In honor of March Madness, my favorite sports event
of the year, this month, I'm going to focus on my top 10 Sports movies. To
begin though, I have a lot of decisions to make about what is and isn't a
sports movie. I let IMDB do most of the work on that. Nearly all the movies on
my list have 'Sport' listed as one of the genres on IMDB. After that, I made
some judgment calls because the line between game and sport isn't well defined.
Perhaps the biggest decision was with Sports
documentaries. Thanks to ESPN Films and 30 for 30 and my rule that
a movie doesn't have to have a theatrical release to count, that gave me an
unreasonable surplus of these Sports documentaries. Ultimately, I didn't
include the ESPN Films docs and a couple others that felt too much like TV
Specials. I used the same logic as not including Comedy Central Presents
performances in a favorite Stand Up specials list: they are too curated to be
stand-alone. I did include a few documentaries (none ESPN, I believe) that got
a theatrical release in my initial list though. I think that's a fair way to
draw that line.
In the end, I had a raw list of 128 movies: more
than enough for the 100 minimum I require to make a top 10 list. It's a
surprisingly balanced list. It had 18 football, boxing and, baseball movies and
17 basketball. It takes a big dip to 7 for hockey and no more than a handful of
any other sport.
In the spirit of it being a sports list, I'm going
to hand out spots in the to 10 FIFA or FIBA style: One spot for each of the
major sports represented (Football, Baseball, Boxing, Basketball), 2 for the
remaining mix of sports, and 4 wildcards. This is going to be needlessly
complicated and I can't wait.
Football
Johnny Be Good
Necessary Roughness
Rudy
Little Giants
The Waterboy
Any Given Sunday
Varsity Blues
Remember the Titans
The Replacements
Radio
Friday Night Lights
The Longest Yard (2005)
We Are Marshall
The Express
The Blind Side
I must say, I was surprised to see Football so well
represented. I don't think I need to explain why most of these movie don't need
to be considered. Several of the movies are perfectly likable (The Longest
Yard, The Waterboy, Varsity Blues). I can pretty quickly
narrow it down by thinking about which one's I'll ever see again.
Definitely In: Rudy
Wildcard Consideration: Remember the Titans, Friday Night Lights
Boxing
Undefeated
Million Dollar Baby
Against the Ropes
Cinderella Man
Rocky Balboa
Annapolis
The Fighter
Boxing has a disproportionate number of classics and
award winners. It probably has something to do with the intimacy of the
matches. It's very easy to set the stakes and keep up with the protagonist in a
boxing match. There's a big discrepancy between the best and the worst of the
genre though. Most of the Rocky sequels, Million Dollar Baby, Against
the Ropes, and Grudge Match are all easy cuts. Film like Ali,
The Fighter, and Cinderella Man are quite good. In the end
though, the top movies were easy to pick out.
Definitely In: Creed
Wildcard Consideration: Rocky, Raging Bull
Baseball
Bull Durham
Field of Dreams
A League of Their Own
Rookie of the Year
The Sandlot
Angels in the Outfield (1994)
The Scout
For Love of the Game
Hardball
Summer Catch
The Rookie
Fever Pitch
Bad News Bears
The Benchwarmers
Baseball certainly has the most sentimental entries
in the Sports movie genre. I'll admit that I don't have the same affection for
the movies that a lot of people have. The 90's kid classics like The Sandlot,
Angels in the Outfield, and Rookie of the Year didn't take hold
of me enough at the right age to stick with me. 80's adult comedies like Bull
Durham and Major League I caught a little too late as well. Frankly,
the amount that I considered Hardball and the Billy Bob Thornton Bad
News Bears should discredit my list altogether.
Definitely In: A League of Their Own
Wildcard Consideration: Field of Dreams, Moneyball
Basketball
Hoosiers
White Men Can't Jump
Hoop Dreams
Space Jam
The Luck of the Irish
Juwanna Mann
Double Teamed
Air Bud
Like Mike
Coach Carter
Rebound
Glory Road
Semi-Pro
More Than a Game
The Other Dream Team
The Sixth Man
The Winning Season
Basketball has far fewer classics than other major
sports. The only reason I have seen so many is simply because I like basketball
more. You may also notice more documentaries than in other parts of my list.
I'm not sure if that is a coincidence or if there's something about basketball
that lends itself more to true stories. This one is easy to whittle down. The
Winning Season is an under-seen Sam Rockwell treat, but it's pretty slight. The
Sixth Man isn't great. I can easily cross off those Disney Channel original
movies I snuck in. I'm sorry to say that Space Jam is easy to eliminate
as well. I loved that movie as a kid, but I'm weirdly not sentimental about it.
One of these days I need to figure out what I actually do hold dear from my
childhood.
Definitely In: Hoop Dreams
Wildcard Consideration: Hoosiers, He Got Game
Other
The Mighty Ducks (Hockey)
D2: The Mighty Ducks (Hockey)
D3: The Mighty Ducks (Hockey)
H-E Double Hockey Sticks (Hockey)
Miracle (Hockey)
Goon (Hockey)
The Next Karate Kid (Karate)
The Karate Kid (2010) (Karate)
Driven (Racing)
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (Racing)
Right on Track (Racing)
Caddyshack (Golf)
Tin Cup (Golf)
Happy Gilmore (Golf)
Kingpin (Bowling)
The Big Lebowski (Bowling)
Alley Cats Strike (Bowling)
Ladybugs (Soccer)
Bend It Like Beckham (Soccer)
Kicking and Screaming (Soccer)
Blades of Glory (Ice Skating)
Ready to Rumble (Wrestling)
Nacho Libre (Wrestling)
Cool Runnings (Bobsled)
The Ringer (Olympics)
Brink! (Skating)
Grind (Skating)
Lords of Dogtown (Skating)
Johnny Tsunami (Surfing)
Blue Crush (Surfing)
Bring It On (Cheerleading)
Fired Up (Cheerleading)
Warrior (MMA)
Here Comes the Boom (MMA)
Seabiscuit (Horseracing)
Secretariat (Horceracing)
Breaking Away (Cycling)
Icarus (Cycling)
Pumping Iron (Body-Building)
Motocrossed (Motorcross)
DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story (Dodgeball)
Run Fat Boy Run (Running)
BASEketball (?)
Rollerball (?)
Alright. Machete time. From the remaining list of
movies, there's two types of immediate disqualifiers: 1) Bad movies. 2) Movies
I have a hard time calling "sports movies" even despite being called
that elsewhere.
Not Sports
You can make very compelling arguments for
Auto-Racing, Bowling, Cheerleading, Horseracing, and Pool being sports. To make things easier, I'm
knocking them out. I take no pleasure in cutting The Big Lebowski, Seabiscuit,
or Bring It On. Besides, a lot of the movies I'm cutting because of that
only have the sport as a flavor, not the focus.
Not Good
As much as I do love Motocrossed and Brink!,
the Disney Channel Original Movies are all right out. The Karate Kid
sequels are god-awful (I'm throwing the 2010 Karate Kid in too, even
though it wasn't nearly as bad as, say, Part III). BASEketball
and Rollerball probably shouldn't even count as sports. They're bad
movies as well, so either way, they are no more. I'm afraid that the Will
Ferrell sports comedies have to go (Kicking and Screaming, Blades of
Glory). D3, Ladybugs, Ready to Rumble, Nacho Libre,
Grind, Lords of Dogtown, Blue Crush, Here Comes the
Boom, and Run Fat Boy Run can all go. The Ringer and Goon
are much better than you'd think, but rising above expectations isn't quite the
same as good.
At this point, it's tough to come up with a reason
to narrow the remaining list down other than "I just don't like it as
much". So, that's how I end up with veritable classics like Slap Shot,
Caddyshack, and Breaking Away not even in the wildcard
consideration.
Definitely In: Warrior, The Karate Kid
Wildcard Consideration: The Mighty Ducks, Happy Gilmore, I, Tonya, Cool
Runnings, The Cutting Edge, Foxcatcher
Honorable Mention
Cool Runnings - I have the kind of unearned affection for this movie
that can only be the result of childhood nostalgia. It is a silly and fun movie
though.
The Cutting Edge - One of the things I love about my Club 50 project is that I
stumble across movies like this that I never would've assumed I'd like. Moira
Kelly and D.B. Sweeney's chemistry is superb.
Field of Dreams - I'll be saying or implying this about a lot of these
movies. It's an obvious pick for a reason.
Foxcatcher - You don't always get movies about the dark side of
sports. This one is packed with great performances.
Friday Night Lights - It's a fine football movie that only suffers by
comparison to the all-time great TV show.
He Got Game - Denzel puts up a great performance. Ray Allen can act.
And, it's fun to see a bunch of college coaches from 1997.
The Mighty Ducks - Who isn't a fan of a movie about a gang of misfits who
come together for a common purpose? Half of all cinema is about that.
Moneyball -
Any movie that's worked its way into common vernacular like this deserves some
praise. It's a great screenplay too.
Remember the Titans - It's fun how you can tell my age simply by what movies
I pick for these lists. For better or worse, when I think about a Denzel movie,
this is what I go to.
Rocky -
Sometimes, I think the fact that Rocky won Best Picture over the likes
of Network, All the President's Men, and Taxi Driver,
not to mention all the sequels of diminishing quality, obscures the fact that Rocky
is a damn good movie.
10. Hoosiers - Most of my list could be described as underdog stories,
but Hoosiers is perhaps the definitive example of that. This is among
Gene Hackman's finest performances, and that's saying something.
9. Rudy -
Look, a lot of these movies have reached the point of cliche. It's real easy to
pick Rudy apart. However, it's even easier to fall for it completely. I
hope I never become too cynical to appreciate someone having a dream and
busting their ass to accomplish it, no matter how silly it may be. I know most
of my proudest accomplishments sound silly to other people.
8. The Karate Kid - I never expected to like this movie so much. I thought
it was too well known to surprise me. That's the thing about earnestness
though: It can't be denied.
7. I, Tonya - This movie is still so fresh in my mind that I don't
know where to put it. Terrific editing and performances. Darkly comedic edge.
One of the rare non-inspirational sports movies (to some extent).
6. Hoop Dreams - One of the all-time great documentaries. Period. The
time invested. The amount of footage gathered. The quality of the subjects
followed. Had I seen this more than the one time, it would probably be higher
on this list.
5. A League of Their Own - This movie is like comfort food. There's never a bad
time to watch parts of it or the whole thing. The cast is just delightful and
pretty impeccably chosen. It has a great sense of humor and has just the right
amount of emotional heft.
4. Happy Gilmore - I told you that my picks give away my age. What 9 year
old didn't fall completely for this movie? It doesn't really deserve to be this
high on the list other than the fact that I've almost never laughed harder the
first time I saw this movie.
3. Raging Bull - It may not be my favorite Scorsese movie, but it's
hard to argue against this as his best movie. This solidified Robert de Niro as
one of the greats (as if The Godfather: Part II, Taxi Driver, and
The Deer Hunter weren't enough).
2. Creed -
This gets some bonus points for defying my expectations so thoroughly. Rocky
Balboa began to salvage the Rocky franchise, but Creed brought
it back with a vengeance. What seventh installment in a movie franchise has ever
received a major Oscar nomination and been considered a legitimate snub for
Best Picture. That doesn't happen. Michael B. Jordan is an absolute star in
this and Stallone gives the greatest performance of his admittedly inconsistent
career.
1. Warrior -
One down side to these top 10 lists is that there will be some familiar movies
at the top. This won last month as well and I apologize for nothing. I adore
this movie in part because it pulls off the magic trick of making me care about
the winner of an MMA fight (Note: I've never watched an MMA fight and I have no
interest in changing that). Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, and Nick Nolte are
tremendous throughout and Gavin O'Connor shows directing chops that haven't
resurfaced since.
And, since I brought them up, I thought I'd include
the best of the ESPN Films/30 for 30 docs I've seen.
In No Order...
30 for 30: The Two Escobars - A fascinating new
angle to come at the Pablo Escobar story.
30 for 30: June 17th, 1994 - Editing all the day's
many sports events into a narration-free documentary. Certainly the most
inventive 30 for 30 doc.
30 for 30: Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New
York Knicks - I tried to limit how much basketball I used in this list. This
one is super specific and a lot of fun.
30 for 30: Survive and Advance - Jim Valvano has
been deified by the collective sports media and this doc about his 1983 NCAA
championship run does a lot to explain why.
30 for 30: Four Falls of Buffalo - This adds a great
perspective of a Super Bowl run that is known more as an historical punchline.
Others I've Seen
30 for 30: The Band That Wouldn't Die
30 for 30: Once Brothers
30 for 30: Bad Boys
The Fab Five
30 for 30: Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?
30 for 30: No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson
30 for 30: Broke
30 for 30: Benji
30 for 30: There's No Place Like Home
30 for 30: Run Ricky Run
30 for 30: Roll Tide / War Eagle
30 for 30: The Real Rocky
30 for 30: Kings Ransom
30 for 30: Silly Little Game
30 for 30: The Birth of Big Air
30 for 30: Catching Hell
30 for 30: The U
30 for 30: The House of Steinbrenner
30 for 30: Guru of Go
30 for 30: Jordan Rides the Bus
30 for 30: The Best That Never Was
30 for 30: The Dotted Line
30 for 30: Without Bias
30 for 30: Unguarded
30 for 30: This Magic Moment
30 for 30: Fantastic Lies
30 for 30: The '85 Bears
30 for 30: Angry Sky
30 for 30: Four Days in October
30 for 30: Sole Man
30 for 30: Trojan War
30 for 30: The U Part 2
30 for 30: Rand University
30 for 30: I Hate Christian Laettner
30 for 30: Of Miracles and Men
30 for 30: Soccer Stories: Hillsborough
30 for 30: Brian and the Boz
30 for 30: When the Garden Was Eden
30 for 30: Youngstown Boys
30 for 30: Playing for the Mob
30 for 30: Elway to Marino
30 for 30: Free Spirits
30 for 30: Requiem for the Big East
30 for 30: Ghosts of Ole Miss
30 for 30: Pony Excess
30 for 30: The Price of Gold
The Street Stops Here
SEC Storied: Going Big
40 Minutes of Hell
The Announcement
The Marinovich Project
Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows
WWE: The Rise & Fall of WCW
The Prince of Pennsylvania
Chasing Tyson
