Football Movie Draft! Day 1 - 'Draft Day', 'Friday Night Lights', 'Undefeated'

With the NFL Draft occurring over the next few days, I've decided to take a look at various football movies.  So welcome to the 2014 Football Movie Draft!  For the next few days I will be posting my thoughts on various football movies.  Along with a mini-review of each movie I will also post a 'draft projection' for each.  If I think it's a great movie I'd project it in the first round.  Second round will be for something that's above average.  Third round will be for movies that are simply good.  Fourth round would be for movies that are just okay.  Fifth thru seventh round would be for varying degrees of bad, and who knows maybe a movie will go undrafted.

So let's start things off with a movie I saw over a month ago and specifically didn't write about until today, a movie that came out ten years ago, and an Oscar-winning documentary.

 'Draft Day' (PG-13)
At the NFL Draft, general manager Sonny Weaver (Kevin Costner) has the opportunity to rebuild his team when he trades for the number one pick. He must decide what he's willing to sacrifice on a life-changing day for a few hundred young men with NFL dreams, specifically hot prospects Wisconsin QB Bo Callahan (Josh Pence), Ohio State OLB Vontae Mack (Chadwick Boseman), and Florida State RB Ray Jennings (Arian Foster).  With Jennifer Garner as Sonny's secret office girlfriend, Ellen Burstyn as Sonny's mom, Denis Leary as the coach of the Cleveland Browns, Frank Langella as the owner of the Browns, and various ESPN analysts and NFL officials as themselves.  Too many subplots, a few dry patches, and some rather ridiculous trades, but overall I liked it.  It's occasionally funny, has some solid performances, and it's actually quite suspenseful during the actual draft.  It is a bit distracting knowing that Arian Foster is an actual NFL RB but I digress.  It's more the NFL's answer to 'Trouble With The Curve' than it is 'Moneyball', but at least it's better than the former.   

TRAILERS

• 'Million Dollar Arm' - Only a few more weeks until this comes out and I won't have to watch the trailer for it ever again!
• 'Blended' - This might be a rental.
• 'Get On Up' - The James Brown biopic.  If reviews are good I might see it at some point.
• 'The Expendables 3' - SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!
• 'When The Game Stands Tall' - Looks like it could be really good, or be really heavy-handed and bad.

DRAFT PROJECTION:  It's a mid-to-late third round pick.  There are better football movies out there, but there are also worse.  






'Friday Night Lights' (PG-13)
Based on H.G. Bissinger's 1990 nonfiction book of the same name, which profiled the economically depressed town of Odessa, Texas and their heroic high school football team, The Permian High Panthers during the 1988 season.  With Lucas Black, Garret Hedlund, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez and Lee Thompson Young as various members of the team, Billy Bob Thornton as Coach Gary Gaines, Tim McGraw as an alcoholic father and the acting debut of Amber Heard.

I was 13 when I went to see this with a few friends in the theater.  I thought it was great back then and it still holds up today.  It both succeeds as a very good drama and a rousing sports movie, capturing perfectly the atmosphere and egos often associated with high school football and how a town rallies behind the team.  Great performances particularly from Thornton, McGraw, and Hedlund. 

DRAFT PROJECTION:  Late first round/early second round





'Undefeated' (PG-13)
Oscar winning documentary on an underdog high school football team who look to reverse their fortunes with coach Bill Courtney.  Their goals:  to win their district and secure a playoff spot and win a playoff game, something the school has never done.

Sure 'Friday Night Lights' was based on a real team in the late 80's, but it's an adaptation of a book.  Changes are made to better translate to the screen.  'Undefeated' unfolds right before your eyes and it's real with no Hollywood BS.  In addition to some thrilling football game footage, it also showcases the private lives of two of the coaches and a few of the players and all of the hardships they are facing.  It's inspirational, it's moving, and not only is it one of the better documentaries I've seen but also one of the better sports movies I've seen. 

DRAFT PROJECTION:  Mid first round.