April 08, 2005

Hollywood Summer 2005 sports-related movies: (inspired by smithers's Toronto sports movie post). Why so many? Which ones won't suck? Which one will you watch? [more inside]

posted by worldcup2002 to navel gazing at 03:22 PM - 14 comments

I think I saw previews for FIVE sports-related shows when I went to see Robots with my boy. But I only remember three: [disclaimer: I work for Yahoo! but not for the Movies guys, altho I love 'em. It's just who I use for Movies.]

  • Fever Pitch (The Sox! Jimmy Fallon! Drew Barrymore! jerseygirl! What more could you ask for!)
  • Kicking & Screaming (soccer, kids, Will Farrell, Robert Duvall, Mike Ditka, you do the math)
  • The Longest Yard (football, Adam Sandler)
And don't forget, out now is The Year of the Yao. 'Nuff said. And opening Apr 22 on a limited basis: The Game of Their Lives (soccer, US national team, 1950 World Cup, Patrick Stewart) I think I'll watch the Will Farrell soccer one, for obvious reasons.

posted by worldcup2002 at 03:34 PM on April 08, 2005

couldn't they have atleast changed the title. also, looking forward to KungFu Hustle - not pure sport, but close enough.

posted by garfield at 03:51 PM on April 08, 2005

....from the director of Shaolin Soccer (complete botch-job of a segue, eh?)

posted by garfield at 03:55 PM on April 08, 2005

I think The Longest Yard is the only one of the above-mentioned that I might possibly be willing touch with a ten-food dung fork. There is also Lords of Dogtown -- it'll be interesting to see if this compares with the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. Probably worth the price of admission, anyway.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:25 PM on April 08, 2005

garf, why would they change the title when it's a remake, just translated to our version of Arsenal?

posted by billsaysthis at 10:56 PM on April 08, 2005

don't forget the bad news bears

posted by goddam at 10:58 PM on April 08, 2005

There just is no movie that won't be remade if the studio thinks there's money to be made. Or TV show that can make money as a film. But this is pretty much in line with the rest of our business culture, only more visible.

posted by billsaysthis at 12:48 AM on April 09, 2005

don't forget the bad news bears As if you could ever hope to replace Jackie Earle Haley and Walter Matthau. I mean, Kelly was my freakin' role model when I was a kid.

posted by NoMich at 01:07 AM on April 09, 2005

I saw Fever Pitch last week. It was pretty decent, surprisingly. Not a complete remake of the British version, just loosely based with Hornby's blessings.

posted by jerseygirl at 06:40 AM on April 09, 2005

JG: being a Sox fan and a woman, I think you might have a bias in this instance. Re: the latter, this is clearly much closer to 'chick flick' territory than the original version and the novel.

posted by billsaysthis at 02:09 PM on April 09, 2005

don't see why they need to change the title given that a 'pitch' is an intergral part of both footie and baseball albeit with differing meanings.

posted by gspm at 05:49 PM on April 09, 2005

uh ok bill. :) but uh, have you seen it?

posted by jerseygirl at 10:02 PM on April 09, 2005

I hated the original Fever Pitch (about an Arsenal fan), so I don't think I'll be first in the queue to see a remake. And Nick Hornby is not unknown for switching locations for his movie adaptations. High Fidelity was moved from the UK to the US too.

posted by afx237vi at 04:10 PM on April 10, 2005

I'm currently down on paying $10/ticket for movies that aren't guaranteed to please. Though when it hits HBO, which is where I saw the original, no problem.

posted by billsaysthis at 09:56 PM on April 10, 2005

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