There are certain movies that each guy in their lifetime needs to watch. These are the top ten movies that should be on every man’s list.
Heaven Can Wait
Directed by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry released 1978. This movie is about a quarterback, Joe Pendleton, in the NFL for the Los Angeles Rams who dies in an accident, who learns that his gaurdian angel has mistakenly taken him out of his body. Pendleton finds a body to replace his old one while he falls in love and helps his woman and his football team.
Why should every guy see this movie? “Heaven Can Wait” combines morals and sports. Throughout the movie, Joe Pendleton must go through the adversity of losing his in-shape body and falling in love. Pendleton works through obstacles of finding another body to use while helping the girl he is in love with and getting his team into the Superbowl.
Friday Night Lights
Directed by Peter Burg and released in 2004. Friday Night Lights is set in Odessa, Texas 1988 and based on a true story. The movie is about a football team living up to its football obsessed town, making a run to the state championship playoffs but coming up short in a hard loss ending their season.
Why should every guy see this? Friday Night Lights is definitely a football guy kind of movie. Almost every guy who has played high school football can relate to the struggles and issues throughout the movie. Not only is the movie about America’s game, but it expresses sportsmanship, how to handle adversity and what it means to be on a team and have a family. Every guy should watch this movie.
For Love of the Game
Aging pitcher Billy Chapel plays for the Detroit Tigers, and realizes this game will be the last of his long and stressful career. He dealt with many personal problems, lost his one true love, and his baseball skills seemed to diminish as the years went by. He reminisced on memories he made from playing baseball, good and bad, all on the mound while throwing the best game of his life. As the memories become more vidid and he digs deeper into his personal life, he begins to throw better and is closer to achieving every pitchers dream- a perfect game.
This movie was interesting throughout, and true baseball fans will appreciate the validity of the game and the overall baseball feel of the movie. It’s funny at times, serious at others, and the mood changes multiple times. Kevin Costner plays Billy Chapel, and he does a great job of making his character relatable to the audience. This has a very good storyline, actors, and overall it’s a quality movie, baseball fan or not.
Major League
Rachel Phelps, daughter of the deceased owner of the Cleveland Indians, inherits the team. She wants to move the team to a warmer climate in Miami, but must get ticket sales under 800,000 for the year. She forces the general manager to sign low-end players and career minor leaguers to make sure they end the season in last place. After finding this out, the players have a motivation to win so that the team isn’t able to move. They try to overcome long odds, and win their division.
This movie is extremely funny, with jokes left and right. If you enjoy baseball, and laughing, this is a must-see. There isn’t a dull moment, and the crude humor will catch you off guard.
Miracle
The movie is about the 1980 US hockey team making an amazing run through the Olympics. They play against teams such as Sweden and the Soviet Union. They play through injuries and hard times, eventually winning the gold medal.
This movie shows how if a team can work together, then they can accomplish anything that they set their minds to. This movie is even better because this story is true. Not only that, but the plays and injuries are spot on to what actually happened in 1980.
Radio
Radio is also a great sports movie because of the inspiration as well as the happiness it brings the audience.
It goes through the beginning of Radio’s transformation from a mentally challenged homeless person to earning a spot on the local high school football team’s coaching staff. The team initially bullies him, but then accepts him as their own. The movie ends with pictures of the actual Radio coaching.
This movie is inspirational and shows how anybody can be accepted through the love of sports.
Eight Men Out
This movie is about the 1919 Chicago White Sox and how eight of their players were banned from the MLB for taking part in gambling in the World Series. They took money from gamblers so they would lose the series. The movie focuses on the events leading up to the banishment of the players and the effect it had on the MLB.
This movie is about a big event in Major League Baseball history and is very interesting.
The Blind Side
“The Blind Side” is about a high school age boy, Michael Oher, who was from the projects and runs away from every foster care family he had. Oher eventually has an interaction with Leigh Anne Tuohy and eventually becomes a part of her family. She helps Oher with football and his grades and eventually helps him get admitted to Ole Miss. This movie revolves around the journey Oher took to make it to the NFL.
This movie is very interesting considering it is about an NFL player and how he was able to achieve his goals.
The Natural
Roy Hobbs, a 19 year old phenom is invited to tryout for the Chicago Cubs. On his way he is challenged to strike out “the Whammer”, the best hitter in the major leagues. He accomplishes this and gets back on the train. Once in Chicago he is invited to a hotel room by a girl he met on the train. When Hobbs arrives he is shot and nearly killed by the women. 16 years later Hobbs signs with a team destined to have one of the worst seasons in history. A 36 year old Hobbs helps the team to win a championship, finds his teenage love, and overcomes a deterior stomach lining from the bullet still lodged inside him.
This is one of the most classic baseball movies of all time. It tells a story of a player’s dedication and true love for the game. It also shows that anyone can overcome any obstacle (even a near fatal bullet wound). The movie is full of humor and sports action, this is a must-see film.
The Waterboy
Bobby Boucher, a boy bullied for being socially inept and for his stutter becomes the star football player for the South Central Louisiana State University Mud Dogs. Boucher starts a surge for the mud dogs and leads them all the way to the Bourbon Bowl to face the Mud Dogs rivals, the University of Louisiana Cougers. Boucher suddenly quits after his mom fakes an illness to get Bobby to quit playing football. His mom allows him to play after the whole town shows up outside of his mothers’ window chanting “Bobby! Bobby!” After a halftime speech by Boucher to the losing Mud Dogs, they come back to win the Bourbon Bowl, and change Bobby’s moms’ view on football being the work of the devil.
This movie is full of humor. From the sport of football being called “foosball” to the concept of school being the work of the devil. It is a classic movie that will make you cry from laughter. Any genuine sports fan needs to watch this movie.
