I totally agree about Gump. It was just a sappy 2+ hour love letter to the Baby Boomer generation. Music was good, though.
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I think you're right about the timing of the movie -- 1986 -- making a difference in everybody's perspective. I don't think there's much wrong with your list of better movies -- you forgot Field Of Dreams (if you call it a baseball movie).
I did want to point out that your suspension of your willing suspension of disbelief wasn't just because it was "a bad movie." (See "Dreams, Field of" above).
Even looking at your movies, off the top of my head, I can come up with problems, too. For example, in the Bad News Bears, Buttermaker clears his bench in the top of the 6th -- only to then bat one of the just benched players in the bottom of the 6th. Not only is the move to play your players in the 6th inning not legally playing them in little league (the rule is 2 innings in the field or an At-Bat), but you REALLY can't put someone up to hit that isn't playing in the game.
I'm curious where Rudy falls in your list -- does it just not make it, or do you hate it, too?
Oh, and should we have a special category for The Replacements which is a simply terrible movie that you can't NOT watch when it's on -- and SO MANY QUOTES you can take from it.
There are some interesting trends in the categories of sports movies -- that each one of these is heading down
First, our beloved basketball. I think one reason people love Hoosiers so much is that there just aren't any good basketball movies. When Eddie and White men can't jump" are the two best you can offer up in comedies, things are bad.
Glory Road was okay if you could get past the sanctimony -- and Coach Carter was interesting, if only for how we all know things can get out of hand.
Actually, the best basketball movie I've seen is an HBO documentary on girls high school basketball in Washington state -- The Heart of the Game. Watch it.
Compare that with the number of high quality baseball movies over time:
61*
The Natural
Bad News Bears
Bull Durham
Eight Men Out
Field of Dreams
League of their Own
Pride of the Yankees
The Sandlot
The list of tier 2 movies that are kind of cheesy but still decent blows away great basketball films
Football continues to have the best and worst of everything, giving us awful films like Gridiron Gang, Leatherheads, Game Plan, Two for the Money, Longest Yard (remake), and The Comebacks
while inspiring us with heartfelt bio-pics:
We Are Marshall
Remember the Titans
Friday Night Lights
Rudy
and peppering in some fun along the way
Waterboy
Little Giants
Varsity Blues (I just got hungry)
all while giving us the classics:
Brian's Song
Longest Yard
All the Right Moves
In hockey, I'm torn between Slapshot and Mystery, Alaska. I think Mystery is better, but it's a different era in film-making, too.
Miracle is great -- but the HBO documentaries are almost as good without the dramatic license.
While Mighty Ducks isn't necessarily a classic film, you can't argue with a movie that spawned a franchise.
Golf doesn't have much, but it has Caddyshack, probably the most quoted sports movie ever: (or is that The Replacements?)
It's in the hole
Looks good on you though
so I got that going for me
Rat farts
Doodie
Noonan
Right in the lumber yard
na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na
You'll get nothing and like it
Did I miss any?
I by no means meant that list was my Top 10 sports movies, just 10 I could think of that were, to me, better than Hoosiers. Rudy and Field of Dreams go on that list too. Murderball, that's the name of that wheelchair rugby movie! Oh great, now I don't have to go look it up. :)
In The Bad News Bears, I would never notice a rule violation because, well, it's Little League, I don't know the rules in minute detail. I think, but I'm not sure, they bat around regardless of who is playing in the field, or that could just be Farm League. Two of mine are Little League age but I spend the games chasing my three year old around the playground.
I had to come back to my favorite neighborhood pub for a beer. Ahh, thanks. And I don't as a rule drink beer. (Hence my absence from the Ymmm, Beer thread.)
I've been home alone with the three year old this week. It's been tiring and I'm beyond exhausted but that's not why I'm here at 9:30pm on a Saturday night (Loser!). No, I'm here because I was just reading the latest round of complaints from my fellow playwrights on this email list I belong to. Playwrights, in general, are a bunch of arrogant pricks who think they are a lot more talented than most of them actually are. I wrote out an opposing view to post but then resisted. I hope the mere writing of it will be enough to get it out of my system. I need to just not read the emails for awhile, I think. For the record, in my experience, I am not like most playwrights. Will the moderators let me say arrogant prick?
I'm on an Amtrak train 10 minutes away from Penn Station right now. The view of Manhattan at night before the train heads underground is spectacular. I love this trip.
I prefer the view of flying into Vegas at night...but have seen a similar view to what you were seeing and agree it is a pretty good one.
I don't know if I think it's all that pretty but the regular rectangles of light you see flying into Chicago at night are fascinating.
Well, you left off the "Bull Durham" of golf, aka "Tin Cup," which has a few quotes of its own.
Sounded better than 'clank'
everyone knows he hates old people and kids... and dogs
But for Caddyshack, how could you forget:
You don't keep score? Then how do you compare yourself to other golfers?
By height.
Cinderella story
How 'bout a Fresca, hmmm? Hmmm?
Freeze, gopher!
creeping toward #3000-who will it be-BB or BD?
IIRC, from Caddyshack-"what is this, dance of the dead?"-describing the scene from the dance at the country club. I actually like "nice hat (?)-looks good on you though" and have used that phrase MANY times over the years about various less than fashionable articles of clothing.
Didn't you miss one emoticon? You don't want to drop that average.
Ok folks, here's the deal.
I have decided.
It's going to be me and what a better way to make post Y3K than with statistics.
We've been at this for 227 days. There are 82 different posters represented in this thread, 27 of them only once. We have discussed 1078 topics. I have the dubious record of posting here way more than anywhere else. And I started knitting the first scarf today. When I finish the first three, I'll come up with a new contest for another. Don't hold your breath though.
Congrats and here's to the next 3000!