Air

[Shannon L.]

Follows the history of shoe salesman Sonny Vaccaro, and how he led Nike in its pursuit of the greatest athlete in the history of sports: Michael Jordan.

 

 

I saw this tonight and loved it. It had a lot of heart and, surprisingly,  a lot of humor. It's not a movie about a sneaker, which was what I've heard from a few people over the past couple of months (as in "So, it's a movie about a sneaker.  I think I'll pass"). It's about a struggling company that took a huge risk on putting everything behind one player and how the player took a big risk with a struggling company when two other bigger companies wanted him and what they did for each other. The sneaker was just part of it (but, it is the most well known of Nike's Michael Jordan line). The cast was great, the script was great, the music was great. I highly recommend it.

Edited April 12, 2023 by Shannon L.

[Browncoat]

I saw it last night, and I agree.  I thought it was quite nicely done, and while it stretched the truth a bit here and there, it was mostly faithful to the real story.  And definitely faithful to the heart of the story, which was what a badass Michael Jordan's mother is.

[StatisticalOutlier]

I was just going to see if there was a thread on this because I saw it last night and loved it, too, and as I was watching, I realized I couldn't pick an Air Jordan sneaker out of a lineup. 

The cast is outstanding (well, except Chris Tucker--that guy's just too much for me).  As I was watching it, I was realizing how much I almost always enjoy performances by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Jason Bateman, and now I'm adding Chris Messina to the list, who spent almost the entire movie sitting behind a desk and still turning in a fantastic performance.  Viola Davis made up for the (understandable) lack of women in the cast by being, as noted, such a badass. 

I also found it very funny, with several laugh-out-louds while sitting in an empty theater but for me.  The music was fantastic.  And actually, the music was almost by the book, as were some of the directing moves (the camera spinning around a group of people talking), but by gum, it worked, so no complaints from me.

I was glad I had a caption device because at the end, Damon was muttering so softly I wouldn't have been able to hear his "Fuck this," "This is miserable," etc.

[Browncoat]

6 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

at the end, Damon was muttering so softly I wouldn't have been able to hear his "Fuck this," "This is miserable," etc.

With which I wholeheartedly agree.  Running is miserable.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Browncoat

[StatisticalOutlier]

17 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

With which I wholeheartedly agree.  Running is miserable.

He looked just like me.  I used to run before going to work.  Then one morning at least 30 years ago, I was about half a mile from my house and just stopped, and walked the rest of the way home, and haven't run since.  Best decision I ever made, so I felt that scene.

[Steph J]

I liked it. It feels like a bit of a throwback to another era of moviemaking (in a good way).

I loved the meeting scene when Phil, with absolutely no chill, walks in and interrupts the pitch to be like, "Excuse me, I'm an important billionaire who has taken time out of his busy day to be at this meeting. Video? Is there a video? Can we watch the video now?"

[Crs97]

We saw it and really enjoyed it!  I don’t know enough about Nike to notice, but husband said Ben was absolutely channeling Phil Knight.  Anyone else chuckle when they mentioned at the end all the billions Phil has donated to charity?  That was not germane to the story so I figure was something the real Phil required.

Fun story with so many flashbacks to my childhood.  Ben really is a great director to add tension to a story we already know.

One quibble:  in a couple of spots they mention Hakeem Olajuwon, pronouncing the “H.”  Actually, his name was misspelled and mispronounced as “Akeem” all through his college and early NBA years.

One thing I was reminded about was watching a long news segment in the late 80's/early 90's about the shoe wars and Nike's signing of Michael Jordan.  They took us through the history of Converse, Adidas, and Nike and ended with all the money the three had spent on advertising and superstars and then said Nike had beaten them all to rise to number 2 in the world.  They went on to say, "You're surprised?  You're wracking your brains to figure out who is number 1?  A sneaker company with no advertising and no superstars.  You know why?"  They then flashed to an aerobics class and said, "Reebok knows that women work out, too."

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Crs97

[Raja]

On 4/15/2023 at 3:15 PM, Steph J said:

I loved the meeting scene when Phil, with absolutely no chill, walks in and interrupts the pitch to be like, "Excuse me, I'm an important billionaire who has taken time out of his busy day to be at this meeting. Video? Is there a video? Can we watch the video now?"

Calling back so immediately to Coach Raveling's story about Dr. King had me wondering was that really how the meeting went down or even if Nike had scripted the interruption out

[Avabelle]

Has Matt Damon had a facelift? 
 

loved the movie but just certain closeups of his face had me wondering..

[StatisticalOutlier]

16 hours ago, Avabelle said:

Has Matt Damon had a facelift? 

I didn't notice, but he sure doesn't look it in the image at the top of this thread.

[Hanahope]

Recently saw this on Amazon Prime and I was pleasantly surprised.  The movie had a lot more heart and character involvement than I had originally thought it would, as i thought it would be nothing more than a basketball-sneaker movie.  it was a little of that, but much more.  I've really been impressed by Matt Damon lately.  

And I learned how to properly pronounce Adidas.