and recently deceased father, Sonny wants to build a
championship team of his own. Unfortunately, his methods of putting the
team together and getting the players he wants don't always sit well
with Browns fans or his crew, most notably his Head Coach (played by
Denis Leary) and team owner (played by Frank Langella) who essentially
threatens to fire him. Adding to the tension is the fact that his
secret girlfriend who works in his office (Jennifer Garner) just told
him she's pregnant. *
Included
in the cast are Chadwick Boseman as a hopeful draft pick, the great
Ellen Burstyn as Sonny's mother, Sean Combs as a rather unctuous sports
agent (don't worry--you won't like him in this film any more than you
probably like him in real life), and small parts and cameos by Terry
Crews, Sam Elliott, and a host of NFL players, coaches, and broadcast
announcers as themselves. Written by Scott Rothman and Rajiv Joseph and
directed by the late, great Ivan Reitman (this was the last feature
film he directed), this week, I highly recommend 2014's Draft Day. I
find it interesting that 1) this film could make the NFL draft seem
exciting to me and 2) even though this film was not a major hit at the
box office, as of last month, it apparently is one of the top trending
movies on Netflix.
Until
next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember
that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for
you.
Yours in peace, love, and rock and roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
*
SPECIAL NOTE: You can tell this film is a work of fiction because it
centers on the idea of the CLEVELAND BROWNS building a championship
team.
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