It's Been a While

Sorry to all my devoted readers, but I've been immersing myself in school-work, and really haven't had time to read/watch anything interesting (let alone post).

But I just saw two movies, while wildly different, fall into a category which I hold near and dear to my heart: Sports Movies.

To me, there is no such thing as a bad sports movie. More to the point, I enjoy all sports movies, regardless of the sport, the actors, or the "outside" plot that writers think makes the movies interesting. If it has a focus on sports, I like it, and not only that, I can watch it repeatedly. I can also pick it up in the middle and watch it.

There are of course classics, movies that are both good sports movies and good movies: Bull Durham, Raging Bull , Caddyshack, Hoosiers. But I don't necessarily care if it's a "good" movie. Here's a list of "good" sports movies, right off the top of my head: The Replacements; Varsity Blues; Major League I & ,II; Remember the Titans; Mystery, Alaska; Sunset Park; Tin Cup. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I can watch any of these movies, anytime, and enjoy myself completely.

Here are two more to add to that list: The Greatest Game Ever Played and Ice Princess.

Like I said, two wildly disparate movies. The former is actually quite well made, with some interesting special effects that make the golf interesting. Shia LaBeouf is an actor I like a great deal (recalling his career making performance on Even Stevens or actually better, Holes), and he does a good job in a movie with not a great deal of dialogue. Stephen Dillane, as Harry Vardon, is also excellent. Even though it's about golf, a sport I cannot watch, I can watch this movie. I haven't given it too much thought, but I'm guessing that I'm just a sucker for those inspirational endings that is the hallmark in good sports movies: if they win, it was against the odds, (Eddie or Little Big League) and if they lose, they played the best they could (Friday Night Lights). If it's a true story, like Greatest Game, it makes it even more enjoyable.

The other movie, Ice Princess, is something I'm sure I could lose my guy credentials simply mentioning, let alone watching. It's a Disney movie, it's aimed at teen-aged girls, and it's about figure skating. But none of those things bother me, because, no matter what, figure skating is a sport (and besides, who can forget the D.B. Sweeney classic, The Cutting Edge?). The competition is what makes these movies enjoyable too, even if it isn't a "traditional" sport (Searching for Bobby Fischer; The Hustler). If you ever watch professional sports, listen to the announcers, and how they describe the game: "dramatic," "theatrics," "entertaining," "mesmerizing." Throw some production on that, fill it with beautiful people, and now you have a movie. I won't lie, and say I didn't have an ulterior motive in watching Ice Princess - Michelle Trachtenberg is very, very cute. But despite that, it's a sport movie, and I like it. If it comes on again, I'll watch it.

I can't think of any other kind of movie that is like this for me. There are specific movies I can pretty much watch whenever it's on (Pulp Fiction comes to mind), but no genre of movie.

So Sports Films: I salute you! Keep doing your thing and allow me to lose brain cells devoting my time to your cliched plots.