Who doesn’t have a favorite sports movie? Even nerds. and people who don’t play sports have a movie that somehow deals with a sport that they like! So for this installment, we have our very own top 10 sports movies! So sit back, relax, put your cleats up on the table, grab a sports drink, and read along with this weeks list!
Keith – The Mighty Ducks
The Mighty Ducks is a 1992 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Herek, starring Emilio Estevez. It was produced by Avnet–Kerner Productions and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the first film in The Mighty Ducks trilogy.
In the UK, South Africa and Australia, the film was retitled Champions. Subsequently, UK home releases are now titled The Mighty Ducks Are the Champions, reflecting both titles, as well as to possibly avoid confusion with the sequel (retitled as just The Mighty Ducks).
David – Rounders
Rounders is a 1998 American drama film about the underground world of high-stakes poker, directed by John Dahl, and starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton. The film follows two friends who need to quickly earn enough cash playing poker to pay off a large debt. The term “rounder” refers to a person travelling around from city to city seeking high-stakes cash games.
Rounders opened to mixed reviews and made only a modest amount of money. However, with the growing popularity of Texas hold ’em and other poker games, the film has become a cult hit.
Keith – Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit is a 2003 American biographical sports psychological-drama thriller film based on the best-selling non-fiction book Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand. The film is loosely based on the life and racing career of Seabiscuit, an undersized and overlooked thoroughbred race horse, whose unexpected successes made him a hugely popular media sensation in the United States during the Great Depression.
David – Eight Men Out
Eight Men Out is a drama film based on Eliot Asinof’s 1963 book 8 Men Out. It was written and directed by John Sayles. The film is a dramatization of Major League Baseball’s Black Sox scandal, in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to intentionally lose the 1919 World Series. Much of the movie was filmed at the old Bush Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana
Keith – Varsity Blues
Varsity Blues is a 1999 American coming-of-age sports comedy-drama film directed by Brian Robbins that follows a small-town high school football team and their overbearing coach through a tumultuous season. The players must deal with the pressures of adolescence and their football-obsessed community while having their hard coach on their back constantly. In the small (fictional) town of West Canaan, Texas, football is a way of life, and losing is not an option.
Varsity Blues drew a domestic box office gross of $52 million against its estimated $16 million budget despite mixed critical reviews.
David – Hoosiers
Hoosiers is a 1986 sports film written by Angelo Pizzo and directed by David Anspaugh. It tells the story of a small-town Indiana high school basketball team that wins the state championship. It is loosely based on the Milan High School team that won the 1954 state championship.
Gene Hackman stars as Norman Dale, a new coach with a spotty past. The film co-stars Barbara Hershey and Dennis Hopper, whose role as the basketball-loving town drunk earned him an Oscar nomination. Jerry Goldsmith was also nominated for an Academy Award for his score.
Keith – The Champ
The Champ is a 1979 remake, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, of the 1931 Academy Award-winning film of the same name which was directed by King Vidor. It stars Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway, and Ricky Schroder. It is also the final film for actress Joan Blondell to be released during her lifetime. Blondell who died from leukemia on Christmas Day eight months later, also starred in two other films that were released after her death.
David – The Bad News Bears
The Bad News Bears is a 1976 comedy film directed by Michael Ritchie. It stars Walter Matthau and Tatum O’Neal. The film was followed by two sequels, The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training in 1977 and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan in 1978, a short-lived 1979–80 CBS television series, and a 2005 remake titled Bad News Bears.
The original screenplay was written by Bill Lancaster. Notable was the score by Jerry Fielding, which is an adaptation of the principal themes of Carmen.
Keith – The Karate Kid
The Karate Kid is a 1984 American martial arts drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by Robert Mark Kamen, starring Ralph Macchio, who was 22 years old during principal photography, Noriyuki “Pat” Morita and Elisabeth Shue.[4][5] It is an underdog story in the mold of a previous success, Avildsen’s 1976 film Rocky. It was a commercial success upon release, and garnered critical acclaim, earning Morita an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 2010 a remake of the film was released.
David – Slap Shot
Slap Shot is a 1977 comedy film directed by George Roy Hill, written by Nancy Dowd and starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean. It depicts a minor league hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a declining factory town.
Keith – The Wrestler
The Wrestler is a 2008 American sports drama film directed by Darren Aronofsky, written by Robert D. Siegel, and starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, and Evan Rachel Wood. Production began in January 2008 and Fox Searchlight Pictures acquired rights to distribute the film in the U.S.; it was released in a limited capacity on December 17, 2008 and was released nationwide on January 23, 2009. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on April 21, 2009 in the United States. It was released in the United Kingdom on June 1, 2009.
Rourke plays an aging professional wrestler who, despite his failing health, continues to wrestle in an attempt to cling to the success of his 1980s heyday. He also tries to mend his relationship with his estranged daughter and to find romance with a woman who works as a stripper.
The film received universal critical acclaim and won the Golden Lion Award in the 2008 Venice Film Festival in August, where it premiered. Film critic Roger Ebert called it one of the year’s best films, while Rotten Tomatoes reported that 98% of critics gave the film positive reviews. The success of the film revitalized the career of Mickey Rourke, who went on to receive a BAFTA award, a Golden Globe award, an Independent Spirit Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Tomei also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
David – Rocky
Rocky is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and both written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but kind-hearted working class Italian-American boxer working as a debt collector for a loan shark in the slums of Philadelphia. Rocky starts out as a small-time club fighter who later gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship. It also stars Talia Shire as Adrian, Burt Young as Adrian’s brother Paulie, Burgess Meredith as Rocky’s trainer Mickey Goldmill, and Carl Weathers as the champion, Apollo Creed.
The film, made on a budget of just over $1 million and shot in 28 days, was a sleeper hit; it earned $225 million in global box office receipts becoming the highest grossing film of 1976 and went on to win three Oscars, including Best Picture. The film received many positive reviews and turned Stallone into a major star. It spawned five sequels: Rocky II, III, IV, V, and Rocky Balboa, all written by and starring Stallone, who also directed all sequels except for Rocky V (which was directed again by Avildsen). Creed, yet another sequel, is due to be released in November 2015.
Keith – Million Dollar Baby
Million Dollar Baby is a 2004 American sports drama film directed, co-produced and scored by Clint Eastwood, and starring Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman. This film is about an underappreciated boxing trainer, the mistakes that haunt him from his past, and his quest for atonement by helping an underdog amateur boxer (the film’s title character) achieve her dream of becoming a professional.
Million Dollar Baby opened to wide acclaim from critics, and won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Its screenplay was written by Paul Haggis, based on short stories by F.X. Toole, the pen name of fight manager and “cutman” Jerry Boyd. Originally published under the title Rope Burns, the stories have since been republished under the film’s title.
David – Raging Bull
Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical black-and-white sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from Jake LaMotta’s memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, an Italian American middleweight boxer whose self-destructive and obsessive rage, sexual jealousy, and animalistic appetite destroyed his relationship with his wife and family. Also featured in the film are Joe Pesci as Joey, La Motta’s well-intentioned brother and manager who tries to help Jake battle his inner demons, and Cathy Moriarty as his wife. The film features supporting roles from Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana and Frank Vincent.
Scorsese was initially reluctant to develop the project, though he eventually came to relate to La Motta’s story. Schrader re-wrote Martin’s first screenplay, and Scorsese and De Niro together made uncredited contributions thereafter. Pesci was an unknown actor prior to the film, as was Moriarty, who was suggested for her role by Pesci. During principal photography, each of the boxing scenes was choreographed for a specific visual style and De Niro gained approximately 60 pounds (27 kg) to portray La Motta in his later post-boxing years. Scorsese was exacting in the process of editing and mixing the film, expecting it to be his last major feature
After receiving mixed initial reviews (and criticism due to its violent content), it went on to garner a high critical reputation and is now regarded among the greatest American films ever made, including by Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune, British film historian Leslie Halliwell, the American Film Institute, Time, The New York Times, Variety, Entertainment Weekly, Empire, Total Film, Film 4, and BFI’s Sight and Sound. It was listed in the National Film Registry in 1990, its first year of eligibility. Raging Bull is voted by many critics including Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel as the best film of the 1980s. The film is now regarded by many to be Scorsese’s magnum opus.
Keith – Cinderella Man
Cinderella Man is a 2005 American drama film by Ron Howard, titled after the nickname of heavyweight boxing champion James J. Braddock and inspired by his life story. The film was produced by Howard, Penny Marshall, and Brian Grazer. Damon Runyon is credited for giving Braddock this nickname. Russell Crowe, Renée Zellweger and Paul Giamatti star.
David – Victory
Escape to Victory, known simply as Victory in North America, is a 1981 film about Allied prisoners of war who are interned in a German prison camp during World War II who play an exhibition match of Association football against a German team. The film was directed by John Huston and starred Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Max von Sydow and Daniel Massey.
The film received great attention upon its theatrical release, as it also starred professional footballers Bobby Moore, Osvaldo Ardiles, Kazimierz Deyna, Paul Van Himst, Mike Summerbee, Hallvar Thoresen, Werner Roth and Pelé. Numerous Ipswich Town players were also in the film, including John Wark, Russell Osman, Laurie Sivell, Robin Turner and Kevin O’Callaghan. Further Ipswich Town players stood in for actors in the football scenes – Kevin Beattie for Michael Caine, and Paul Cooper for Sylvester Stallone. The script was written by Yabo Yablonsky. The film was entered into the 12th Moscow International Film Festival
Keith – Rocky
Rocky is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and both written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It tells the rags to riches American Dream story of Rocky Balboa, an uneducated but kind-hearted working class Italian-American boxer working as a debt collector for a loan shark in the slums of Philadelphia. Rocky starts out as a small-time club fighter who later gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship. It also stars Talia Shire as Adrian, Burt Young as Adrian’s brother Paulie, Burgess Meredith as Rocky’s trainer Mickey Goldmill, and Carl Weathers as the champion, Apollo Creed.
The film, made on a budget of just over $1 million and shot in 28 days, was a sleeper hit; it earned $225 million in global box office receipts becoming the highest grossing film of 1976 and went on to win three Oscars, including Best Picture. The film received many positive reviews and turned Stallone into a major star. It spawned five sequels: Rocky II, III, IV, V, and Rocky Balboa, all written by and starring Stallone, who also directed all sequels except for Rocky V (which was directed again by Avildsen). Creed, yet another sequel, is due to be released in November 2015.
David – Bull Durham
Bull Durham is a 1988 American romantic comedy sports film. It is partly based upon the minor league experiences of writer/director Ron Shelton and depicts the players and fans of the Durham Bulls, a minor league baseball team in Durham, North Carolina.
The film stars Kevin Costner as “Crash” Davis, a veteran catcher brought in to teach rookie pitcher Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) about the game in preparation for reaching the Major Leagues. Baseball groupie Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) romances Nuke but finds herself increasingly attracted to Crash. Also featured are Robert Wuhl and Trey Wilson, as well as popular baseball “clown” Max Patkin.
Baseball movies were not considered a viable commercial prospect at the time and every studio passed except for Orion Pictures, which gave Shelton a USD $9 million budget, an eight-week shooting schedule, and creative freedom. Even so, many cast members accepted salaries lower than their usual due to their enthusiasm for the material. Costner was cast because of the actor’s natural athletic ability. During filming, Costner was able to hit two home runs while the cameras were rolling.
Bull Durham was a commercial success, grossing over $50 million in North America, well above its estimated budget, and was a critical success as well. Sports Illustrated ranked it the #1 Greatest Sports Movie of all time. The Moving Arts Film Journal ranked it #3 on its list of the 25 Greatest Sports Movies of All-Time. In addition, the film is ranked #55 on Bravo’s “100 Funniest Movies.” It is also ranked #97 on the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100 Laughs” list, and #1 on Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the 53 best reviewed sports movies of all time.
Keith – The Natural
The Natural is a 1984 sports drama. It is a film adaptation of Bernard Malamud’s 1952 baseball novel of the same name, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close, and Robert Duvall. The film, like the book, recounts the experiences of Roy Hobbs, an individual with great “natural” baseball talent, spanning decades of Roy’s success and his suffering. It was the first film produced by TriStar Pictures.
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Glenn Close), and nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress (Kim Basinger). Many of the baseball scenes were filmed in Buffalo, New York’s War Memorial Stadium, built in 1937 and demolished a few years after the film was produced. Buffalo’s All-High Stadium stood in for Chicago’s Wrigley Field in a key scene.
David -Breaking Away
Breaking Away is a 1979 American coming of age comedy-drama film that follows a group of four male teenagers in Bloomington, Indiana, who have recently graduated from high school. It stars Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern (in his first film role), Jackie Earle Haley, Barbara Barrie, and Paul Dooley.
The film was written by Steve Tesich (an alumnus of Indiana University) and directed by Peter Yates. It was shot in and around Bloomington and on the university’s campus.
Breaking Away won the 1979 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Tesich, and received nominations in four other categories (including Best Picture). It also won the 1979 Golden Globe Award for Best Film (Comedy or Musical), and received nominations in three other Golden Globe categories.
As the film’s young lead, Christopher won the 1979 BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer and the 1979 Young Artist Award for Best Juvenile Actor, as well as getting a Golden Globe nomination as New Star of the Year.
The film is ranked eighth on the List of America’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies compiled by the American Film Institute (AFI) in 2006. In June 2008, AFI announced its “Ten top Ten”—the best ten films in ten classic American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Breaking Away ranked as the eighth best film in the sports genre
And there you have it! Our very own top 10 list of top sports films! What do you think? We want to know! Want to hear more on this, and why we placed them in that certain position? Well now you can! Just listen, or download our Podcast Unlimited episode #22! And to check out our list of Honorable Mentions, you can check out our sister site.