Five Must See Sports Movies

An underdog faces insurmountable odds. Said underdog works very hard to overcome obstacles, even though no one believes he or she has any chance to win. Underdog gives valiant effort but seems about to come up short anyway. Suddenly, underdog's hard work pays off and victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat.

That is the typical formula of just about every successful sports movie. Despite knowing nearly exactly what is going to happen, even many non-sports fans love a sports movie. Maybe it's because we know the formula. At any rate, sports movies are among the most beloved of the genres. They make us laugh, cry and feel good about ourselves.

Here, then, are five sports movies that give us all those feelings. I know, there are some classics not on this list (such as "Brian's Song," "Field of Dreams," "The Natural" and "Hoosiers,") but you can find them on other lists. Give these a try, too.

5. Ice Castles - Alexis Winston (Lynn-Holly Johnson) wants to be an Olympic champion figure skater. Things are going pretty well until a horrible accident blinds her. She retreats from everything she ever loved, especially skating, but eventually emerges to partner with Nick Petersen (Robbie Benson). It sounds like a sports chick flick, and it is. In fact, it's here due to my wife's influence - sometimes you got to take one for the team. It was nominated for an Oscar (musical score) and its soundtrack was up for a Grammy. A remake was filmed by the same director and a release to coincide with the 2010 Olympics is expected.

4. Major League - Follows a season with the hapless Cleveland Indians (which was kind of true at the time) after a money-grubbing widow inherits the team and wants to move them to a state with a warmer climate. To do this, an incredibly low-attendance mark has to be met, so she fills the team roster with rookies who never played pro ball (played by Charlie Sheen and Wesley Snipes) and some has-beens (Tom Berenger and Corbin Bernsen). The team stinks at the beginning, so much so that color commentator for the team, Bob Uecker, uses profanity on air and excuses it by saying no one's listening anyway. The team eventually learns what the owner is up to, stops its infighting and comes together to have a shot at the pennant. All they have to do is beat the powerhouse New York Yankees. While it was a tough call as to whether put this on the list or "Bull Durham," Kevin Costner's film about minor league baseball, I had to go with "Major League" because when Sheen's Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn gets called out of the bullpen in the final game while X's "Wild Thing" is being blared and the home crowd Wahoo Warriors (Indians fans) are singing it, I still get goose bumps, just like when I first saw it in the theater. I even wanted to be a relief pitcher, though I was about 50 miles an hour short on my fastball. Other cast members also included Rene Russo as Berenger's love interest and Dennis Haysbert, now on TV's "The Unit" and formerly on "24."

3. Friday Night Lights - Based on H.G. Bissinger's book of the same name, the film depicts just how serious football is taken in the state of Texas. This isn't a movie on pro football athletes or even college-level ones, but high school gridders. In Odessa, Texas, they don't teach their student athletes the golden rule about how you play the game, the only thing that counts is if you win a state title. That's no easy task since there aren't any divisions like some state use. The fathers of all the current players walk around with their state championship rings on display like Paula Abdul showing off her latest Home Shopping Network collection. The kids try their best to make their fathers and the town proud of them, but nothing short of a championship will work. Billy Bob Thornton plays the coach who is torn between really trying to do what's right, especially once his star running back suffers a knee injury but still wants to play, and keeping his job. The team makes it to the championship game, where it has to play against a powerhouse from Dallas. The film won the best movie of the year award from the American Film Institute in 2005 and later spawned a critically-acclaimed TV series.

2. The Replacements - Kind of like "Major League," except in professional football. This time, however, the team is made up of malcontents because of a strike by the regular players. Scabs are recruited to finish the season, including former Ohio State quarterback star Shane Coleman (Keanu Reeves), who now cleans boats for a living; speedy wide receiver with hands of stone, Clifford Franklin (Orlando Jones); Daniel Bateman (Jon Favreau), a cop turned maniac linebacker; and European soccer player Nigel "The Leg" Gruf (Rys Ilfans), who smokes during practice. The team is coached by Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman). The team is terrible, even by scab standards, until they ... that's right, begin to pull together and play like a team, all the while fending off efforts by the original players to end their season. Well acted and extremely funny, I once watched it several times off and on during a cable marathon. The scene of the team, in jail after a bar fight, line dancing to "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, is priceless.

1. Miracle - In 1980, I was 9-years old, sitting on the floor of my living room watching the seconds tick away as the U.S. hockey team hung on to a slim lead against the Soviet powerhouse team. Then came the immortal, "Do you believe in miracles?" from broadcaster Al Michaels, and the team had done it - beaten the supposedly unbeatable Soviets. "Miracle" is the 2004 movie that depicts the training the team went through, how it was selected, the battles coach Herb Brooks went through to do it his way and the unbelievable gold medal win. That victory is the single biggest sporting moment of my lifetime, and the movie sure didn't ruin it. For that reason alone, it belongs in the top spot. The victory wasn't just a sporting moment, it was a turning point for our country, which was in the midst of a declining economy, gas shortage and losing stature in the Cold War. This is back in the time when we sent amateur athletes to the Olympics, though everyone knew the Soviet athletes were professionals masquerading as part-timers. Just a couple of weeks before the Olympics, the Soviets had manhandled the U.S. team. The win over the Russians in the Olympics was so big it overshadowed the gold-medal game. Coach Brooks didn't take the best hockey players, he took the best team players and melded them into a unit. The only shame of this movie is he died before it was finished.

Some of these are guilty-pleasure type sports movies that you'll want to check out whenever they're on cable, but they should all be seen.

Source:
www.imdb.com