Sports

The Cutting Edge

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Cutting Edge
  • IMDb: link

“Those are figure skates, pal.”

The Cutting EdgeThis week’s Winter Olympics inspired Throwback Tuesday post takes us back to 1992’s sports comedy The Cutting Edge starring Moira Kelly as ice queen Kate Moseley and D.B. Sweeney as retired ice hockey player Doug Dorsey who becomes her unlikely figure skating partner in hopes of winning an Olympic Gold Medal.

After an injury at the previous Olympics prematurely ended his hockey before it began, and with the tempermental Kate unable to make it work with any potential partners, the pair get thrown together for an unlikely Olympic run. Terry O’Quinn and Roy Dotrice round out the cast as Kate’s father and her figure skating coach.

The script by Tony Gilroy (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Michael Clayton, The Bourne Ultimatum) doesn’t stray far outside on box featuring and odd couple pairing who come together both on and off the ice. That said, there’s certainly some charm seeing two characters, both rough around the edges in their own way, come together. And while the skating is far from Olympic quality, it works well-enough to sell the story.

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Top 10 Alternative Sports Movies

/ / Top Tens & Lists

Top 10 Alternative Sports Movies

Anybody can throw together a list of sports movies like Rocky, Field of Dreams, and Hoosiers, but such a list overlooks several sports movies not centered around the bigger marquee sports. Here’s what you won’t see on this list: football, baseball, basketball, boxing, golf, tennis, hockey, soccer, or auto-racing. What does that leave, you ask? A pretty darn good top ten of alternative sports movies.

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Cars 3

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Cars 3
  • IMDb: link

Cars 3 movie reviewI unapologetically love Cars and think Pixar’s 2006 film is an underrated classic snubbed by those who have more trouble buying into its concept than any flaws in the film. It succeeds in creating a fully realized and imaginative world while providing us the best looking Pixar film to date. While I admit Cars 2 isn’t in the same class, I still enjoy the sequel for the continued exploration of the world, its style, and the fun spy plot (even if it does feature too much of the franchise’s most annoying supporting character).

Cars 3 may not measure up to the original either, but it does fall closer in-line with the themes of the first film while bringing Lightning McQueen‘s (Owen Wilson) story full circle and making a satisfying conclusion to the franchise. Now the old man of the racing circuit, McQueen has seen old friends and rivals replaced by newer, faster, and more aerodynamic competition. A crash in the final race of the year has many expecting the car to retire. With the help of his perky personal trainer, and some friends (both old and new) McQueen will struggle to find a way back into the sport before time paces him by.

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Gleason

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Gleason
  • IMDb: link

Gleason DVD reviewOriginally intended as a video diary for Steve Gleason‘s unborn son, director Clay Tweel takes audiences along for the ride on the heart-wrenching journey of Gleason’s slow decline after being diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Going from a local football hero who helped rejuvenate the New Orleans Saints football team in the season following Hurricane Katrina to a man fighting to speak, move, and even breathe on his own is often difficult to watch. Refusing to give in, Gleason and his wife Michel continue to fight the incurable degenerative disease every step of the way including forming their own foundation to support others in need.

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Bleed for This

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Bleed for This
  • IMDb: link

Bleed for This

It would be easy to look at Bleed for This and dismiss it as nothing more than another inspirational sports movie adapting a real-life athlete’s adversity into a feature film. However, that would be a mistake. Bleed for This is better than I expected as the tale of world-champion boxer Vinny Pazienza‘s (Miles Teller) rise, fall, and struggle to reclaim his dream turns out to be worth all the sports cliches you find in such films.

Offering 40 minutes of Vinny’s life before the accident which nearly paralyzed him, writer/director Ben Younger gives the audience plenty of time to learn about Vinny and the unwavering determination which will play a crucial role over the rest of the film.

While some supporting characters outside the boxing ring get the short shaft (Vinny’s girlfriends appear and disappear without ever letting us learn more than a name – if that), the movie hangs on Teller’s performance, and he pulls it off with aplomb. Younger also makes several interesting decisions throughout the film in how he shoots boxing sequences (getting us into the action without shaky cam) and even in one memorable moment dropping all sound completely except for the sound of each punch landing.

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