Parts of sports movies that disappointed you

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Is this the right spot to put this? I don't know. Feel free to move it if so. But there's not much else going on.

At the end of The Natural, Roy Hobbs is playing catch with his son. And his son throws like a first grader. Wouldn't the offspring of the greatest ballplayer who ever lived have a bit more athletic ability?
 

Roy's experience with fame was not good and his salvation only came from family and home, so understandably he would be less enthusiastic about his son following in his footsteps.
 

I am going to come off as a cranky, non-romantic curmudgeon (I'll fess to semi-curmudgeon), but I was always disappointed at the ending of the first Rocky movie. As the fight is winding down, Apollo tells Rocky he's not getting a rematch and Rocky replies "I don't want one." To me, that statement from Rocky was unbelievably powerful and I would have ended the movie right there instead of the last cut where Rocky yells for Adrienne.
 

Norman Dale is this hardass my way or nothing coach, who doesn't put up with any B.S. all year. He calls a final play, and lets the star on the team overrule his play call? Hogwash.
 



Breakin' The Plane said:
Norman Dale is this hardass my way or nothing coach, who doesn't put up with any B.S. all year. He calls a final play, and lets the star on the team overrule his play call? Hogwash.
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We also never get the story of Buddy's return to the team.

I've mentioned this on this board already, Buddy was the real star of that team. Jimmy Chitwood is shooting long twos off of down screens, that offense is horribly inefficient. Buddy was the swiss army knife. He defended centers and brought the ball up.
 

50PoundHead said:
I am going to come off as a cranky, non-romantic curmudgeon (I'll fess to semi-curmudgeon), but I was always disappointed at the ending of the first Rocky movie. As the fight is winding down, Apollo tells Rocky he's not getting a rematch and Rocky replies "I don't want one." To me, that statement from Rocky was unbelievably powerful and I would have ended the movie right there instead of the last cut where Rocky yells for Adrienne.
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This is 100% right. It would have been the perfect ending to the movie. The movie would have also been better if there were no sequels. the later ones showed that Rocky was just a great fighter. He was able to beat other amazing fighters and it wasn't just a "stars are aligned" miracle type of performance.
 

The refs clearly missed multiple personal fouls, some worthy of ejection, in the championship game in the movie Friday Night Lights. Also, there seems to be a LOT more blood in Hollywood football productions compared to the real thing. The players bleed so much from their faces that you'd swear they aren't wearing facemasks in the games.
 

Schnauzer said:
The refs clearly missed multiple personal fouls, some worthy of ejection, in the championship game in the movie Friday Night Lights. Also, there seems to be a LOT more blood in Hollywood football productions compared to the real thing. The players bleed so much from their faces that you'd swear they aren't wearing facemasks in the games.
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GopherVotary said:
Never bought into Tim Robbins as a flame-thrower in Bull Durham - his throwing motion was weak. Otherwise a great movie.
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The whole "looks like a baseball player" thing is pretty hard to pull off IMO... most sports really just use crazy cuts and film tricks to make actors look ... not like beer league guys.

That aside I really liked his portrayal as sort of a non superhero type ... dumbass ... who happens be good at sports. To me it added to the authenticity.
 

Maybe the most pointless scene in any sports movie, especially moves people like, is in Remember the Titans. Gerry Bertier runs part way across the field and points at the opposing (racist coach) and it is the only interaction they have.
 

Blue Chips: A team wins a game in November and the coach is greeted by a cheering media after the game.
 



UpAndUnder43 said:
Maybe the most pointless scene in any sports movie, especially moves people like, is in Remember the Titans. Gerry Bertier runs part way across the field and points at the opposing (racist coach) and it is the only interaction they have.
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I always felt like Remember the Titans was just a generic Disney-esqe feel good film... with the added bonus of Denzel Washington... so it got more praise than it deserved

Those aren't bad films just IMO kinda throw aways.
 


GopherVotary said:
Never bought into Tim Robbins as a flame-thrower in Bull Durham - his throwing motion was weak. Otherwise a great movie.
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I imagine for the non-sports fan, portrayals like Robbins' aren't bothersome, but if you're anal-retentive (and I can be really anal-retentive) like me, the inability to have the right athletic "look" really detracts from the performance. Bull Durham is still a great movie and it was obvious that Costner had pretty good fundamentals. What I liked about Eight Men Out is that the actors looked like they knew what they were doing in the game sequences.
 

50PoundHead said:
I imagine for the non-sports fan, portrayals like Robbins' aren't bothersome, but if you're anal-retentive (and I can be really anal-retentive) like me, the inability to have the right athletic "look" really detracts from the performance. Bull Durham is still a great movie and it was obvious that Costner had pretty good fundamentals. What I liked about Eight Men Out is that the actors looked like they knew what they were doing in the game sequences.
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Except Robbins was a pitcher.

Many pitchers are like the least athletic looking people of all time.

Baseball+Bugs+(1
 

The end of Tin Cup always bugged me. Am I really supposed to believe that Roy McAvoy would be remembered as anything more than an idiot for taking at 12 on the final hole? His story to that point is so amazing that his winning the US Open would instantly become one of the greatest stories in the history of the tournament. It would be right up there with Francis Ouimet who the subject of the movie The Greatest Game Ever Played,
 

That Benny the Jet Rodriguez pickled the Beast in The Sandlot or we didn’t get to see a spin-off of Wendy and squints.
 

In White Men Can't Jump, Billy and Sidney were clearly dunking on hoops that couldn't have been more than eight feet. I don't know why they had to be dunkers. I would have been fine if they were simply raining down threes.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
The whole "looks like a baseball player" thing is pretty hard to pull off IMO... most sports really just use crazy cuts and film tricks to make actors look ... not like beer league guys.

That aside I really liked his portrayal as sort of a non superhero type ... dumbass ... who happens be good at sports. To me it added to the authenticity.
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I agree, the rest of the movie was fantastic. But Robbins threw like the junk/spit ball pitcher in Major League. Charlie Sheen, on the other hand, looked like a flamethrower.
 

1. Tin-Cup-Doesn't take the penalty drop and force the play-off for millions. -he lives in a trailer for God's sake!
2. For the Love of the Game - Pitcher spends the whole game thinking about his life! Really? Would rather of seen a movie about the real life story of the Yankee's pitcher who pitched a perfect game on acid and what he was thinking about!
3. If you build it he will come. - Only an Iowa farmer couldn't figure out it was his dad who would come.
(Is it just a coincidence or are these all Costner movies.)
4. I agree, Roy Hobb's kid throws like a girl! (Pretty sure Roy was on Roids.)
5. At the end of Caddyshack, The Gopher should have eaten the rights to make Caddyshack II!
 

Lots of baseball movies with stars who didn't look like baseball players. Tony Perkins as Jimmy Piersall in "Fear Strikes out" might be the worst. Or William Bendix in "The Babe Ruth Story."

True fact - in "Pride of the Yankees," Gary Cooper could not learn to throw left-handed. So, they made uniforms with backwards lettering, and had Cooper throw right-handed. then, they flipped the film while processing it and and it looked like Cooper was throwing left-handed. he was able to learn to swing a bat left-handed well enough to be passable.
 



Otis said:
I did like how all the hockey players in Miracle and Slap Shot appeared as though they could actually play hockey.
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In Miracle all the gameplay was re-simulated with hockey players and some of the acting was done with current players.
 

GopherVotary said:
I agree, the rest of the movie was fantastic. But Robbins threw like the junk/spit ball pitcher in Major League. Charlie Sheen, on the other hand, looked like a flamethrower.
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Sheen pitched for his high school team and you could tell he knew what he was doing.
 


Otis said:
I did like how all the hockey players in Miracle and Slap Shot appeared as though they could actually play hockey.
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The Hanson brothers from Slapshot all played professionally (Dave Hanson, Steve Carlson, and Jeff Carlson).

Hanson Brothers.jpg
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
We also never get the story of Buddy's return to the team.

I've mentioned this on this board already, Buddy was the real star of that team. Jimmy Chitwood is shooting long twos off of down screens, that offense is horribly inefficient. Buddy was the swiss army knife. He defended centers and brought the ball up.
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The story of Buddy’s return was part of an additional 2 hours of the movie cut in editing. A few interesting bits from the movie: The guy who welcomes the team to Hinkle Field House and then asks them to take the court was a member of the 1954 Milan basketball team. The PA Announcer in film was Tom Carnegie, I believe, and he called the 1954 Milan game. The barbershop quartet found out at the last minute they were to sing National Anthem and did it in one take.
 

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