DRAFT DAY (2014)

Rated: PG-13

Stars: Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner,  Dennis Leary, Frank Langella,  Ellen Burstyn,  Chadwick Boseman

Director: Ivan Reitman

Genre: Drama

I generally don't watch sports movies--not because I'm not a fan, but because fake, recreated sports scenes don't cut it for me like the real live action does. In Draft Day, there aren't a lot of fake sports plays, but there are a lot of stock, cardboard cut-out characters.  

There's the intrepid general manager of the Cleveland Browns  (Kevin Costner) who is going to wheel and deal his way through the maze--flying by the seat of his pants and going against conventional wisdom to get the best draft picks, rescue his bottom-feeding team, and make him a hero on draft day.

The coach (Dennis Leary) who naturally doesn't agree with the GM's methods, cuz you gotta have conflict.

The team owner (Frank Langella), who may be one wrong move away from cleaning house, which makes the chances the GM is taking all the more precarious to his future.

And, of course, the love interest (Jennifer Garner), who works for the team and knows more about football than most of the guys. (Hollywood loves to patronize women in this manner.) She and the GM have a thing going, and now she's going to drop a little bundle of joy upon him. But all he wants to do is make it through draft day, dammit.  WILL EVERYBODY JUST QUIT DISTRACTING ME?.  


The most annoying thing about Draft Day is that it violates that old saw of good storytelling: show, don't tell. The characters are always explaining stuff to each other that they obviously should already know. It's a device to fill in background information for the audience, but it's just too obvious and awkwardly done here. 

Director Ivan Reitman does a good job of  ratcheting up the dramatic tension and building momentum toward the feel-good climax. That's the strong point of the film. Along with the pulsating score from John Debney.

Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi was obsessed. Winning isn't everything...it's the only thing. He set the tone for the modern day emphasis on winning at all costs. It's an unhealthy mindset.  Because giving it all you've got and falling short is nothing to be ashamed of. It builds character. But that's not what modern day sports is about, and Draft Day--if nothing else--drives that point home.

Grade:  C +

JILL'S TAKE

If Tim hadn't been sitting next to me, answering my questions about how players get drafted and team managers trade picks, I would've been totally lost. As it is, I was totally bored. To borrow one of my favorite quotes by Dorothy Parker (originally describing Katharine Hepburn's acting), Kevin Costner's acting "runs the gamut of emotions from A to B." Unlike the highly volatile Vince Lombardi, Costner plays it cool under pressure. A good foil for Dennis Leary's overdone pugnaciousness. But it's all so ho-hum. And the secondary plots, i.e. his secret girlfriend, his inability to commit, his bossy mom are...well....not exactly original.

Just for the hell of it, I typed in "Top Sports Movies." Opinions abound. According to an ESPN poll, #1 is BULL DURHAM. (Costner was much better in that one.) Another link breaks it down into individual sports. According to http://www.best-sports-movies.com/football.html their pick (and mine, as well) is BRIAN'S SONG. And the New York Times poll gives ROCKY the number one slot. What these sports movies all have that DRAFT DAY doesn't is character development—and real characters to develop!

With these mini-reviews, I always try to point out something positive. This time—because I can't come up with one—I'll end with another favorite quote meant to leave you smiling: "The reason women don't play football is because eleven of them would never wear the same outfit in public." - Phyllis Diller

Grade: D –

42 (2013)

Rated: PG-13

Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie

Director: Brian Helgeland

Genre: Biopic 

To understand the institutionalized racism that existed in the United States prior to 1964, one must  appreciate the value of travel and education. During this shameful period in America's history, there were many whites--most notably in the south--who hadn't so much as popped open a book  or even traveled outside their home county.  Through education we learn about other cultures. Through  travel we are exposed to other cultures. The more we learn about and are exposed to other cultures, the more tolerant we usually become.  So--especially if you were born subsequent to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964--and still find it difficult to comprehend just what the HELL was wrong with people back then... the answer is that a good many of them were just rubes...and dumber than a stick.

It is said that ignorance of the law is no excuse. Unfortunately, ignorance WAS  the law during that era, and that's what Jackie Robinson came up against as  the first black   player to break the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947. 

42 is  a straightforward, feelgood rendering of the young Mr. Robinson's career, starting from his stint in the Negro Leagues,  up to and through being tapped by Branch Rickey-(Harrison Ford) -president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers--to join the team.  And  the rest, as they say, is history.  

It's not really a baseball movie--it's a film about triumph over adversity--and as such, with Mark Isham's stirring  music score that never lets up, the movie had the audience blubbering and sniffling all the way through. Why do people cry when they are feeling uplifted? That's beyond the scope of this review and beyond my pay grade!


42 pulls no punches in showing you much of the ugly harassment Jackie Robinson  (Chadwick Boseman) endured,  not only from fans and opposing teams, but from his own teammates as well. And then one of his teammates finally grows the balls to confront a manager who is spewing the "N" word from the opposing dugout, and we are off again feeling around for that second box of tissue. 


Newcomer Chadwick Boseman should be able to parlay his competent performance here into another major role somewhere.

Harrison Ford obviously studied Branch Rickey's folksy speech affectations, but he lays it on a bit thick here, and comes off as playing a character rather than being the character. Still, the innate decency of a man who was willing to take a stand and stick to his guns--changing societal attitudes forever--shines through.  


42 is no more or less than what I expected to see going in--the canonization of Jackie Robinson--but hey, the guy deserves it. That doesn't mean, however, that a movie as predictable and emotionally manipulative as this one deserves the highest grade.

I'm giving it a "B" for baseball!  

Grade:  B