Scoring at the Movies

It was 20 years ago that Disney tackled race relations with their ultra-successful Denzel Washington football movie: Remember the Titans.

This flick is stuffed with cliches, but we were easily won over by director Boaz Yakin's likeable cast (many of whom are big players in the biz now) and his pretty faithful adaptation of real-life happenings.

The movie does feel a bit rushed and some scenes should have been given a touch more time to breathe. This, however, is a perfect example of "their hearts are in the right place". Plus, the movie is very satisfying, just as Disney's similarly themed Glory Road was 6 years later.

So it's time to start burning through the 51st Scoring At The Movies episode because what's right is right. Wait, maybe that should be what's left is left. After all, LEFT SIDE! STRONG SIDE!

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This is our 50th episode of Scoring At The Movies and this time we're talking about a genius dog who seems to be able to read, pick locks and of course... play basketball!

This comedy for kids is jammed with dog-related hijinks (oh those jinks are so hi), but the flick would have been better if it had just stayed serious. It's not terrible, just not really a motion picture for 2 middle-aged dudes.

The real draw of this episode though is that at the 34-minute mark. We start talking about our Top 5 of the 50 episodes of the podcast to date. We also low light the worst movies we've covered, aka the "Toilet Bowl Awards". Get to it!

Pedantry Alert: Buddy the dog died before he could reprise his starring role in "Golden Receiver" the next year. Also, we reviewed Friday Night Lights in September, so it had been several months since the Toronto Raptors were in the midst of their successful playoff run last year.

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Meet the abusive, racist, sexist baseball great Ty Cobb in Ron Shelton’s disappointing road movie: Cobb.

Shelton is one of the greatest directors of sports films, but this time his work just doesn’t sing like his best stuff does. Case in point: Tommy Lee Jones gives one of his best performances (think Sam Peckinpah), but Robert Wuhl is either miscast or just not up to being a leading man. It also doesn’t help that this unbearable version of the Georgia Peach has been debunked in the 26 years since the flick was released.

We tried to figure out if we can even trust any of Ty Cobb’s stories, but we also dug pretty deep into the intricacies of the Baseball Hall Of Fame and we even got into the Cobb v Ruth debate. Many tangents!

So let us fill nearly an hour of your COVID-affected day as Scoring At The Movies #49 unravels what works and what doesn’t in Shelton’s take on one of the absolute best in the history of the game of base and ball.

Pedantry Alert: Cobb is actually 6th on the career WAR leaderboard (Barry Bonds is 4th). Also, the fastest player ever according to Willie was Cool Papa Bell. Also also, Roy Campanella had to retire just before the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. Also also also, the 1908 Cubs actually hit .249 as a team, not .230. And finally, before Mariano Rivera & Derek Jeter’s recent inductions, the highest percentage of votes went to Ken Griffey Jr., Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan and then Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball Reference links to: Cobb and Babe Ruth and Hall Of Fame induction years and WAR Leaders.

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Famous sports comedies like The Longest Yard & Slap Shot have often failed to make us SATM’ers spend much time laughing out loud and—spoiler alert—Caddyshack did indeed fail us too.

Comedy often does not age well, even when you’ve got funny dudes like Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield and Chevy Chase heading up the cast (and really stealing the focus away from the caddies). There are some high points in Harold Ramis' first flick as a big-screen director, but this one is just a double bogey for us.

Anyway, this year’s Masters has been postponed and you’re probably not going to be allowed to golf anywhere at all for a while, so escape into a fantasy world by listening to the 48th edition of Scoring At The Movies for a tidy little 37 minutes.

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Twenty years ago, Barry Blaustein took a break from writing hit movies for Eddie Murphy to dig very deep into the pain-filled lives of professional wrestlers. Mick Foley, Terry Funk and Jake Roberts are the 3 legends who got Blaustein’s focus in this ultra-dark film: Beyond the Mat.

We broke down that brutal “I Quit” match, wrestlers’ addiction to fame, Vince Mc-freakin-Mahon, the need for a wrestlers union (partly because of Vince Mc-freakin-Mahon), and Ryan’s Foley guilt. If you don’t mind taking a dozen chair shots to the head…well, don’t even think about doing that. Settle for five.

Anyway, you’ll have a fun time getting through the pandemic by firing up the 47th edition of Scoring At The Movies where the main theme is a bunch of tough SOBs taking ungodly punishment every night for our entertainment. What a weird business.

Pedantry Alert: ECW’s first PPV was actually in April 1997. Also, we didn’t mention Beyond The Mat’s Rotten Tomatoes numbers…which were 82% of critics with an average of 6.7/10 and 83% of audiences.

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We’re talking about the dirty business of a world-class athlete being recruited by colleges in the 46th edition of Scoring At The Movies. We also got into the hypocrisy this dirty game entails.

Mooches, vipers and practically everyone else can offer just about any kind of bribe, but the young superstars have to always do the right thing no matter what pressure is being put on them. Maddening! Oh, and let’s not forget it’s also a basketball movie. Spike Lee probably won’t be covered by SATM again (and he might not go to another Knicks game either), but the basketball nut’s only hoops joint is definitely a winner.

Denzel Washington is great as usual, but Ray Allen is also very fine considering he’s not even an actor. So get ready for our back-and-forthing about one of the sexiest sports movies we might ever cover on this channel: He Got Game!

Pedantry Alert: The filthy ball we mentioned is the one Jake has in prison, not the one that young Jesus throws over the playground fence. Twiddily twitter stuff: @moviefiend51 and @scoringatmovies

Our website: scoringatthemovies.podbean.com

Scoring At The Movies ep #45 gabs about a less-than-great movie, but at least we had a fun time picking it apart. The Fast and the Furious, or “Point Break In Flashy Cars”, is often obnoxious and it would be charitable to say it’s well-acted. The cars are cool, the actors are beautiful and it’s hard to deny how popular these never-ending F&F blockbusters are though.

We got into a lot of themes in this one: family (it’s always family with these guys), the unfinished love story between Vin Diesel & Paul Walker (which would intensify in the many, many sequels), Ryan’s ideal last meal (!) and Fred (!!) Toretto.

So work on your bad Vin Diesel impression, grab someone else’s Corona, fire up your NOS and enjoy the hell out of this podcast.

Pedantry Alert: Breaking Bad started its run in 2008, so it was 7 years after this movie, not 10. Also, Ted Levine only did the voiceover for the villain in Joy Ride, he didn’t actually play the dude in the flesh.

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Our website is scoringatthemovies.podbean.com

Bruh, it’s hard to find a more entertaining choice to be the 44th episode of Scoring At The Movies than Point Break!

We all know that Point Break is a remarkably silly “sports” flick, but do we all know that Johnny Utah can do ANYTHING? He’s conveniently brainy almost as much as he's conveniently dumb (and he has a knee that gets wonky at the worst times), but everything he tries, he aces. Law school, football, shooting guns, federal agenting, surfing (sort of), skydiving, putting handcuffs on a guy while being drowned. Keanu Reeves can do it all! He’s even good at falling in love with—Patrick Swayze and to a lesser extent—Lori Petty.

So put on your rubber mask and prepare to infiltrate the ranks of a bunch of hypocritically chill/thieving surfers and also…get me two.

Pedantry Alert: The drugs displayed in the Warchild house are actually 2 kilos of crystal meth, not heroin or cocaine.

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Whatever you’ve most wanted in your life can’t compare to how badly Daniel Ruettiger wanted to play football for the Fighting Irish. And he did. The end...

... Okay, it’s not, and you might get sick of hearing him talk about it ALL THE TIME.

Scoring At The Movies #43 delves into Rudy’s obsession and we certainly got on his case about all his whining. We debate whether this is a movie for dads or a movie for kids. There’s talk of the dreaded slow clap (good God) and the absurdity of the “Rudy, Rudy” chant (gooder God). So if you love this flick, you will not love us for the next 50 minutes, but listen anyway. After all, we’re entitled white men who tell people they want something they don’t even deserve. We ARE Rudy!

Pedantry Alert: Sean Astin WAS 21 during shooting, so he was indeed the right age to play this character. Also, Notre Dame was in a bowl game in 1975 and 1976...and they’ve won 11 (!) National Championships.

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The website is scoringatthemovies.podbean.com

Get nostalgic about a movie that’s all about nostalgia in the 42nd episode of Scoring At The Movies.

The Sandlot takes us back to our own baseballing youth, especially as we both can relate---in some ways, at least---to Scotty Smalls. Those aspects are what make us, and many other people, feel like this movie is better than it probably is. The creepy Squints/Wendy angle though? Yipes. Not so good. But this is a movie about tall tales, so maybe we can pretend what Squints does is just a big exaggeration? 

Well, our conversation about the “Endless Practice” movie is not a tall tale at all, so sit down and let James Earl Jones regale you with baseball stories as long as you love his dog. It’s a win win!

Pedantry Alert: This movie doesn’t actually seem to be based on a book, as Chris implies. Also, David Mickey Evans is working on a prequel to this movie, not another sequel. Also also, Stan Musial was actually still playing when this movie is set (1962) and Ted Williams had retired just a few years before.

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Our website: scoringatthemovies.podbean.com