Countdown of My Favourite Sports Movies: #'s 10, 9 & 8

More than a month ago, I suggested that I would do a top 10 countdown of my favourite sports movies. Keeping in mind there are a few sports "Classics" that I have not seen, here is the first three in the countdown:

10. Any Given Sunday. Why is it that some of the best sports movies are about Football? Any Given Sunday tells the story of a fictional football team. An aging quarterback is hurt in a game and is replaced by the second string quaterback who is also hurt. This sets the stage for the third string quaterback (Jamie Foxx) who fills in more than adequately. The story follows many different members of the team (Al Pacino as the head coach, Cameron Diaz as an owner, James Woods as the team doctor, etc.). Directed by Oliver Stone this football movie is definitely worth a watch if you have the time.

9. Chariots of Fire. It's not often that a sports movie will win Best Picture at the Oscars (the only one I was sure of was Rocky - and I haven't even seen it), so I thought Chariots of Fire should be on the list. Set in 1924, the movie tells the story of Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, two British Sprinters who ran in the Paris Olympics that same year. I won't give away the ending, but I will say that it is a movie that should be seen. This movie has probably the best opening of any movies I've ever seen (and the music lives on forever in my head - especially when we ran through Willow's beach in Victoria as a group on a cloudy Sunday morning).

8. Rudy. Admittedly I have only seen this once, but include it on my list because it is a classic and it has a good message (work hard and your dreams can come true). Starring Sean Astin (funny, I've been compared to two of his characters...) and Charles S. Dutton, this is a great movie to watch if you're in need of some sports inspiration. In it, Rudy (Astin) is always told he is too small to play football. He never stops trying and tries to make the Notre Dame football team as a walk-on. Like Chariots of Fire, this is also based upon a true story (you may notice a trend...)

Check back next week when I'll go through #'s 7, 6 and 5.

Movie Review: Jarhead

I never really had that much desire to see Jarhead, but I thought I should (for some reason I thought it was a good movie). To be fair, I don't think it is a bad movie. I have heard that it portrays a realistic view of the gulf war (but then again, I could be mistaken).

Jarhead follows Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) through boot camp, time in the Saudi Arabian desert and fighting (briefly) in Kuwait during the (first) Gulf War. Also included in the cast are Jamie Foxx and Peter Sarsgaard. The movie doesn't appear to have any purpose other than to show the almost pointlessness of the war - but even that comes more from me wanting to find that in the movie than it actually being there. Sure there are the comments about only being there to protect the oil fields, and about not taking pills to act against the potential chemical attacks, but I think those are more a documentation of what happened as opposed to a statement about it.

Some scenes are fairly brutal, but I didn't find anything to be too graphic (but keep in mind my generation has been completely desensitized to violence). I found the psychological issues to be scarier than the threat of physical danger in this movie.

There's not much else to say about this movie. I would certainly suggest it to get a glimpse of what the war was like (though I would much rather see Black Hawk Down for that same purpose - maybe I'll watch/review that some day). I give Jarhead a 3/4. It's not a great movie, but it is something that I would recommend to most people - though some may find the actions of the characters immature (albeit realistic). Check it out if you can...

On another note, I am going to try to get another streak of blog posts going so it's not just every once in a while. Look for some stuff about teaching and (FINALLY!) an updated problem of the day...