Scoring at the Movies

For the first time on this channel, we talk about soccer with Bend it like Beckham!

Parminder Nagra and a pre-stardom Keira Knightley are best buddy soccer-lovers in director Gurinder Chadha's feminist flick. Clearly Bend It Like Beckham wasn't made for a couple of middle-aged Canadian men to discuss, but we were quite entertained all the same. We talked about male/female double standards (especially as it relates to scars), we talked about the strange "girl, you need a boyfriend ASAP" mandate from the parents and we talked about how a couple of those funny parents steal the whole movie.

Well, you have never heard us talk about the footie, so it's time to do that right now, innit?!

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In 14 days, we'll be kicking snow in a goalie's face as we prattle on about the Russell Crowe hockey flick called Mystery, Alaska

Bruce Willis & Damon Wayans crack a lot of wise and take a lot of beatings from some terrific villains in The Last Boy Scout.

This is a strange "sports" movie (hey, it has football in it!) because Shane Black's dialogue is incredibly quotable and the actors are pretty good, but Tony Scott sure could direct some slickly brutal violence and nihilism when he wanted to. In short, this movie is cool, but ridiculous.

We talked about Boy Scout's version of the NFL, Jimmy Dix's justification for taking drugs & gambling and we discussed who the real hero is. With any luck, she just might end up a sociopath when she grows up!

So don't scream in pain even when your life is in constant danger. Just dance a jig as you devour our 59th episode.

You can holler at us on Twitter: @moviefiend51 and @scoringatmovies

In 2 weeks, we'll header our first soccer movie, Bend It Like Beckham

Hang on, man, two consecutive boxing flicks? Yeah, why not. The Fighter is 10 years old and it was heaped with plenty of critical and financial kudos back then. Does it still deserve those raves? Well, one of us was a lot more enthusiastic about David O. Russell's Raging Bull-esque hit than the other.

Russell works with his frequent leading man Mark Wahlberg again as Marky Mark lives in the skin of real-life pugilist Micky Ward. Wahlberg, for good or bad, has to play second fiddle in his own movie because Christian Bale and Melissa Leo (oh, and those sisters!) take over completely. Scenery? Oh, it's chewed.

Bale certainly does a tremendous job of portraying a drug addict and former star boxer cum trainer. He, as always, is a remarkably committed actor and this is HIS film. And that's how Dicky Eklund would want it.

So if you're in the mood to hear about an authentic boxing picture (complete with a sexualized Amy Adams), the 58th episode of Scoring At The Movies is your welterweight champion of the world.

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In 2 weeks, we'll cover a "football" movie in preparation for the NFL season, The Last Boy Scout

What? Another podcast about Rocky on this channel? As the Stallion himself would say (and he would say it often), absolutely. This makes 3 out of 57 episodes of Scoring At The Movies (that's 5%, y'know) that have made the run across Philly to punch and/or pack some meat, to fly now and to improbably win boxing matches. Rocky II is a bit of a schizo movie. It's so grounded and real for an hour, then Mister Balboa turns into the Superman we would see for the next few sequels.

Ryan loves the first half (especially the hallway scene that's been discussed in other episodes), but Chris is an unabashed fan of the entire 2 hours of this boxing flick. We discuss another possible reason (besides absolute fantasy) that Rocky beats Apollo in Superfight 2 and we also devise a theory about Adrian's "win" blessing. So turn up the volume so you can hear stupid things better as we go back and forth about Sly Stallone's one that sequeled 'em all.

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It's an unexpected theme of Boxing Month here in August, so in 2 weeks, we'll be digging into the Irish guts of The Fighter.

Scoring At The Movies gets into some more American Dream type stuff in the fact-mixed-with-fiction Tonya Harding story "I, Tonya". Margot Robbie and her cast mates were worthy of several gold medals for their spot-on and often hilarious performances in Craig Gillespie's comedic biopic.

Great movie though this is, Chris struggled to get past an intense dislike for the real-life people and events in this conspiracy of dunces. We certainly agree that the (allegedly, but probably) abused Harding was in a constant battle with class snobbery in the world of figure skating and a brutally tough Whiplash-like mother. Steroids and politics even came up, but our thoughts about those topics aren't as inflammatory as you might expect.

So don't ask "why, why?" should you listen to the 56th SATM episode because, if you don't, threatening letters or a pipe to the back of the leg by some incompetent goon might be in your future! (note: we aren't going to hire a goon to hit you with a pipe).

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Rich-what? Richmond!

Two white Canadian adults tackle a movie about the real-life basketball adventures of black & Hispanic Californian teenagers in Coach Carter, the 55th edition of Scoring At The Movies. Samuel L. Jackson holds his R-rated tongue in this one, but still gives yet another dominant performance as Coach Ken Carter. The man who demanded his young players focus on their grades as much as their game also challenged his young sirs to stop belittling others…and themselves. What an excellent message we all need to hear right now! And always!

We didn’t entirely pick this more-than-adequate movie for the subtly-handled racial issues. That was just a timely bonus. So don’t be a Timo Cruz and quit (then come back, then quit…) on this podcast. Be a good sir and invest some time in hearing us jaw about an underrated b-ball flick. Otherwise, we might make you do a lot of push-ups...and we aren't going to volunteer to do some of them for you!

Pedantry Alert: Coach Carter is actually rated PG (as was Deep Blue Sea), not PG-13. Also, the season depicted was indeed 1999, although Ken Carter started coaching at Richmond a few years earlier. Also also, Lebron James was drafted in 2003 and was still too young in 1999 to be THAT well known, so being name-dropped in this movie is just an anachronism. Also also also, Richmond lost in the 2nd round of the district playoffs, not in the 1st round of the state tournament.

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Scoring At The Movies #54 gets deep into the weeds of the real-life story about the little franchise that could, the 2002 Oakland Athletics, in Moneyball. We also lay plenty of advance stats and insider terminology on you, so get ready numbers nerds, this is the episode for you!

The actors certainly help make this film as good as it is, particularly Chris Pratt, in one of his breakout roles as well as Brad Pitt as A's intense GM Billy Beane. This is a movie about tradition v adaptation, luck & chance v computer analysis. Also, does team chemistry mean anything? How about a baseball player's mental outlook? We discuss.

There's even a lot of comparisons between Michael Lewis' excellent book and Bennet Miller's movie. At the end, we also jaw about the real-life turmoil in the MLB/MLBPA money dispute. Ugly scene there. So get on base and sample our podcast about one of the best pictures of the past decade, Moneyball.

Pedantry Alert: "Moneyball 2" actually started in 2012 when the A's made it back to the Division Series. In fact, they've been in the playoffs 5 times in the past 8 seasons. Also, Johnny Damon is a respectable 224th on the career WAR list, which is higher than Hall Of Famers Kirby Puckett and Jim Rice. Also also, Barry Bonds had MORE than a .600 on-base percentage in 2004 and got close to .600 in 2002. 

Twitterpalooza: @moviefiend51 and @scoringatmovies

We sink our MMA-ignorant teeth into Warrior for the 53rd edition of Scoring At The Movies.

Even though we're out of our element talking about this sport, we found Gavin O'Connor's movie to be effective and even quite touching. It's also yet another Rocky story. Sly's brainchild comes up yet again on this channel. Anyway, Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy---not to mention papa Nick Nolte---are all terrific. Too bad their father/sons relationships were given short shrift to make room for Tommy's unnecessary military backstory.

Also, is there too much time spent on the sports in this sports movie? That'll come up. Regardless, this one impressed us a lot more than we expected. So have more courage than we ever could and get in the octagon. Wait! Stupid idea. Just listen to our podcast instead. Also, do what the brothers (eventually) do in this movie and take care of each other. It's a rough time right now and we can use all the bonding we can get.

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The 52nd issue of Scoring At The Movies takes us back into the boxing ring in this Rocky-as-a-teenaged-girl fight flick, Girlfight!

Just like Rocky, there's more romance and training than actual boxing. That isn't a criticism, mind you. Michelle Rodriguez and director Karyn Kusama each made their debuts with this gritty film and they didn't waste time establishing their trademarks. For M-Rod, it was the snarl & the glower. For Kusama, it was a recurring theme of female empowerment. Chris DID take issue with how the father/daughter relationship plays out and also with some elements of the final fight, but Ryan sees a little more upside in both of those angles. In any case, this low-budget sporty drama from 20 years ago is a keeper.

Pedantry Alert: We have indeed covered 1 other movie directed by a woman. It was Kathryn Bigelow, who helmed Point Break. Our Twitter handles are @moviefiend51 and @scoringatmovies