Sports Movies

[DollEyes]

This is the place to talk about Sports films of all kinds, good and bad. One of the best recent sports films is 42, which featured Chadwick Boseman in a star-making performance as Jackie Robinson, the first major-league Black baseball player and Harrison Ford in one of his best performances in years as Branch Rickey, the guy who hired him.

 

Another great sports film in Rush, about 70's-era Formula One racing and the rivalry between British racer James Hunt and Austrian Niki Lauda, played by Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl, respectively and directed by Ron Howard. Hemsworth showed that he can act as great as he looks and the racing scenes were great, but IMO Bruhl's Lauda  not only stole the show, he deserved a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, like Ford did for 42.

 

Then there's Martin Scorcese's classic Raging Bull, which not only featured Robert DeNiro in an Oscar-winning performance as boxer Jake La Motta, it was beautifully shot and scored and has one of the best opening title sequences ever.

 

Talk about Sports flicks here, if you can go the distance, that is.

Edited August 10, 2014 by DollEyes

[AimingforYoko]

Two 'B' sports, Boxing and Baseball dominate this category. Besides Raging Bull, you have the Rocky saga, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Requiem For A Heavyweight, On the Waterfront, The Champ, Fat City, Ali, Cinderella Man, The Hurricane and Million Dollar Baby. And those were just the Oscar-nominated ones.

On the baseball side, you have Pride of the Yankees, Bang the Drum Slowly, Fear Strikes Out, Bull Durham, Bad News Bears, Field of Dreams, Major League, The Natural, Eight Men Out, and A League of Their Own in addition to 42. No other sport touches these two in cinematic history. 

[Rick Kitchen]

Field of Dreams is my absolutely favorite movie of all time.

[Danny Franks]

I guess Draft Day counts as a sports movie. 

 

I'm a sucker for Kevin Costner's sports movies, and I love the drama of the NFL draft, but this one was just a bit... meh. Not a huge amount of drama, and the trade details were just wacky. I guess it helps not to know too much, but Costner's initial trade was terrible, and no GM would ever make it. Then the second trade he made, with Jacksonville, was one no GM would agree to. And then the third trade made even less sense. But more than that... dude's getting fired for trading up that far to take a MLB that apparently no one else in the top 15 was interested in. So all that destroyed my sense of disbelief.

 

Anyway, not a great movie, but it the acting was alright, the cast was good (and I liked seeing John Diggle and Jonah Ryan teaming up), and the NFL cooperation they got, with Goodell, Rich Eisen, Deion Sanders etc was pretty cool.

 

AimingforYoko is right, now that I think about it. Boxing and Baseball really do seem to dominate the genre. I guess they're both ideal for the medium, in different ways. Baseball is a sedate game, with clear, easy to replicate moments of action, and boxing is just pure human drama. Anyway, I do love a good baseball movie, even though the sport itself is one I'm indifferent to.

 

I actually really like For Love of the Game, due to the way the on-the-field story plays out. There's something powerful about the idea of a tired, worn down old veteran having one last, great day before he hangs up his glove. Kevin Costner (again) sells the inherent decency and strength of the character, and the whole thing is schmaltzy as hell. but stirring. The love story side of the movie, with Kelly Preston, is just too much melodrama, and I would much rather the entire movie was just about him playing this game, and deciding if it was to be his final one.

[Rick Kitchen]

The Legend of Bagger Vance is about the closest American movies come to magic realism, although it does have to deal with the "magic Negro" trope.

[BizBuzz]

I love Sports Movies!  Which is kinda crazy cause I don't like much sports (just NASCAR).

 

There are TONS of football movies (they are my fave), just off the top of my head I can think of (and these are just the ones I have seen):

 

Remember the Titans

The Longest Yard (old and not so old)

Jerry Maguire

All the Right Moves

The Replacements

Necessary Roughness

The Blind Side

The Best of Times

Brian's Song

We Are Marshall

Rudy

Heaven Can Wait

Varsity Blues

Everybody's All American

The Waterboy (does this count?)

 

I know there are more.

[Shannon L.]

I'm not a big sports fan, but I tend to love sports movies.  Bull Durham, Major League, A League of Their Own, 42, The Blind Side, Jerry McGuire, Rocky I-III, Rush....all sports movies that I've really enjoyed.  I also love Miracle about the 1980 Olympic Hockey team.  I have a story that goes along with the real event, too:  The Olympics were in Lake Placid--about a 3 hour drive from where we lived.  We couldn't go to any of the events because it was too expensive, but we could afford a general ticket to go and watch everyone practice (the outside events only--the ice-rink events were extra). While we were there we noticed that the village was set up in such a way that traffic during them games was going to be a nightmare.  My parents were offered free tickets to see the USA vs Russians hockey game and turned them down because of the travel time, obvious traffic nightmare and the fact that the odds of them winning weren't good.  You should have heard them both on game night. "I can't believe this....we turned down tickets to this game....I don't believe it...."  lol!  I was only 11, but I remember the event, the media frenzy after and what turned into my parents life long regret of turning down those tickets. 

[Rick Kitchen]

When the Game Stands Tall is coming out later this summer.  It's about the De La Salle high school football team from Concord, California, which still holds the record for the longest winning streak in any sport.  The movie is about how they dealt after their first loss.  I'm definitely going to go see it, it looks pretty good.

 

It stars Jim Cavaziel, Laura Dern, Clancy Brown, Michael Chiklis, and Alexander Ludwig.

[harrie]

Continuing the hockey theme, Slap Shot, Mystery, Alaska and The Cutting Edge.  Slap Shot is by far the better movie in so many ways, but The Cutting Edge (hockey and figure skating!) has a spot in my heart for some strange, tasteless reason. 

 

And I'm not a fan of football, but I am a fan of Semi-Tough.  Love Dan Jenkins, love the est sendup scene, love Reynolds-Kristofferson-Clayburgh..

Edited August 10, 2014 by harrie

[tinaw]

Major League is one of my favorite movies. Charlie Sheen was good as was Tom Berenger.

Bull Durham is also a favorite of mine.

[DrSpaceman]

Hoosiers and North Dallas Forty are two of the best basketball and football films.

[Sharpie66]

No mention of Moneyball yet? I love that movie, even though I am also indifferent to the sport as a whole. But, I love a movie where someone is truly passionate about a subject, and both the Pitt and Hill characters are.

[Rick Kitchen]

Hoosiers.  I just ... I love that movie.

[DXD526]

Though I like pretty much all the baseball movies that have been mentioned, I have an inexplicable fondness for kids movies like "Rookie of the Year" and "Little Big League". They're both, at times, impossibly hokey and silly, but every time I come across one of them, I always stop flipping and watch. And any baseball fan who hasn't seen the original "Angels In the Outfield" should do so. It's great, with nuns and orphans and the crusty, foul-mouthed manager with a heart of gold. At the same time, avoid the '94 remake, which is possibly the worst sports movie ever. 

[Dandesun]

Victory! It's got everything! Michael Caine! Sylvester Stallone! Pele! Max von Sydow! It's World War II! And a prison camp! And the idea of POWs playing against a German team so Hitler can prove that the Germans are superior. Because of course! Prison breaks! French resistance! Romance! Michael Caine says 'bloody' a lot! The game is totes rigged! Oh noes! Pele plays with broken ribs! They're meant to escape during the half but the rest of the players want to beat the Germans. Because of course! Oh, Sylvester Stallone is the one American and, of course, becomes goalkeeper because Americans have no idea how to play without using their hands. Slow motion montage of soccer skillz!

 

Max von Sydow is the decent Nazi that is totally impressed with Pele's bicycle kick and gives him a standing ovation. Because of course! And then everyone sings La Marseillaise!

 

And then on the other spectrum from that... Guys and Balls: a German gay football comedy. Need I say more? (It's on Netflix.)

Edited August 15, 2014 by Dandesun

[againstthewind]

I love love love love sports movies! My favorites:

Bull Durham - Kevin Costner at his peak in the quintessential baseball movie. Probably my favorite "sports" movie.

Miracle - I cry every time at the end when they play Dream On. Then I want to run through a brick wall.

Major League - laugh every. single. time.

Jerry Maguire - one of my all time favorites, sports movie or not.

A League Of Their Own

Slap Shot

The Cutting Edge - cheesy goodness

Field of Dreams

Youngblood

Brian's Song

Varsity Blues

[GreekGeek]

Another great sports film in Rush, about 70's-era Formula One racing and the rivalry between British racer James Hunt and Austrian Niki Lauda, played by Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl, respectively and directed by Ron Howard. Hemsworth showed that he can act as great as he looks and the racing scenes were great, but IMO Bruhl's Lauda  not only stole the show, he deserved a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, like Ford did for 42.

 

I caught this on Netflix earlier this week and loved it. I wonder why it didn't make a bigger impact in theaters. Maybe it was because the title was awful. It could just as easily have belonged to a film about drug addicts. Had it been called "Formula One" or something like that, it might have done better. Anyhow, since I don't follow racing, I didn't know what had happened and was on the edge of my seat. It's a tribute to Bruhl's acting that I saw him in a different film the same day (A Most Wanted Man) and didn't realize it was the same guy.

 

Films based on true events are tricky, since people who follow the sport already know what happened and the rest may not care. One exception, apart from Rush, was Fear Strikes Out, since it was set in the distant past and concerned a relatively obscure player. And it had Anthony Perkins in his top "troubled youth" form, with Karl Malden as his pressuring dad.

 

 I tend to like the fictitious and character study sports films better than the ones that focus on Winning the Big Game. Bull Durham had some of the best dialogue; I still remember Kevin Costner's speech on what he believed in, which covered everything from kissing to Susan Sontag novels. And I loved Mac Davis's "Wait'll you hear the weird part" speech in North Dallas Forty about an orgy he'd attended. The Natural looked amazing, but I would have loved to see a more faithful rendition of the much darker and spookier Malamud novel.

 

I loved the noir-style boxing movies Requiem for a Heavyweight and The Harder They Fall. I think of Raging Bull as a kind of tribute to them.

 

Million Dollar Baby was one of those "excellent movie but I don't want to see it again" films.

Edited August 16, 2014 by GreekGeek

[BizBuzz]

Looks like I am going to have to see Rush.

 

With the exception of the Rocky series (up to 4) I can't watch boxing movies, and even Rocky was hard.  I hurt just watching. 

 

My favorite sports movies are ones that are taken from true life, although I will watch pretty much anything.

 

Does Cool Runnings count?  That was a fun movie!

[Shannon L.]

 

I caught this on Netflix earlier this week and loved it. I wonder why it didn't make a bigger impact in theaters. Maybe it was because the title was awful. It could just as easily have belonged to a film about drug addicts. Had it been called "Formula One" or something like that, it might have done better.

I agree.  The marketing, the trailers, the title, really did no favors to that movie.  I almost didn't see it, but ended up going with a friend who wanted to and I'm glad I did.  I also think Bruhl deserved an Oscar nod for it. 

[Danny Franks]

 

 I tend to like the fictitious and character study sports films better than the ones that focus on Winning the Big Game. Bull Durham had some of the best dialogue; I still remember Kevin Costner's speech on what he believed in, which covered everything from kissing to Susan Sontag novels. 

 

My favourite part of Bull Durham is always the little conflab they have on the pitcher's mound, where they talk about Nuke breathing out of the wrong eyelid, what to buy their teammate for a wedding gift, and the Cuban guy's cursed glove. Such a fun little moment, and the way Kevin Costner sums it all up with, "we're going through a lot of shit right now!" to the assistant coach, makes me laugh every time.

 

Jerry Maguire - one of my all time favorites, sports movie or not.

 

 

I'd say it is a sports movie, definitely. It's about a sports agent, and the guy who won an Oscar for it plays a football player. I love the movie, and I think it's an example of why Tom Cruise has been such a huge star. He's got charisma to burn, he really does. He's effortlessly engaging, whether he's being manic or depressed or sincere or full of shit. Shame he seems to be so odd in real life. 

 

But it's Cameron Crowe, so the movie is full of warmth and wit and sincerity. And I think there's always a place for movies like that. Not everyone has to be cool and edgy.

[Shannon L.]

 

My favourite part of Bull Durham is always the little conflab they have on the pitcher's mound, where they talk about Nuke breathing out of the wrong eyelid, what to buy their teammate for a wedding gift, and the Cuban guy's cursed glove. Such a fun little moment, and the way Kevin Costner sums it all up with, "we're going through a lot of shit right now!" to the assistant coach, makes me laugh every time.

That's my favorite part, too!  Followed by the shower scene where the coach talks about how they lollygag around, then says "You know what that makes you?! Larry?!"  "Lollygaggers!"  "Lollygaggers." 

[KatWay]

I loved Rush and I'm still incredibly bitter that Jonah Hill got an Oscar nod over Daniel Bruhl. 

[Sharpie66]

I would love to see a feature film about Babe Didrickson. I know that there was a pretty decent tv film with Susan Clark and Alex Karras back in the mid-'70s (I saw it when it was broadcast), but a more modern, truthful take on her could be done really well.

Edited August 18, 2014 by Sharpie66

[purplemouth]

I watched The Mighty Ducks last night on Netflix and was happy to see they also have D2, which I think is superior. I don't even like hockey, but damn if I don't cheer like crazy when they pull the flying v!

[Mystery]

"Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!"

 

Jerry Goldsmith wrote the scores for both Rudy and Hoosiers and I love them both. 

[Sharpie66]

FYI, the real Rudy is from my hometown. A family member has worked with him on some projects, and says that he can be a real jerk.

 

That said, I was bummed that they changed some details about Rudy's time in Joliet: his high school was all-male when he went there (since gone co-ed--FYI, Melissa McCarthy is also an alum, as am I). Two other football players from Joliet Catholic who went on to play for the NFL are Tom Thayer (Chicago Bears in the mid-'80s, on the Super Bowl team, now Bears commentator) and Mike Alstott. Oh, and the filmmakers got the school colors wrong.

Edited August 19, 2014 by Sharpie66

[DollEyes]

Another sports film that's gotten great buzz is Foxcatcher, which is the true story of John Dupont, played by Steve Carrell and his obsession with two brothers who were Olympic wrestlers, played by Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum. I've heard that this is not only one of Tatum's best performances, there's Oscar talk for Carrell and Ruffalo, who have also just gotten Golden Globe nominations for their performances.

Edited December 16, 2014 by DollEyes

[Snowprince]

Long time F1 fan so of course Rush is a personal favorite, as is the one that set the bar IMO for motorsports movies, Grand Prix (1966). If anybody decides to do another F1 movie set in the late 80s/early 90s, the intense rivalry between McLaren team mates Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna could be the story of Rush II.

 

Another good one that nobody remembers is The Last American Hero (1973). Jeff Bridges in the fictionalized story of the career of NASCAR legend Junior Johnson. In the movie's racing footage, Jeff's car is represented by Richard Petty's # 43.

 

ESPN did a decent job with 3, and Barry Pepper gave a notable performance as Dale Earnhardt.

 

The 3 favorite football movies are North Dallas Forty, We Are Marshall and Any Given Sunday. Another one that wasn't bad was Number One (1969) with Charelton Heston as the aging QB of the New Orleans Saints on their run-up to the Super Bowl and his personal downward spiral. Some actual Saints players had speaking parts.

 

 Paper Lion was an entertaining adaptation of George Plimpton's book which also featured actual players for the Detroit Lions, most notably Alex Karras, John Gordy and Coach Joe Schmidt. Alan Alda played Plimpton.

 

Though not really sports movies per se, I thought the football on field action in both The Fortune Cookie and Heaven Can Wait (Warren Beatty version) were well done.

 

With all due respect to the other baseball movies mentioned, my favorite will always remain Bang The Drum Slowly. Gets me every time.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Snowprince

[Rick Kitchen]

 

With all due respect to the other baseball movies mentioned, my favorite will always remain Bang The Drum Slowly. Gets me every time.

 

I cry.

[Schweedie]

Remember The Titans is on the telly here right now, and of course I have to watch. I enjoy sports films in general, but this is definitely one of my favourites. So many familiar faces (baby Ryan Gosling!); Denzel Washington and Will Patton are both great, and the real story behind it all adds an extra oomph.

[emjohnson03]

I'm going to echo Major League. Just perfect in all it's baseball glory! It's got too many awesome lines and the cast is such perfection in every role. That's a movie I have to watch every Spring Training.

 

Cool Runnings is another one of those great films because it has such a underdog story. It's done so well.

 

Did anyone mention The Cutting Edge? The one with the 2 skaters who partner up and fall in love, all the while fighting and having to overcome all odds to win. Such a great underrated 80's film. They made like 2 other films but they weren't very good.

[xaxat]

Remember The Titans is on the telly here right now, and of course I have to watch. I enjoy sports films in general, but this is definitely one of my favourites. So many familiar faces (baby Ryan Gosling!); Denzel Washington and Will Patton are both great, and the real story behind it all adds an extra oomph.

 

I also like this movie. But I used to know a guy who was a student equipment manager on the team during that time and he hated it with a passion. I watched it with him and he gave a non-stop commentary on all of the things that were "wrong". ("That never happened!!!") Listening to him rip the movie was hilarious.

[Dandesun]

Remember The Titans is on the telly here right now, and of course I have to watch. I enjoy sports films in general, but this is definitely one of my favourites. So many familiar faces (baby Ryan Gosling!); Denzel Washington and Will Patton are both great, and the real story behind it all adds an extra oomph.

I went to school at a rival of Washington & Lee in the 80s. We beat them my freshman year and I remember the Titans crying when they lost.

[Princess Sparkle]

Remember The Titans is on the telly here right now, and of course I have to watch. I enjoy sports films in general, but this is definitely one of my favourites. So many familiar faces (baby Ryan Gosling!); Denzel Washington and Will Patton are both great, and the real story behind it all adds an extra oomph.

I giggle when I watch Remember the Titans now, knowing that Big Julius became Avon Barksdale and Gary became Opie on Sons of Anarchy - it makes me think that Denzel led them to a life of crime.  But Remember the Titans is one of those movies that no matter what I'm doing, if I find it on tv, I'm watching it.  

 

Sports movies are really my guilty pleasures, and somehow, it's always football movies that I end up watching the most - Remember the Titans, The Replacements, Friday Night Lights.  

 

And because I'm a child of the 90s, I can also quote all three Mighty Ducks movies by heart.  

 

ETA: And while they're more "tv documentaries" than movies in the strictest sense, I could watch ESPN's 30 for 30 Documentaries on an endless loop.  There have only been a few that I've thought were "eh", but the majority have been excellent.  "The Best that Never Was"(my all-time favorite), "Benji", "Broke", "Winning Time", "Pony Excess", "The Announcement", "Survive and Advance", "Hillsborough", and "Brothers in Exile" are just a list of my favorites off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are more fantastic ones that I'm missing.

Edited January 5, 2015 by Princess Sparkle

[Sharpie66]

As a big fan of the Tour de France (I don't watch any of the other races, just the TdF), I love the 30 for 30 ep "Slaying the Badger," about Greg Lemond's winning the TdF for the first time, and all the machinations that went on behind the scenes, and not so behind the scenes. The biggest shock for me was when Lemond and his wife tell about the time during the race when one of the people in charge of the race came up to them and warned them that they were being targeted by the rest of the peleton, and to watch their backs, because Greg just might get physically taken out of the race by one of his competitors, and maybe even one of his team members. No wonder they were paranoid!

[Danny Franks]

Remember The Titans is on the telly here right now, and of course I have to watch. I enjoy sports films in general, but this is definitely one of my favourites. So many familiar faces (baby Ryan Gosling!); Denzel Washington and Will Patton are both great, and the real story behind it all adds an extra oomph.

 

Heh. I never put two and two together that it was Ryan Gosling. One of his more carefree performances, I guess. It's also got baby Hayden Panettiere in it. And Donald Faison, who played Turk in Scrubs.

 

A great, schmaltzy, typically American movie. I love it.

 

ETA: And while they're more "tv documentaries" than movies in the strictest sense, I could watch ESPN's 30 for 30 Documentaries on an endless loop.  There have only been a few that I've thought were "eh", but the majority have been excellent.  "The Best that Never Was"(my all-time favorite), "Benji", "Broke", "Winning Time", "Pony Excess", "The Announcement", "Survive and Advance", "Hillsborough", and "Brothers in Exile" are just a list of my favorites off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are more fantastic ones that I'm missing.

 

 

Those 30 for 30 docs are great. Though I have drawn the line with some of them, I really enjoyed the ones on football. The Band That Wouldn't Die, Pony Excess, The U, Straight Outta L.A., Run Ricky Run, You Don't Know Bo, Elway to Marino I also liked Kings Ransom, The House That Steinbrenner Built, The Announcement, Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL, 9.79,  and a few others.

[hendersonrocks]

I was really surprised by how much I loved The Two Escobars, another 30 for 30 documentary. Of course I had heard of Pablo Escobar, the ruthless drug king, but I had no idea who Andres Escobar. The way their two stories were intertwined, and told on screen, was just beautifully done. (On the other side of the coin, I think my hopes were way too high for June 17th, 1994--I remember that day so vividly, and while I liked the focus on what a historic day it was in sports for not just the OJ chase, the film didn't draw me in the way I expected it to.)

 

My favorite sports movie (and favorite documentary) has to be Murderball. I never get sick of watching it, and think the filmmakers did an incredible job of showing wheelchair rugby athletes as athletes, warts and all.

[Princess Sparkle]

I was really surprised by how much I loved The Two Escobars, another 30 for 30 documentary. Of course I had heard of Pablo Escobar, the ruthless drug king, but I had no idea who Andres Escobar. The way their two stories were intertwined, and told on screen, was just beautifully done. (On the other side of the coin, I think my hopes were way too high for June 17th, 1994--I remember that day so vividly, and while I liked the focus on what a historic day it was in sports for not just the OJ chase, the film didn't draw me in the way I expected it to.)

 

 

I thought it was truly fascinating that The Two Escobars basically posited that if Pablo Escobar had been alive, Andres Escobar wouldn't have been shot.  

[ruby24]

Anybody else like Bend it Like Beckham?

[hendersonrocks]

Anybody else like Bend it Like Beckham?

I love it so much. It's definitely a sick day go-to, and there are a few songs from the soundtrack that have made their way into my regular work-out mix. 

[Athena]

Anybody else like Bend it Like Beckham?

 

I love this movie. I rewatch it every couple of years. I'm due for one actually. I remember watching it after I saw it was getting rave reviews on the Fametracker forums back in the day. I followed both Paraminder Nagra and Jonathan Rhys Meyers for years after that because of the cachet from how much I love Bend It. It's too bad PM hasn't had more roles though she's still working. As for JRM... that's another story altogether.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I LOVE Bend It Like Beckham!!

Being of East-Indian descent, Jasminder's mom was MY Mom! Especially in the opening when she was telling the sports casters that Jasminder "shouldn't be running around with all those men" with her "half pants."

[Schweedie]

Anybody else like Bend it Like Beckham?

 

Are the people who DON'T like Bend it Like Beckham? It's freaking wonderful. It's still my favourite role from Keira Knightley, and Parminder Nagra is just lovely in it. (I also really like how the sisters are so different, but I never felt the movie tells us Jess' sister is wrong or somehow lesser for being the way she is.) I could've done without the romance part for Jess, but otherwise, yeah, there's nothing I don't love about that movie.

[Bastet]

I could've done without the romance part for Jess, but otherwise, yeah, there's nothing I don't love about that movie.

 

This is me, exactly. 

 

On a random note:  how freakin' skinny Keira Knightley is in the club scene when she's barely wearing that shirt is really distracting.

 

Great cast.  I absolutely adore all the actors playing the parents, too, especially Frank Harper and Juliet Stevenson as Jules' parents. 

 

I semi-recently listened to the commentary and watched all the special features on my DVD, and the story of how Jess got the scars on her legs is taken directly from how Parminder actually got her scars.

 

(Lots of good tidbits from Gurinder Chadha in those special features, btw.)

Edited March 22, 2015 by Bastet

[Bastet]

I love sports movies, but I forced myself to narrow it down to a top five (which I could only do by deciding Pat & Mike isn't technically a sports movie):

 

Remember the Titans

Major League

A League of Their Own

Bend it Like Beckham

The Rookie

[BatmanBeatles]

 

On a random note:  how freakin' skinny Keira Knightley is in the club scene when she's barely wearing that shirt is really distracting.

I was kind of scared for her.

[proserpina65]

Are the people who DON'T like Bend it Like Beckham? It's freaking wonderful. It's still my favourite role from Keira Knightley, and Parminder Nagra is just lovely in it. (I also really like how the sisters are so different, but I never felt the movie tells us Jess' sister is wrong or somehow lesser for being the way she is.) I could've done without the romance part for Jess, but otherwise, yeah, there's nothing I don't love about that movie.

This is pretty much the only performance of Keira Knightley's that I think is actually good.  Parminder Nagra is terrific, and really deserved more of a career afterwards.

[dusang]

Did anyone mention The Cutting Edge? The one with the 2 skaters who partner up and fall in love, all the while fighting and having to overcome all odds to win. Such a great underrated 80's film. They made like 2 other films but they weren't very good.

 

Toe-picks!

Edited March 23, 2015 by dusang

[ruby24]

This is pretty much the only performance of Keira Knightley's that I think is actually good.  Parminder Nagra is terrific, and really deserved more of a career afterwards.

 

Funnily enough, this is the one movie that I didn't like her in. I've loved her in almost everything she's done since, but I remember when I first saw this, even though I liked the movie, I remember not being especially taken with her, and I was always so surprised that she was the breakout star from it. But then I loved her later on in Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, the first Pirates, etc. so it didn't matter, but here I couldn't help but think it was ironic that the pretty white girl was the one chosen by Hollywood from a hit movie starring an Indian actress.

Edited March 24, 2015 by ruby24

[harrie]

This is pretty much the only performance of Keira Knightley's that I think is actually good.  Parminder Nagra is terrific, and really deserved more of a career afterwards.

 

Ms. Nagra may not be a huge star, but she's been working fairly consistently.  She's had runs on a number of shows -- ER some time ago, Psych and Blacklist lately.  It looks like she has some stuff in the pipeline too, so good for her.