Avsnitt
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The Longest Yard is a total smorgasbord of tones, jokes, and cultural winks, whiffing at laughter from start to finish. We get a jail yard-sized salmagundi of half-baked jokes. Wet Willies. Terry Crewes peddling McDonald's cheeseburgers, fries, and McAssholes. Pegging the refs in the nuts. Dan Patrick cameo as a cop, clowning on Frodo. Goldberg rockin' an XXL jockstrap. Tracy Morgan as a prison yard Ladyboy. Adam Sandler drinking a six-pack during a high-speed chase. Chris Rock riffin' on white guys and Prozac. James Cromwell acting much too prestigiously for a Happy Madison project. Rob Schneider yelling, "You can do it!" as a callback to The Waterboy. Burt Reynolds hired as a nod to the much-superior original. Bob Sapp doing his best Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile impression. The Great Khali looking huge. Nelly, band-aid on his cheek and all. Jim Rome and Chris Berman being themselves, offering tongue-in-cheek color commentary. Kevin Nash, Brian Bosworth, and William Fichtner doing their best as prison guards, trying to infuse redemptive nuance into their villiany. Joey Diaz being chubby, homophobic, and unfunny. Steve Austin being stone-cold silly. Suffice to say, this one wasn't for us. But we do our best to tackle it anyway. Enjoy the smackdown!
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We're back with our Adam Sandler vs. Will Ferrell mini-tournament/bracket and covering the overlooked sports comedy, Semi-Pro. Chronicling the travails of Jackie Moon (Ferrell) as he tries to get his flailing minor league team, the Flint Tropics, promoted to the NBA, Semi-Pro is very much a byproduct of its era.
Filled with bear wrestling, stoner humor, bantering broadcasters, a cuckolded super-fan, a classic 70s soundtrack, lots of funky callbacks to blaxploitation films, and even more cameos, Semi-Pro is definitely a laugh a minute outing. Unfortunately, much of its humor felt played-out by the time of its release, causing it to bomb at the box office and signal the end of Ferrell's silly, man-child reign of 00's studio comedies.
On the pod, we discuss the comedic range (and lack thereof) of Ferrell's comedic career, his off-screen persona and presence in the sports industry, the ways in which Semi-Pro feels like an all-star mixture of tired/reused gags, and the ways in which it would have fared better if it came out earlier in his heyday. We then debate whether the film's veteran brand of dumb-bro humor should've been retired by its release or whether it offers the charm and humor of a comeback sports comedy, even if it arrived in theaters a few years past Ferrell's prime.
Enjoy!
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Matt Belenky joins the pod to breakdown Luca Guadagnino's Challengers, a breakout 2024 hit about a steamy tennis threesome. We discuss Zendaya's star power, the nuanced dynamic of the film's central love triangle (in comparison to other love triangle movies: Vicky Christina Barcelona, Yu Tu Mama Tambien, The Dreamers, Bull Durham, etc.), Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's thumping and ecstatic electro score, how this fits into the pantheon of great tennis movies, Luca's incremental acclimatization to shooting suburban America, the refreshing arrival of an adult romantic/sports drama with palpable buzz and fervor, whether the film is kinky/erotic or a giant marketing tease, and the use of tennis as a sublimated metaphor for sex.
Enjoy!
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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!
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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!
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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!
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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. It is also a mixed punching bag: filled with melodramatic fetishization of the southern bumpkin archetype, brilliant cinematography, a florid narration by none other than Morgan Freeman (channeling strong Shawshank Redemption vibes), and a plucky Best Actress performance (earned or not) by the always endearing (if not a little cloying) Hilary Swank (to be fair, everyone in this is a maudlin caricature, to degrees). Though nowhere near as bad as we make it out to be (one might say it's more appropriately "between nowhere and goodbye"), Million Dollar Baby received a good old-fashioned beatdown on this episode. If you're in the mood for some Academy Award-adjacent schadenfreude, you've come to the right place. Enjoy!!!
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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!
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Bilge Ebiri joins the pod to talk Michael Mann's Ferarri! We chat about the film's multidimensional themes, its subtle subversion of conventional sports tropes, and the powerful way its irreconcilable conflicts and philosophical tensions linger long after the initial viewing. We also discuss Bilge's Top 5 Sports Movies and the state of the genre. *A preemptive apologies for the mixed vocal quality. There was a mic issue that caused a postproduction headache.*
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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!
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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!
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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!).
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On this very festive Christmas special, we debate whether Jack Frost (1998) could be categorized within the sports movie genre, celebrate the phony performances by Henry Rollins and Michael Keaton, recite Roger Ebert's iconic/scathing review of the Jim Henson's snowman suit, and discuss the entire canon of holiday-centered sports films (A Christmas Fumble, A Wrestling Christmas Miracle, and A Karate Christmas Miracle pretty much sum up the extent of this paltry subgenre). We also each handpick a yuletide-sports films to cover in the future, and determine which film we'd see in theaters the weekend of Jack Frost's release, on December 11th 1998.
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The 100 Foot Wave is truly must-watch TV for anyone who appreciated big wave surfing. Following Garrett McNamara and his lifelong quest to catch the world’s biggest wave, the 1st season tracked his dual romantic elopements—both to his wife, Nicole, and to Nazaré, a small Portuguese port town where he stumbles upon an undiscovered swell of mythic proportions.
Season 2 picks up in the decline of Garrett’s dominance, chronicling his transition to family life and his maturation into a mentor figure. It also tracks the monstrous swell created by Hurricane Epsilon, the ramifications of COVID-19 on surfing, and the emerging big-wave parvenu, an endearing cast of relatable characters: Andrew "Cotty" Cotton, Justine Dupont, Antonio Laureano, Michelle Bouillons, Kai Lenny, CJ Macias, Lucas “Chumbo," and more. This niche community of big wave surfers is inspiring and likable, conquering extraordinary feats on the surf board with stupefying temerity and tenacity.
This episode, covering the 2nd season of HBO’s Emmy-winning docuseries The 100 Foot Wave has sat in the vault for quite some time. We were hoping to record the 1st season and release it first, however, fate keeps interrupting those plans, so the time has come to finally let this ride free (before the box office talk that kicks off the episode feels too outdated).
Thus, without further ado, the time has arrived for us to let this totally rad conversation hang ten. Join Michael Burgett of Screen Nerds Podcast and I (Paul Keelan) as we work backwards from the sophomore season, waxing awestruck about our amazing watching this gem of a show. And don’t fret: our episode on the sublime inaugural season will emerge when the oceans calm and the swell is ready.
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For our hundred and first episode, we are back with the classics. Baseball classics to be precise! Join us as we discuss 1989’s hit sports comedy Major League and 1993’s hit kids’ sports film fantasy Rookie of the Year. We also talk about the disappearance of Pauly Shore, the growing fervor around 90s spy/thriller film revivalism, box office gems from the time of both releases and debate the merit and trickiness around deeming anything an instant classic. It's a long episode but you can split it into two distinct listens!
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We made it! Our 100th episode is here, and we couldn’t be more stoked to share it with everyone. First and foremost, a huge shoutout to everyone who’s listened and appeared on our podcast over the last 99 episodes. We feel blessed to have met so many awesome people, enjoyed many fun recordings of memorable conversations, and received a ton of positive feedback along the way!
We had an absolute blast recording our first Sports Movie Draft with an all-star cast of previous guests, which included Justin Khoo from Cows in the Field, Justin Peterson from The Average Joe’s Movie Club Cast, Matt Belenky (film critic + frequent podcaster + producer), Don Shanahan of Cinephile Hissy Fit & Every Movie Has a Lesson, Michael Burgett of Screen Nerds Podcast, and of course, your two cuddly, charming, adorable underdogs, Jordan and Paul.
In total, we drafted from eight categories:
Best Sports Biopic (About an individual athlete - not a team) Best Heel/Villian In a Sports Movie Best Locker Room Speech In a Sports Movie Best Fictional Sports Announcer(s) in a Movie Best Soundtrack/Score In a Sports Movie Best Nickname or Character Name in a Sports Movie Best Futuristic Race, Game Show, or Sport Invented in a Movie Best Romance in a Sports MovieEveryone's picks were amazing. Our conversation was even better! Now it is YOUR TURN TO VOTE!
So what are you waiting for? Listen to our 100th podcast episode, check out our draft board, and vote below (if you're on Spotify) for the draftee whose picks you dig the most!
Oh, and thanks for listening! Cheers to the next 100! Woof, woof!
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Matt Belenky joins us for a double feature as we discuss Tony Scott's "The Fan" and D.J. Caruso's "Two for the Money". We talk the decline (or not) of "hack" studio directors, Robert De Niro's unhinged portrayal of a psychopath in "The Fan," and Al Pacino's twilight years as a leading man, among many other box office topics.
Enjoy!
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We finish out our football season with another docuseries, jumping back into the world of Untold with Swamp Kings. On this episode, we talk abut what makes college football uniquely special, why this documentary is wrongly maligned, and why it is fairly criticized. In terms of leaving out the dirt on Urban Meyer and his Florida Gators, this four-part series is a head-scratcher — omitting the juicy, salacious controversies one is ostensibly expecting to see. But in doing so, we get another intriguing tale of militant style training camps and college football sincerity. For the Meyer and Tebow hates, this is pure hagiography, and it is. But for those more neutral to the players and subjects of this series, this is a raw look into what it takes — psychologically and physically — to be a powerhouse college football team.
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We are still in the thick of football season and back with an episode on Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the New York Jets, or The Aaron Rodgers Show as we called it. Hear us discuss our likes, dislikes, and takeaways from this season. Next episode — and our final pigskin themed docuseries for the kickoff of football season — will be Untold: Swamp Kings.
Please share, rate our pod, and share some more! Enjoy!
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On this episode, we continue with our (un)cinematic streak of sports-themed streaming docuseries. This time, we’re talking Netflix’s Quarterback (2023), produced by none other than Peyton Manning and featuring 3 of QB’s at very different junctures of their career: Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota. Justin Peterson of the Average Joe’s Movie Club Cast joins us discuss their work ethic, weekly regimen, off-the-field personalities, legacies, pregame preparations, football IQ, perseverance, in-the-pocket ingenuity, and behind-the-snap theatrics. It was a magically “scripted” season and Quarterback captures all of the fun, striking gold by picking arguably the most entertaining in-season QB (Cousins) and then chronicling one of the most impressively gutsy playoff runs of all time with Mahomes unflappable quest to hoist the Lombardi trophy.
- Visa fler
