We've finally found our home on the putting green and covered Happy Gilmore, the seminal millennial sports comedy classic that largely inspired us to start this podcast.

If you love Happy, Chubbs, Shooter, Subway ad placements, hockey shenanigans, and the rest of the 90s Happy Madison crew as much as we do, then you've stopped by your happy place!

Grab a pitcher of beer and gallop that horse-y around your own personal heaven cause you've hit jackpot! And stay tuned, because Happy Gilmore is the first in a bracket of Sandler vs. Ferrell sports comedies coming your way this spring and summer!

Cheers!

On this bonus, quasi-sports themed, Oscars-affiliated episode (previously episode 27 - published April 9th of 2021 before Spotify demanded a revision and made me save it to drafts) of Cinematic Underdogs, I (Paul Keelan) join Laura and Justin Khoo of the always superb Cows in the Field podcast to discuss the philosophical leaps of faith and pratfalls in 2020's "Another Round." 

This is a hybrid release, and is also available on any platform streaming Cows in the Field. 

Now, for those familiar with "Another Round," I know what you are thinking: what on earth does self-experimenting with life by examining the effects of living under the influence of a steady buzz have to do with sports?

The answer: nothing, directly at least. 

However, "Another Round" definitely delves into many tropes of sports films. It is a tale of for men who find friendship, camaraderie, and reinvention by joining together on a unique adventure. It is a tale that taps into Norwegian drinking culture, which is apparently filled with competitive rituals like binge drinking during relay races. It is a tale that taps into jazz ballet dance. And it is also a tale in which one of our four main character's is the school's soccer coach, and whose arc largely revolves around the emergent confidence of a previously timorous boy named Specs (a subplot that might sound familiar for anyone who loves kids' based 90's sports classics like "Little Giants" and "The Big Green" as much as we do).

Most importantly, "Another Round" forces us to question how we relate to our lives and what risks we are willing to take to feel alive again. Questioning the thresholds and limitations of our physical endurance, and the sacrifices we make in terms of sabotaging our bodily health for psychological / hormonal benefits, it is neatly aligned to many sports themes that we've become acquainted with already.

Anyways, all of these arguments, while fun to conjure up, are nevertheless kind of a stretch. The real reason why "Another Round" is on here is it is an awesome conversation that deserves as many listeners as it can hypothetically reach. So, if you've stumbled upon it, put your preconceptions of Cinematic Underdogs aside for an episode and enjoy!

We’ve officially been Bingo-pilled and there’s no going back. Seriously ya’ll, this episode with Bingo-superfan Jed Bookout is bonkers. Completely unhinged. We talk Bingo playing cards, Bingo revolutions, Bingo’s wine drunk slutty dog shenanigans, potential Bingo sequels, Bingo sex-capades, Bingo legacy media, Bingo’s Schrödinger's box theory, Bingo merchandise, and so much more Bingo! 

Enjoy! 

Jed Bookout joins the pod to discuss A24’s early breakout hit of 2024, Love Lies Bleeding: a sapphic, bodybuilding, ultra-violent fever dream of a movie. Set in a scuzzy and sordid 1989 New Mexico setting, and tracking a pair of lesbians turned serial killers by necessity, Love Lies Bleeding is a tonal tour de force evoking the likes of Paul Schrader, Lynne Ramsey, & David Cronenberg. Perhaps the best synopsis of her sophomore entry: Imagine Nicolas WInding Refn directing a Coen Bros script. 

Over the course of the episode, we also discuss Rose Glass’ promising future, Kristen Stewart’s best career performances, the film’s moral neutrality toward ‘roid rage and its juxtapositions between the seedy and the sultry, the unorthodox structural brilliance of Vox Lox, the underrated sub-genre of vagabonds going on vacations in hell (namely, Spring), and the many influences of Love Lies Bleeding’s neo-noirish, black comedy beats.

And yes, we make sure the conversation veers podcast relevant by intermittently debating whether it could be considered a quasi-sports movie, likening it to everything from Black Swan to The Wrestler (although, upon further reflection, Stallone’s arm-wrestling masterpiece Over the Top or the Farrelly Brothers’ bowling romp Kingpin may serve as better reference points).

Enjoy!

It's Oscars season and so we're back with Matt Belenky to spar with a Best Picture winner: Million Dollar Baby. Starring and directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Paul Haggis a year before he penned yet another Best Picture Winner in Crash, this pugilistic take on euthanasia is a classic tearjerker.

We're back to the basics this week, covering Charles Stone III's "The Underdoggs," starring Snoop Dog, Mike Epps, and George Lopez. This is a film we've been barking for: a kids' centered sports movie in the vein of The Might Ducks, Little Giants, or The Big Green, only raunchier. Filled with direct callbacks to each of movies (including a scene where a Hummer arrives on the football field just as Emilio Estevez infamously had his limo driver park on the ice, an Annexation of Puerto Rico-inspired trick play, and an asthmatic kid with an overbearing, neurotic mom a la the nose-bubble dweeb in Little Giants), The Underdoggs fills like a giant homage to his 90s predecessors.

For what this 90-minute comedy offers, we found it a success. As most know, boys are a puerile bunch. They curse, they say dirty jokes, they're rowdy. The Underdoggs leans into this reality, and it does so with winks that let us know that the kids sports movies we grew up loving still have a niche place in the culture today. Sure, the dramatic beats and attempts at poignancy feel rushed and hasty (lost in the glib pastiche of surface sentiment and elision by way of meta winks), but The Underdoggs' rehashes the tropes and archetypes we know so well at the same time, reviving this little subgenre with blunts, runts, and unfiltered glee.

Enjoy!

On this episode, Chad Lott of Scary Thoughts Podcast joins us to talk about the Netflix documentary Beckham. We chat about Brit fashion, culture's uncouth obsession with exhuming salacious details on celebrity affairs, and the remarkable resilience of Posh and Becks, both on and off the pitch.

Enjoy!

Gene Lyons of Shat the Movies joins the pod to talk about Apple TV's bingeable MLS puff-piece Messi Meets America! We also chat about the differences between the USL and MLS, the amazing championship run of the Phoenix Rising, the origins of Shat the Movies, Messi's GOAT-qualities, Gene's Top 5 Sports Movies, and much, much more!

Enjoy!

On the latest episode of Cinematic Underdogs, we chat about Gran Turismo, Neill Blomkamp's rousing, kinetic, feel-good hit racing flick released at the tail end of the summer box office rush in 2023. Much more than a video game IP-grab, Gran Turismo is an unbelievable true story about a young SIM-racer, Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), who is chosen to compete at an academy and become a real-life racer.

Much like Yann's transition from simulation gaming to actual racing, Blomkamp showcases his versatility, adapting a screenplay that is packed with heartwarming albeit cliche sports tropes and mainstream beats. Glossy and tidily packaged, the film uses platitudes to achieve an high-octane pacing that hits a lot of beloved sports movie beats.

All the actors are on their A-game. David Harbour plays a has-been racer turned mechanic who begrudgingly plays a mentor with a tough outer shell that slowly melts away. Orlando Bloom plays Danny Moore, an entrepreneurial maverick who concepts a madcap marketing ploy to turn SIM-racing GT gamers into professional racers. Geri Halliwell (yes, of the Spice Girls) plays a supportive mother who cooks lentils. Djimon Hounsou plays a blue-collar ex-soccer playing father who worries about Jann's future and chides his son for excessively gaming.

Mixing tragedy with inspirational zeal, and commenting on the symbiotic nature of digital/virtual SIM-racing and physical/analog race car driving, Gran Turismo has enough heart and subtext to satisfy one's emotional and intellectual needs. It's narrative is filled with spoon-fed exposition to maximize mass-appeal and some of the story beats are predictable and manipulatively rearranged, but overall it does the trick, creating a film that entertains and motivates in equal measure.

Enjoy our episode as Mikey from Screen Nerds Pod joins us to celebrate and champion this underdog of a movie (which is now streaming on Netflix!).