Sports movies past their prime
Like a gridiron legend playing past his prime, some classic sports movies loom a lot less large once the cheering fades. If the films below don't hold up, is it because they're dated or because we're no longer on the juice?
CHARIOTS OF FIRE (1981)
It's a pretty good character study of two disparate athletes at the 1924
Olympics — the young missionary (Ian Charleson) runs for God, the Jew (Ben
Cross) runs to prove he belongs — but how this crossed the Best Picture
Oscar tape ahead of Warren Beatty's Reds is an enduring mystery.
Vangelis' synthesizer score sold like Fenway Franks but today it sounds
about as period-appropriate as ''The Entertainer'' played on a Moog.
THE NATURAL (1984)
Barry Levinson takes Bernard Malamud's first novel — a slim downer parable
of fate — and pumps it up into overripe Americana: Norman Rockwell on
extra-strength steroids. Pushing 50, Redford's hard enough to believe as
a 35-year-old comeback king, but as a rookie kid? And what's with the
women in the movie? They're either evil succubi (Barbara Hershey, Kim
Basinger) or bleacher Madonnas (Glenn Close). We'll keep Randy Newman's
score, but the great diamond fantasy you're looking for is Field of
Dreams.
JERRY MAGUIRE (1996)
It's not a sports movie. It's a chick flick with just enough football in
it so a guy won't fall asleep and drool on his girlfriend's Fair Isle
sweater. Where Tom Cruise once played jocks, now he's a suit — a sensitive
suit. As for Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Academy Award-winning performance: You
had us at hello, you lost us at Boat Trip.
