My Favorite Sports Films

Bad News Bears is OK. That's not a bad thing, it's just not something I like enough to say that I like it. I don't have a problem with Madonna's performance in A League Of Their Own either, MV. I do love Bull Durham, though.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

39.
Breaking Away



A refreshingly original sports film that struck such a universal chord that it actual received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. The film stars Dennis Christopher as a teenager who becomes obsessed with the Italian cycling team and how it affects his relationship with his best friends and his parents. Christopher gives a star-making performance that for some reason didn't really make him a star. Paul Dooley and Barbara Barrie are solid as his parents. Barrie was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar and future stars like Dennis Christopher and Daniel Stern are terrific as Christopher's pals.

38.
Remember the Titans



This story of a football coach attempting to deal with an integrated team for the first time is worth seeing for Denzel Washington's charismatic performance alone.

37.
Personal Best



This was a sports drama that definitely raised a few eyebrows in 1982. Mariel Hemingway starred as a track and field competitor who becomes involved in a love triangle with her male coach (Scott Glenn) and her female competitor (Patrice Donnelly). This film scored points for not shying away from same sex lovemaking scenes the way the other "gay" film of 1982 Making Love did. Hemingway is believable as the apex of the triangle and Donnelly was a revelation in her first major film role and the film also features some strong camera work.

36.
The Fighter



I will admit that I have my problems with this movie...the screenplay takes some illogical moves that I had a hard time getting behind, but the film does capture the spirit of athletic competition and features some spectacular performances. Mark Wahlberg works hard as the fighter whose career is manipulated by his crackhead brother (Oscar winner Christian Bale) and his domineering mother (Melissa Leo) who learns to stand up to them with the help of his strong, street smart new girlfriend (Amy Adams).

35.
The Karate Kid



This 80's classic struck a chord with audiences due to a main character most people could relate to. Ralph Macchio lights up the screen as the new kid in town being bullied at his new school who finds help from an unlikely source...a quiet older man (Pat Morita) who is a secret karate master and has his own special teaching methods. This film works due to Macchio's character being so likable and watching his reluctance to his new teacher's methods and Morita, whose biggest claim to fame prior to this was playing Arnold on Happy Days, actually received a Best Supporting Actor nomination. A great sports film and very human family drama.

34.
Field of Dreams



A Best Picture nominee for 1989, I think qualifying this film merely as a sports film might be shortchanging it a little...this film is a fantasy, a family film, a buddy movie, a romantic drama, and a sports drama. Kevin Costner has rarely been this likable onscreen and has a first rate cast behind him including James Earl Jones and Amy Madigan. It's a little slow but the journey is worth the time.

Field Of Dreams is great. It's one of those films which I'll usually watch to the end regardless of where I join it.

I'm glad you included this on your sports movies list. I didn't expect to see it because it's a musical, but it's also a great sports movie.

Raging Bull, it's the greatest sports film ever.

So far, I love Field Of Dreams and Rocky IV. Those would both appear in my top 100.

I used to love both The Waterboy and Happy Gilmore, but I've watched both of them way too many times. I still really like both of them, however. Dodgeball is another one that I've seen way too many times, but fortunately that one never stops being funny.

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"George, this is a little too much for me. Escaped convicts, fugitive sex... I've got a cockfight to focus on."

Yeah, I wasn't sure if I should since it was already on my musical thread, but the film is all about a baseball team and baseball is a sport.

33.
The Natural



It's a sports film, it's a biopic, it's a love story, it's a very special movie that contains one of Robert Redford's most charming performances as Roy Hobbs, the baseball player with the extraordinary gift.

32.
The Hurricane



Another tour-de-force performance from Denzel Washington makes this biography of boxer Rueben "Hurricane" Carter worth watching. Though the movie focuses primarily on the derailment of his career due to criminal charges, professional boxing provides the canvas on which this epic and riveting story unfolds.

31.
All the Right Moves



In his second film, Cruise proved to be more than a one trick pony playing a character nothing like Joel in Risky Business. Cruise plays a cocky and sexist high school football star who is finding his dreams of college being derailed when a fight with his coach (Craig T. Nelson) gets him kicked off the team and the coach blackballing him to every college the kid has applied to. Cruise is solid playing a character who really isn't very likable and Nelson is appropriately hissable.

30.
Heaven Can Wait (1978)



A richly entertaining romantic fantasy that uses professional football as its canvas and was a triumph for co-director, co-writer, and star Warren Beatty. Beatty plays Joe Pendleton, a pro quarterback who is killed in an accident. Upon his arrival at the pearly gates, he learns from Mr. Jordan (James Mason) that Jordan's assistant (co-director Buck Henry) took Joe too soon, but Joe is unable to return to earth as himself because his body was cremated. Joe's only option to return to earth is as a millionaire named Leo Farnsworth, who has just been murdered by his wife and secretary (Dyan Cannon, Charles Grodin), but the body hasn't been discovered yet. Joe takes the deal, deals with Farnsworth's murderers while falling for an English beauty (Julie Christie) whose hometown is suffering due to a business deal made by Farnsworth. Everything works here, a beautifully mounted romantic fantasy that is beautiful to look at, has a fantastic music score and one of the loveliest endings to a movie I have ever seen.

29.
The Longest Yard (1974)



A 100-megawatt movie star performance by Burt Reynolds is the centerpiece of this instant classic that was one of the best films of the 1970's. Reynolds plays Paul Crewe, a disgraced former pro football player who has been sent to jail and is forced by the warden (Eddie Albert) to form a football team to play against his team, formed by his guards. One of the greatest crowd-pleasers ever made. Reynolds had the role of his career here and ran with it and Eddie Albert is just plain nasty as the warden. Remade in 2005 with Adam Sandler and Reynolds in a supporting role.

28.
Blue Chips



The director of The Exorcist and the writer-director of Bull Durham and White Men Can't Jump are the creative force behind this movie about a college basketball coach (well played by Nick Nolte) who finds his moral and ethical boundaries challenged in the things he has to do to in order to persuade the potential players he wants for his team to attend his college. This movie casts a realistic and sometimes unflattering light on the behind-the-scenes machinations involved in the college recruitment process. Nolte is solid, as always, and don't be fooled by Shaquille O'Neal's second billing on the poster, his role isn't nearly that large (thank goodness).

27.
The Great White Hope



The Oscar-nominated performances by James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander make this biopic of boxer Jack Jefferson worth checking out. The film raised eyebrows in 1970 because of the interracial leads but one thing that makes this film so special is the fact that it is not really an issue in the story being told.

26.
Ice Castles



One of the biggest hits of 1978 was this slightly syrupy melodrama about a woman (Lynn Holly-Johnson) whose dreams of becoming a professional figure skater are suddenly derailed. Yeah, it's a little on the corny side and Robby Benson is a little hard to take sometimes, but there is a stylish turn from Colleen Dewhurst as a skating coach and the theme song, "Through the Eyes of Love" topped the pop charts in 1978.