Friday, November 24

Best Sports Movies

This week we have watched two great sports movies (one of them twice), so I thought I'd make my top ten list of the best sports movies of all time.

* Remeber the Titans - a new classic

* Rudy - our favorite little hobbit's kick-off (get it? kick off!)

* Miracle - my new favorite; if you haven't seen this great portrayal of the 1980 U.S. hockey team, put it in your queue

* Hoosiers - makes me cry every time; goosebumps galore

* Jerry McGuire - pre-whacked-out-Tom; deep story around a great sporting tale

* Field of Dreams - maybe the best one on the list

* The Rookie - feel-good sports story; gives us oldies hope that we still have a shot! Not really.

* Bend It Like Beckham - lighter fare, but fun

* The Natural - depressing, but a classic

* Chariots of Fire - amazing movie for its time; a great story about a great man

Would you have on your list? Cool Runnings (goofy fun), Rocky (almost made the top ten), Any Given Sunday (made me feel yucky), Bull Durham (a favorite amongst a lot of guy friends when I was younger), Breaking Away (watched in honor of cycling husband - horribly dated now), Friday Night Lights (good, but not top ten), Dreamer (great kid-friendly movie - debated top ten)? What do you think?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You definitely named all of my favorites, though I would throw in a shout out for Wimbledon. I've also got to point out that Sean Aston actually got his start in Goonies, but that's only a small trivia matter.

Anonymous said...

A few notes:

- We watched American Flyers, not Breaking Away. AF had Kevin Costner in it, and was an implausible brother-buddy story about a race called the Hell of the West (modeled after the old Coors Classic). There's actually some good drama in it, but some ridiculous rivalries and Soviet riders with beer guts (not a chance!).

- Which Rocky? There were five - I mean six. I=best; IV=worst (Dolph: "I must break you!").

Bad, bad films I remember from youth:

- Gymkata. "The skill of gymnastics, the kill of karate!"
- American Anthem, a poorly-acted gymnastics movie (though Janet Jones was hot!). Yes, I was a gymnast until age 16, and yes, we found it inspirational (they did go to the Olympics!). Don't mock - can you do a backflip?
- Kristi: "there's that Tom Cruise driving movie..." Me: "Not a sport, doesn't count.".
- More bad sports movie performances.

Anonymous said...

I have to say Miracle totally rocked. Well filmed, well-acted, and the drama on & off the ice was palpable. The team is comprised of real hockey players coached in acting, and they do well. The hockey scenes (a lot, fans) are filmed in-your-face-style and very accurate and believable. 7/10.

Cheryl said...

Have you seen Coach Carter? We really liked it as did our Uganda friends.

Lori Ann said...

remember the titans is our all time fav.
the rookie is #2 because i love baseball.
I would say Ron's fav. is Chariots of fire, but he will probably say diff.
Sports movies are always good. I guess it is something for us to cheer about!

Jason Hill said...

Allan, also of note: American Flyers was partially filmed at the Colorado Monument outside Grand Junction where I lived for 4 years. So it has sweet CO scenery going for it as well. Not to mention that scene where he wipes the ketchup from her thigh in the van--that has stuck with me all these years. Never was a racer so deft with the ladies until TomC came along and explained a racetrack slingshot to NicoleK on her thigh! (But I digress.)

Kristi, fantastic list. I can't really improve it, but I'd give Searching for Bobby Fischer honorable mention. And Hoop Dreams takes a gritty look at what our facination with sports does to aspiring athletes.

I'm really hoping that Michael Rich writes the Lance Armstrong story.

KMiV said...

I love all those. Haven't seen Bend it Like Beckham.

Great sports classic--the Waterboy!

Ron

Steve Maxwell said...

Hey K White, I would add "Invincible" the Vince Papale story about the walk on Philadelphia Eagle that played in the NFL. "Glory Road" will be in there at some point also.
My two cents!