By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * *)
Guts! Blood! Tension! Drama! Conflict! Success! Despair! Comedy! Mates! You'd think that since sport crosses into so many areas of the human experience, Hollywood or Pinewood would have made some decent movies out of it.
Strangely, the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest
Movies of All Time has only two with a sporting theme, and they're both from the boxing ring: Raging Bull at No 24, a knockout of a movie with Robert De Niro, and Rocky at No 28, which I found somewhat less stunning (but don't tell Sly I said that).
In recent times we've had a sackful of baseball movies (starring Kevin Costner), the odd golfing story (ditto) and Oliver Stone's foray into American football, Any Given Sunday. Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman pad up for the same sport in The Replacements.
It kicks off during a players' strike. Crusty Old Team Owner (Jack Warden) has hired Tough-Talking Soft-Hearted Coach Jimmy McGinty (Hackman) to find a pickup team to beat the strike. First choice is the Kid-Star-Gone-Wrong Shane Falco (Reeves), a once-promising quarterback who has dropped out and is scraping barnacles off boats.
Because this is that kind of movie, Hackman hires him along with a chainsmoking Welsh goalkicker (Rhys Ifans), a sumo wrestler, a madman who attacks anything in red and a deaf defender. Oh, and a team of cheerleaders whose raunchy choreography distracts the opposition while our heroes pull off a winning move.
Also because this is that kind of movie, there is a romance between Kid-Star-Gone-Wrong and Cute Cheerleader (Brooke Langton) while the Dumped Star (Brett Cullen) looks on balefully.
You will be surprised to hear that, because this is that kind of movie, everything is sorted out in the last seconds of the last game of the season.
So we're still waiting for the great sports movie to be made. But I did hear someone was doing something about George Best. Now there are some great life experiences to work with.
Running time: 114 mins
Rental: Today
