Is the NFL's first licensed film a boom or bust?
Sports films are some of the
trickiest sub-genre films to pull off within Hollywood. Within that subcategory, football films are an even tougher sell.
Sports films always seem to be hit or miss. You either seem to get an enduring emotional
journey or a forgettable macho piece of garbage that fails to cover the essence
of the particular sport the film features. Often this is the case due to lack of willingness from professional
sports organizations to lend their likeness rights. Well, that was all before the film Money Ball transcended the sub-genre
garnering Academy praise in several categories.
Suddenly the hottest sport in America, the NFL, thought "Hey! If the MLB
can make a great film based on personnel decisions, so can we. Draft
Day is on the clock after the break…..
In Draft Day, director Ivan Reitman takes audiences into an ultra
fictionalized National Football League in which the Cleveland Browns have a
competent General Manager in Sonny Weaver Jr. (Kevin Costner), and the Seattle
Seahawks are picking number one. The film revolves around the wheeling and
dealing of several draft picks in order to obtain a coveted Andrew Luck-like quarterback
prospect. Sadly, just as the real Browns
organization can’t give Cleveland fans a decent product on the field in reality,
Reitman can’t give audiences a decent fictionalized version of the Brown’s Draft
Day.
This film is full of flaws throughout,
which Reitman tries to (possibly successfully) hide behind the NFL
shield. Characters are supposed to be
funny or clever, but they are not. Certain
situations are supposed to invoke emotion when they do not. Who cares if a character's father passed when
the character is a hollow as Sonny Weaver, Jr. (Costner)? How I am supposed to care about the future of
a coach who is a complete jerk (as Dennis Leary seems to be in every role he
takes these days -see his performance
as Captain Stacey in The Amazing
Spiderman if you don’t believe me)?
You sort of feel for quarterback Brian Drew (Thomas Welling), but what
could have been a landmark performance for Mr. Smallville himself feels flat. As
for the rest of the cast, they are not even worth mentioning outside of a decent
cameo from the Texan’s running back Arian Foster.
The only place Draft Day
really succeeds is through high stakes Draft Day drama that is as good as the
Draft has become. NFL fans can only
dream of this happening in real life. Especially Browns
Fans! However, the implausibility of
Kevin Costner’s Draft Day deals are enough to take even the least competent NFL fans out of the film, ultimately
leading to a bust in the NFL’s rookie attempt at a feature film.
Confirmed: EH
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