At times the statement is reversed, where the art imitates life. At least that's how we'd like to describe some of the sports flicks we've seen, because they're some of the funny and nostalgic movies out there. For a sport fan, these movies are almost heaven--it holds the activity that can drive a sport fanatic to ridiculous excitement, with the benefit of getting to know the players, or the team, and the drama that surrounds it all. These flicks can make you cry, yell, laugh, punch something. They transcend genres and in addition to on-the-field entertainment, the movies world brings us some of the most captivating personalities and characters off the field as well. Sit on the edge of your seat and watch these ten of the best flicks about sports and for more info you can check out www.top10reviews.in
Sports movies are always considered to be a ‘make-believe’ kind. They make you think about the masculinity, about the joy of winning, but which movie has explored the mind of an emotionally disconnected sports man like Scorsese’s “Raging Bull.” And, can you name a performer as fully and uniquely sacrificed himself to the moving-picture cause as De Niro? Every swirling camera movement, every distinctive angle, you observe in this movie has a real reason for existing in this story of a ruthless world middleweight boxing champ Jake La Motta. You can’t call De Niro’s performance as acting; it is a ‘metamorphosis.’ Aside from his visceral portrayal of La Motta, he also fully went the extra mile gaining sixty pounds to play La Motta in retirement. The Best Acting Oscar statue is just one testimony to the lasting power of the performance. The raw energy that infuses De Niro can also be seen with the excellent supporting performances from Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty. In “Raging Bull”, we have downbeat environments, nasty marital spats and bloody fight sequences. Like Rocky, it doesn’t lift your heart too. But, no matter how beaten up you might feel after watching the destructive path that Jake LaMotta’s life has taken, you can’t help but feel sorry for the guy. This movie simply goes to show the deeper human stories behind some of the world's greatest athletes and how it's not simply all about hard work and overcoming the odds, like “Rocky.” “Raging Bull” is a tough watch that may have you checking yourself for bruises and blood splatter as you finished watching it, but there is no denying that this is the best sports drama ever made.
If you decide to revisit Avildsen’s “Rocky” or watch it for the first time, you will be struck primarily by the delicate balancing act, finding a graceful middle ground between despair and triumph, honesty and fantasy. The story of a small time boxer getting once in a life time chance to fight the heavyweight champ might seem a great cliché on the paper, but this movie isn’t about the under-dog story, it’s about a supreme hero (Stallone), who is inhabited with smashing confidence. Sylvester Stallone's performance as Rocky is sheer magic; an authentic and touching portrait of a loser who becomes a winner in the things that matter. The boxing scenes are some of the greatest moment in Cinema. The end fight between Rocky and Apollo Creed is amazing. They batter each other with strong punches. Creed goes into the opposite corner as Rocky, and one of Creed's managers says, "This guy thinks this thing is for real -- knock him out!" You feel sorry for Rocky there, because he is giving the fight all he's got, when it was just a publicity stunt from the beginning, but he didn't even realize it. Moments and dialogues like this makes Rocky what it has become over the years – A Classic. You might have seen or heard the basic storyline of Rocky been done to death over the years, but this is still one of the most effective and successful applications of the formula. This is your quintessential under-dog, uplifting, sports flick. “Rocky” won three Academy Awards for Best Director (Avildsen), Best Editing and Best Picture, damn the Oscars, Stallone only got nominated.
If a person is talented, we think that person should be a winner. In a movie, we always expect a loser to b a guy with zero talent. But, what about a talented loser – a paradox or a contradiction that doesn’t fit into our conventional mindset of sport movies – that’s the basis for Robert Rossen’s "The Hustler", a character study of an ace pool player who can't seem to win respect from his peers. The film tells the story of a small time pool hustler, Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman), a cocky, swaggering young pool hustler, who had been traveling around America, making a lot of money and wanting to challenge Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), the best pool player in America. After initial success, Fats beats Eddie, with him being battered and beaten. Aided by crippled alcoholic Sarah (Piper Laurie), Eddie learns lessons about him and prepares for the inevitable rematch. The stronghold of this sports flick is its character development, which is boosted by incredible performances from Newman, Gleason, Scott and the cinematography (won an Oscar) is a high point in black and white cinema. “The Hustler” serves a lesson for anyone who is obsessed with winning in any kind of sport. In this movie, Eddie becomes obsessed not only with winning, but with hammering his opponent into submission. He loses perspective, refuses to quit while ahead, and makes irrational decisions. "The Hustler" is everything a sports movie should be, with some poignant observations on the human condition, and you don’t even need a passing familiarity with pool to appreciate the movie.
Boxing, in spite of the sport's decline in popularity since the '80s, has managed to make for some of the best films. These films seem to best represent life's journey and its struggles. There is no stronger visual metaphor than the glory and physical danger of someone with a goal laying it all on the line in the ring. Clint Eastwood’s tightly focused tale of loyalty “Million Dollar Baby” is an emotional punch to our throat, a drama that will leave you shaken, for days after the closing credits rolled. Gym owner and an over-cautious boxing manager, Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) is a rotten Catholic, who's never enjoyed a title shot. His only friend is another aging prize-fighter Scrap (Morgan Freeman). Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank) is an untrained 31-year-old of pure white-trash stock, wants to box professionally and she approaches Frankie Dunn. Under his tutelage, she finds herself on the fast track to a championship bout. Eastwood plays the grumpy old owner with finesse. Morgan Freeman could narrate your day-to-day activity and make it an Oscar-worthy material, so you can’t complain that this is boring movie. Then we also have the tear-jerking performance of Hilary Swank and a excellent script from Paul Haggis. But, what makes “Million Dollar Baby” great is its less glamorization of the ring activity than often occurs in boxing movies. Apart from the obligatory boxing scenes, interaction between the film’s three characters serves us immense pleasure. The unexpected third act turns “Million Dollar Baby” from being a solid sport flick to a heart-breaking masterpiece. The film’s final moments emphasizes difficult questions upon us. Million Dollar Baby is both a sport movie and a tear-wringing realistic drama. The movie won four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Eastwood), Best Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman) and Best Actress (Swank)
Darren Arfonosky’s authentic film about the amateur wrestling circuit is an emotional smack down.Mickey Rourke plays Randy "The Ram" Robinson, an amateur grappler who has been locked out of his trailer home for nonpayment. He lugs cartons in a warehouse for more money. Friendless, estranged from his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood), he frequents the local night club, where an aging stripper (Marisa Tomei), eyeing his scars, heeds him some solace. Can he resurrect both as a father and a wrestler? Imagining someone other than the blissfully battered Mickey Rourke in the title role of “The Wrestler” would be like picturing someone other than Charlie Chaplin as ‘The Tramp.’ Rourke’s performance becomes a kind of on-screen outpouring of his own grief and waylaid potential. Plot-wise “The Wrestler” is a conventional sports movie. Like all genuine sports flicks, it transcends genres and we also get an inside look at small-time professional wrestling, complete with its scripting and props. It depicts everything you need to know, and never whispers in your ear what you're supposed to feel about it. I have no interest in the Wrestling sport and yet I was absolutely spellbound by every moment and besides, it is no more a film that is solely about wrestling than “Raging Bull” was solely about boxing.
David Anspaugh’s against-all-odds sports/drama “Hoosiers” is an unabashed "guy movie", with its focus on sports and male bonding.Norman Dale (Gene Hackman), a coach with a checkered past arrives in a small Indiana town to train the local high school basketball team. His maverick training methods initially meet with severe disapproval from the townspeople, though their views start to change once Dale begins to elicit winning performances from his players. Hackman delivers his role with sincerity and honesty and perfectly looks like a veteran coach. Another memorable performance comes from Dennis Hopper, as Shooter, the town drunk, who once lived through momentary basketball glory in high school. But let me come to the most important aspect, this is a basketball movie and the film simply wouldn't work without some good game footage. By using real high school basketball players, “Hoosiers” has an abundance of tense game footages. On the surface, “Hoosiers” follows a conventional format, but where this film differs from many others is in the depth accorded to Norman's character. Rarely has a coach in any sports movie been this well developed. Sport flicks don't get any better. Put aside your cynicism and root for the underdogs.
The sport depicted in “Warrior” is Mixed-Martial arts (MMA) and if you pass on seeing this movie simply because you don't like MMA or sports, then you're denying yourself the chance to see a solid, well-made, emotionally gripping movie. Gavin O’ Connor’s “Warrior” centers its story on the three members of a decidedly broken family: two brothers, Brendan (Joel Edgerton) and Tommy (Tom Hardy), who have long since gone their separate ways, and their recovering alcoholic father Paddy (Nick Nolte), a former bruiser whose legacy of drunken rages and violence have left more scars. Both the estranged brothers, badly wants the $5 million prize money, end up competing in Spartan, an international mixed martial arts tournament. Director O’ Connor deftly films the fight scenes, which are impressively choreographed and edited in such a way that we feel every blow and are consistently shaken by the intensity of the competition. “Warrior” is one of the rare sports flicks where you root for both the protagonists to win. At times, the movie looks clichéd and calculated but still it is an exhilarating screen experience. You wouldn't believe how good this movie is, until you have taken this emotional roller-coaster ride. Against all odds, Warrior sucks you in and leaves you beating with excitement.
David O. Russell’s impressively directed “The Fighter” is an emotionally arresting boxing drama with a quartet of terrific performances from Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo and Amy Adams. It is another based-on-a-true-story movie about the early years of legendary fighter 'Irish' Micky Ward (Wahlberg), who triumphed over a complex family situation, including a crack-addict brother/trainer (Bale), to become a welterweight boxing champ in the 1980s. The story seems a cliché to you. Isn’t it? It seemed to me, until I watched the movie. Wahlberg and Christian Bale ensures that we will stay rooted with them through every round in the ring, despite some broad strokes of clichés and conventionalities. The film's final boxing match is terrifically exciting; in part because of the thrilling way director Russell shoots it, but mostly because of how eager we are for Micky to succeed. The Fighter is just another sports flick about overcoming odds, but it's also audacious, fun, rowdy, and it's just twisted enough to always be interesting. The movie won two Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (Bale) and Actress (Melissa Leo).
Based on the true story of the town of Alexandria, in 1971, “Remember the Titans” recounts how racism had to bring together a high school football team when their campus is integrated. Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), an African-American from South Carolina, is hired as head coach of the T. C. Williams High School Titans. There’s lot of resentment in the football crazed community about the new changes, but Boone hammers home the point that they can only win if they work together on the common goal of becoming the best team possible. Well, the story is not something you have unheard of in Hollywood and you've seen it all before, but the competent repackaging will manage to tug at your heart strings anyway. The best thing about “Remember the Titans” is that whenever the tear-and-a-smile stuff threatens to go overboard, the film pulls back and gives us another scene on the football field, and all the football scenes are strong. The movie is relentlessly manipulative and hopelessly predictable, but gets away with a strong cast. Denzel Washington’s strong performance is ably supported by Will Patton. Hayden Panettiere, the nine-year old girl, Cheryl and Ryan Hurst respectively steal every scene they are in. Ultimately, Remember the Titans is a sports flick about the team and its players than it is about the games. If you like your sports films to be crowd-pleasing with human elements, then you couldn’t miss this one.
For many years Hollywood has turned out movies in which empathetic white characters offer some form of rescue, whether it be physical or spiritual, to suffering and oppressed minorities, be it Asians or blacks or Mexicans.Something is inherently dangerous in these stories that rely on a uplift resting on white shoulders, so even when a film like The Blind Side is said to be based on a true story, it runs the risk of racial arrogance. But don’t worry director Hancock treads the tale with grace and humanity, and saves the movie from becoming a clichéd tear jerking sport drama. Leigh Anne Tuohy (Bullock) shocks her family and community when she invites a homeless black teen Big Mike (Aaron) to live in her home. As Leigh Anne strives to help Big Mike academically, she delves into his traumatic upbringing and discovers that the youngster shows promise as an American football player. American Football may be the thread that runs throughout “The Blind Side,” but the movie is also more interested in the heart-tugging tale of how Mike left behind a life of poverty, violence and foster-home despair to become such a champ on the gridiron. Bullock’s towering performance as Anne has got her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. “Blind Side” might be your idea of a great sport film, filled with tense winning moments, but it is definitely one of the best feel-good sports/drama.
