[Jon Sweet]

Greatest sports movie ever: HOOSIERS.
From start to finish. They hired kids who played basketball and turned them into actors. Actor who played Jimmy became a club pro in real life.
Same guys made RUDY, the second best sports movie if all time.

First time for everything. I actually agree with you about Hoosiers.


Kalen, come on, what’s not to like about Rene Russo?

Rene Russo in that flick w Pierce Brosnan the art thief. Best she’s ever looked.

[V. Kmetz]

Peter,

Although I have seen almost all sports movies, I have not seen Bang the Drum Slowly. But your description of a great movie resonates. I would add Pat and Mike to the list of great sports movies.

A good update on both of those - especially the latter for fans from this site, as there may be more honest golf in that movie than any other. You get extended looks at Riviera, plus Didrickson, and on the tennis side, Don Budge.


Here's a few worthy omissions from your original list, all fit your criteria of cups runnething over:


Football:
The Longest Yard, Semi-Tough, Knute Rockne- All American, Friday Night Lights, Heaven Can Wait,  Paper Lion, Everybody's All American
Baseball:
Fear Strikes Out, Eight Men Out, 61, Moneyball, A League of Their Own, Angels in the Outfield (1951 v.)
Basketball
White Men Can't Jump, Inside Moves, One on One, The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (for the Dr. J playground montage alone), Celtic Pride (nutty)
Hockey
SLAPSHOT

[V. Kmetz]

Can we all agree that


Bagger Vance is the fetid toilet of golf movies? Bruce McGill (D-Day from Animal House) is ok as Hagen, but the rest is shite, and Matt Damon's swing is like the tin man shooing a horsefly


and the unheralded golf gem is


Dead Solid Perfect, which I haven't seen in more than 25-30 years.

[Tom Bacsanyi]

Rene Russo in her prime was an eleven. As in 11/10. I thought that was fairly consensus.


Rudy sucks, and furthermore the real Rudy was offsides.

[Terry Lavin]

VK:


Great call on Slapshot. Great, authentic take on the hockey scene and you’ve got Paul Newman.


But no Rene Russo.

[Scott Warren]

Let’s keep a link to this thread handy for the next time someone asks “why aren’t there more women posting on GCA?”.


Honestly fellas, no one gives a fuck whether you’d rather have sex with one actor or another or how you might rank or rate their appearance. In any case, you’re likely to get a cease-and-desist from Tommy Nac. That’s Max’s Lounge’s territory.

[Mark Mammel]

Can we all agree that


Bagger Vance is the fetid toilet of golf movies? Bruce McGill (D-Day from Animal House) is ok as Hagen, but the rest is shite, and Matt Damon's swing is like the tin man shooing a horsefly


and the unheralded golf gem is


Dead Solid Perfect, which I haven't seen in more than 25-30 years.

Totally agree- Bagger Vance is crap, with fake mystery, bag acting, stupid golf displays, and boring to boot.
Caddy Shack still reigns supreme. I'm sad for those that can't see the hilarity and how on the button  it is even today. "..That's a peach, hon!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhknFgI8tJY

[V. Kmetz]

Rene Russo in that flick w Pierce Brosnan the art thief. Best she’s ever looked.

That remake (of The Thomas Crown Affair) is one of the best in redux category and features (like the original) a fun golf sequence shot at St Andrews (Yonkers). The original had its polo sequence shot at Myopia ...and its golf at Belmont.

[Kyle Henderson]

Greatest sports movie ever: HOOSIERS.
From start to finish. They hired kids who played basketball and turned them into actors. Actor who played Jimmy became a club pro in real life.
Same guys made RUDY, the second best sports movie if all time.

First time for everything. I actually agree with you about Hoosiers.


Kalen, come on, what’s not to like about Rene Russo?

Rene Russo in that flick w Pierce Brosnan the art thief. Best she’s ever looked.

Agreed. That was a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.

[Jeff Evagues]

Peter,


Although I have seen almost all sports movies, I have not seen Bang the Drum Slowly. But your description of a great movie resonates. I would add Pat and Mike to the list of great sports movies.
Bang the Drum Slowly was very good but the only thing Robert Deniro could not do is look like a major league baseball player.

Ira

[Phil Burr]

Don’t take this as a knock on Hoosiers, which I think is terrific, but it’s not even the best sports movie set in Indiana.  For that, you have to see Breaking Away, a cycling movie starring Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and the incomparable Paul Dooley.  In an ironic nod to another great sports movie, Jackie Earle Haley goes from playing the biggest baddest dude in Little League (in Bears) to an undersized pipsqueak of a young man barely able to reach the pedals of an adult bicycle.

[Matthew Rose]

All I could ever think of the first time I saw Tin Cup was..... "they'd never play the US Open on a course like that."

[Tim Leahy]

Don’t take this as a knock on Hoosiers, which I think is terrific, but it’s not even the best sports movie set in Indiana.  For that, you have to see Breaking Away, a cycling movie starring Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern and the incomparable Paul Dooley.  In an ironic nod to another great sports movie, Jackie Earle Haley goes from playing the biggest baddest dude in Little League (in Bears) to an undersized pipsqueak of a young man barely able to reach the pedals of an adult bicycle.

Great movie BA, but not better than Hoosiers or Rudy. Some great lines from BA: after getting beat up by a bunch of frat guys, his buddies ask DS did he recognize his attackers and he says " No, but they smelled of Brut and Lavoris." I still can't say "Refund" without thinking of Dooley and Jackie knew how to "punch out" from work.

[Phil Burr]

Other great BA lines:


   Quaid to Stern: “How come you’re so stupid Cyril?”
   Stern response: “I don’t know.  I guess I got a dumb heredity.  What’s your excuse Michael?”


   Dooley, following a rant about his displeasure with Italian foods ending in “-ini” (zucchini, linguine, fettuccine,
   etc.): “I want some American food goddamn it.  Give me some French fries”.


   Dennis Christoper asking his dad for the day off so he can race with his idols: “But papa, the Italians are
   coming.”
   Dooley: “I don’t care if the second coming’s coming.”


What sets BA apart for me, and what perhaps is important to this thread, is that it is an original story rather than a docu-pic portraying actual events.  It won a much-deserved Oscar for best original screenplay.  The only other sports movie to win this award is Chariots of Fire.  BA deserves a spot on any short list of best coming-of-age films.

[Jeff Schley]

Greatest sports movie ever: HOOSIERS.
From start to finish. They hired kids who played basketball and turned them into actors. Actor who played Jimmy became a club pro in real life.
Same guys made RUDY, the second best sports movie of all time.

Tim I love Hoosiers and Rudy so we'd get along. If we are NOT counting Rocky, then  I'd go:1. Hoosiers - Chills everytime at the end, chills
2. Field of Dreams - Spirtual and ties in the Chicago Black Sox scandal with nostalgia and a father/son connection, for all
3. Miracle - Just as many chills and feel good as Hoosiers
4. Hoop Dreams - Chicago based and shot over 4 years or more. Great story. Love to have this be done again today.
5. Rudy - Joliet native and true story, we all have some Rudy in us.

[Mike Hendren]

Love the Cutters in Breaking Away.


Dead Solid Perfect does not hold a candle to Jenkins' book.  Notably, there is no mention of Rickie Ron and Dickie Don Tooler, the twin halfbacks for the Corbett Comets.  Jenkins "borrowed" them from the mythical 1961 legends of Rickie Ron and Dickie Don Yewbet who took the Comets to the state championship. 


Dead Solid Perfect and C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity are the only books I've ever read twice.  If you haven't read the former, you owe it to yourself to do so. 


Bogey

[Kalen Braley]

Greatest sports movie ever: HOOSIERS.
From start to finish. They hired kids who played basketball and turned them into actors. Actor who played Jimmy became a club pro in real life.
Same guys made RUDY, the second best sports movie if all time.

First time for everything. I actually agree with you about Hoosiers.

Kalen, come on, what’s not to like about Rene Russo?

Yea its all personal preferences, I get it.

As for her acting chops, she was nominated for a Razzie and won an award from the AARP for Best Supporting Actress, so I guess there's that. 

[Bill Seitz]

Breaking Away made me want to go to school at IU just to participate in the Little 500.  I actually finally visited in 1997 on a road trip from LA with my college roommate, and loved the campus.  And it inspired me to go back to school (law school this time), where I thisclose to ending up at IU, before deciding to go to Illinois at the last minute.  So Breaking Away may be to blame for why I'm currently living in the Chicago suburbs instead of Southern California.

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()