Let's get one thing straight right off the bat (no pun intended): It is NOT easy to make a good sports movie. I'm not sure why this is true, I only know it is.
And how do I know it's true? Because I've seen more horrendous sports movies then I care to think about.
Perhaps the problem is that making movies and loving sports don't usually mix. By this I mean, people who are good at making movies - and even people who aren't good at making movies but do it anyway - usually have no interest in sports. They've never played a sport. They probably haven't even watched too many sports. Then they try to make a movie about topic.
What they get is a jumbled mess that is so fake that even 4 year old girl can tell something's not right.
Want an example? Okay.
Let's talk about the movie "Jerry Maguire".
I know... I know... Many people loved this movie. It's the whole "You had me at hello" thing. Okay... that's a decent line. And overall I do like Cameron Crowe's work.
But in this movie, Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character scores a touchdown and gets knocked out. He then magically awakens and does this crazy endzone celebration. This ruined the entire movie.
I could go on for a very long time about why this is wrong but I won't. It would be much too painful for me. I will just say that any player who gets knocked out does not feel like dancing when he wakes up. Believe me. I was once knocked out on the field and I didn't feel like doing anything but sleeping and throwing-up for at least 24 hours. Plus, the trainers would have had him strapped onto a stretcher before he ever got a chance to stand-up again, nevermind do flips and other crazy stuff.
But I promised I won't go on forever. So I'll move on.
Jerry Maguire is actually one of the best "horrible" sports movies out there. I don't even want to think about movies like "Unneccessary Roughness", "Major League", and the like.
So let's move onto a few movies you should see: "Caddyshack", "The Natural", "Hoosiers", and "Rudy" are all great sports movies. There are more too. But these are a great place to start.
If you want to laugh get "Caddyshack". If you want to cry get "The Natural". And if you want to be inspired by true stories checkout "Hoosiers" and "Rudy".
Perhaps if we all bond together and refuse to only watch good sports movies, the bad ones will all disappear.
