sportsflicks

Kevin Costner's NFL front office opus "Draft Day" is alternately weird, discordant, and improbable—but then again, the real-life Cleveland Browns finally getting their shit together would be the same.

The Jesse Ventura Story should not be the first place to turn to if you're looking to learn the story of Minnesota's 38th Governor. After some 17 years between viewings, it is even crazier than I remembered.

Kevin Costner made a lot of sports movies, and some are good. 'For Love of the Game' gets baseball's glacial pace and self-seriousness right, but not much else.

When 'Major League' was released in 1989, Cleveland was only halfway through an epic championship drought. Surprisingly, the movie still feels fresh.

In 1993, "The Program" set out to address the corruption and compromises of college sports. It didn't do a very good job then, and looks even worse now.

In 1963, George Plimpton went to training camp with the Detroit Lions and wrote a book about it. In 1967, with Alan Alda subbed for Plimpton, it became a movie.

In "Personal Best," the legendary writer Robert Towne set out to make an honest lesbian romance and a movie about training for the Olympics. He sort of succeeded.

Twenty years ago, Adam Sandler was not yet a star, let alone an emblem of fame-burnout. In "Happy Gilmore," he did his thing, squared off with Bob Barker, and won.

Stallone defeated communism in "Rocky IV," but the film in which he teamed up with Pelé and Michael Caine to beat the Nazis at soccer is forgotten. Let's fix that.

In 2012, before he was an MVP but when he was already a superstar, Kevin Durant teamed with (um) Jim Belushi in a body-swap basketball comedy. It's not great, but also: what?

John Milius wrote "Apocalypse Now," directed "Red Dawn," and was the inspiration for "The Big Lebowski"'s Walter Sobchak. His deeply personal surfing-and-war movie is appropriately weird.

Twenty years ago, a pre-genius Judd Apatow wrote a dark comedy in which superfans Daniel Stern and Dan Aykroyd kidnap Utah Jazz star Damon Wayans. It has...aged.