My Favorite Sports Films

55.
Bang the Drum Slowly



This sensitive drama following the complex relationship between two baseball players (Robert De Niro, Michael Moriarty) can really tug at the heartstrings if caught in the right mood.

54.
Love & Basketball



Another movie addressing the issue as to whether or not men and women can just be friends with a couple of interesting layers added to the premise. Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan play childhood friends whose mutual love of the game of basketball takes them through their teen years, through separate professional paths, and dealing with the constantly changing of their personal feelings about each other...it's sort of an urban version of When Harry Met Sally if Harry and Sally were basketball players, but the stars produce a viable chemistry that makes you root for them to get together.

53.
The Stratton Story



Jimmy Stewart had one of his strongest roles as professional baseball player Monty Stratton, who lost a leg in a hunting accident but did not let that sideline his career. Stewart commands the screen, as usual, and June Allyson, whose chemistry with Stewart had already been proven in The Glenn Miller Story is proven here to be no accident.

52.
Semi-Tough



Despite some dated storyline elements, this slightly raunchy story of two professional football players (Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson) who live with the team owner's daughter (Jill Clayburgh) and what happens when one of the guys announces he's in love with her. The chemistry between Reynolds and Clayburgh is off the charts and there's a funny supporting turn from Robert Preston as Clayburgh's dad, the team's owner.

51.
Necessary Roughness



This is the story of Texas State University's Fighting Armadillos, who are forced to form a rag-tag football team from the student body, without any scholarship money to offer. This comedy is worth checking out for an extremely likable cast including Scott Bakula, Hector Elizondo, Robert Loggia, Larry Miller, Sinbad, and Fred Dalton Thompson. It's not deep, but there's fun to be had here.

50.
North Dallas Forty



A brilliant lead performance from Nick Nolte is the primary selling point of this film version of Peter Gent's novel that takes an up close and personal look at the mortality of being a professional football player. Nolte nails the inner panic that these athletes go through when they come off the field a little more battered and way more tired each time they go on. Singer Mac Davis also made an impressive film debut as Nolte's teammate but this is Nolte's show all the way. A nearly forgotten film that deserves a little more attention than it originally received.

Bang the Drum Slowly would have been much higher on my list. It's one of my all-time favorite sports movies. Great choice.

49.
White Men Can't Jump



The surprising chemistry between the stars makes this story of a couple of street hustlers on inner city basketball courts worth checking out. Rosie Perez also scores as Harrelson's girlfriend, whose lifelong dream is to be a contestant on Jeopardy.

48.
Eight Men Out



This severely underrated drama, a fact-based look at the Black Sox scandal of 1919 works due to director/co-writer John Sayles' dedication in bringing a very unflattering story to the screen in a realistic fashion. The hand-picked cast is terrific, appropriate for their roles and not just cast for box office potential.

47.
Bingo Long and the Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings



This entertaining look at the first all black baseball team is probably not big on the facts, but the story presented is told with loving attention to period detail and features some star-making performances.

46.
The Longest Yard (2005)



This remake doesn't hold a candle to the classic original, but it is respectful of its origins, documented in the casting of original star Burt Reynolds in a major supporting role and a screenplay that sticks pretty close to the original and if you can accept Sandler as a professional football player, there is fun to be had here.

45.
A League of Their Own



Director Penny Marshall had a hit with this fact-based story of the first all-female baseball team. Like most of Marshall's films, it's a little self-indulgent and overlong and suffers from some stunt casting (can you say Madonna?), but there is first rate work from Geena Davis and especially Tom Hanks.

I liked White Men Can't Jump and really liked A League Of Their Own and Eight Men Out. Not even heard of Bingo Long and the Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings. Might be something I'd enjoy though. Thanks.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

44.
Damn Yankees



Only Gideon58 would figure out a way to work a musical into a thread about favorite sports films. This story of a baseball fan named Joe Boyd (Robert Schaefer) who agrees to sell his soul to the devil (Ray Walston) in order to help his favorite baseball team, the Washington Senators win a pennant. The devil turns Boyd himself into an unbeatable baseball player named Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter) who starts missing his old life, so the devil calls on a 300 year old witch named Lola (Gwen Verdon) to distract him. Verdon and Ralston reprise their Tony-award winning Broadway roles and are served by a wonderful Richard Adler/Jerry Ross score that includes "Heart", "Whatever Lola Wants", "Two Lost Souls", "A Little Brains, A Little Talent", and "Shoeless Joe From Hannibal Mo".

43.
Coach Carter



This fact-based story is about a basketball coach who returns to his alma mater to coach the basketball team and does his best to not only bring the team around, but to prepare the boys for life after basketball. He requires the players to keep up their GPA's in order to stay on the team and, even though the team is on a winning streak, when two of the guys grades start falling, the coach puts a lock on the gym door until the guys get their grades back up. The story is a little preachy but Samuel L. Jackson's rock solid performance in the title role makes it worth watching.

42.
Happy Gilmore



Adam Sandler garners big laughs in this outrageous comedy about an angry guy who dreams of being a hockey player, but instead discovers a talent for golf. This is probably the film where Sandler patented the angry man child character out of which he made a movie career but it works for this story. Modern Family's Julie Bowen makes a charming love interest and Christopher McDonald is very funny as Shooter McGavin, Happy's # 1 enemy on the golf course. If the truth be told, the funniest scene in the movie is a knock down drag out fight between Sandler and Bob Barker.

The Longest Yard is bad, but Happy Gilmore is solid comedy.

Love A League of Their Own. I guess I must be in the minority in not having a problem with Madonna's performance.

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41.
Bull Durham



This sexy and stylish comedy from the man behind White Men Can't Jump was the surprise hit of 1988. Susan Sarandon stars as a professional sports groupie who has an affair every season with one player on her favorite team. This season she has chosen a young pitcher (Tim Robbins), but finds herself fighting an attraction to his mentor (Kevin Costner) as well. Sarandon is an eye-opener here, playing a character who is basically sex on legs and this film was the genesis of her offscreen relationship with Robbins, though her chemistry with Costner is solid as well.

40.
The Bad News Bears (1976)



This instant comedy classic starred Walter Matthau as an alcoholic pool cleaner who is assigned to coach a little league team as part of a community service assignment. The team is losing big time until Matthau discovers a girl (Tatum O'Neal) with a dangerous pitching arm, but wants more in life than playing baseball. In addition the surprising chemistry between Matthau and O'Neal, this movie made its stamp in cinema history by having 11 year olds cursing a blue streak and a musical score borrowed from the opera Carmen.