#22 - Leatherheads

Movies come in pairs. A movie will come out, and then a very similar one will come out soon afterwards. Armageddon has Deep Impact, A Bug's Life has Antz, and now we have a new duo: Leatherheads has Semi Pro.

Now here me out. How is a Will Ferrell same old comedy about basketball and a George Clooney directed movie about Football the same? Besides the whole sports thing?

Many things. There's the whole shenanigans filled league of a popular sport just before it was revolutionized. There is the air of slapstick comedy in each. And each fell incredibly short of their expectations.

This movie does not get the benefit of the Theory of Will Ferrell Movie Repetition, it must stand and then fall on its own. It really shouldn't have. It had a solid equation to impress me: George Clooney, someone who I often enjoy and respect; John Krasinski, not a big office guy but I have enjoyed him in everything I have seen him in; and most importantly, this is a football movie, and I have a raging boner for football movies. I legit own most of them, and intend on owning almost all of them (screw you Facing the Giants, don't you use my favorite sport as a platform for converting heathens).

But this movie did have one glaring problem with it going in: Renee Zellweger. Note to Hollywood, she sucks and is not attractive in anyway. She was supposed to a 31 year old Hottie that seduced and got in between Cloon and Kras. Bullshit. She is homely. Maybe it is just me, but I don't find someone attractive who looks like she constantly is sucking on the most powerful lemon known to man. Maybe it is just personal taste.

So this is a throwback to the screwball comedies of the 40s and 50s. Clooney is a smooth talking head of the Duluth Bulldogs. It takes place in the Post WWI age when college football ruled, and the Pro's were a bunch of drunk criminals (Cincinnati Bengals).

John Krasinski plays the golden boy college star/war hero. He is famous all over the country, because he apparently made an entire battalion of Germans soldiers surrender (technically, which causes shit to happen later). Clooney gets him to come to Pro Football to have people start to come watch it. They together are a dynamic duo on the field, but compete off the field for Renee (gonna vom).

So Renee is there to screw over Kras, and does. It becomes a giant BS fest, and plenty of stuff happens. But it is allllllll boring. There was some funny parts, but all in all, this comedy was not funny. Most of the best parts was Clooney's charisma and chauvinism. He was really solid in this, as an actor and a director. And even though the WGA did not give him credit on the script, I think that is where he fell short. Not enough funny, too much boring.

So yeah, my review was about on par with the movie. My writing fell short, so did George's. I love sports movies, I especially love football movies, but I can't say I love this one. For football movies, I put this somewhere behind Radio and somewhere ahead of All the Right Moves. Will I buy it? There's a chance, you never know. Will I be proud of it? Prob not. I give this movie a MEH-UMBLE!!!

Date: 4.4.08
Cost: $8.00
Running Time: 114 minutes
Companions: André Roussimoff
Anticipated Spot on the 100: 55