Best and Worst Sports Movies

Next week ESPN is having a special on the best sports movies. So before we see their picks, we should make our own.

Best - "Caddyshack", "Hoosiers", "Ragging Bull", "Rudy", "The Sandlot", "Major League", "Remember the Titans"

Worst - "Caddyshack 2", "Any Given Sunday" (sorry Al), "The Fan" (sorry Bobby), "Happy Gilmore", "Rocky V", "A League of Their Own", "Eddie"

Best- Ragingbull, Caddyshack, Any Given Sunday, Rocky, Rudy

Worst- Radio, Hoosiers, Caddyshack 2, Rocky V, Tincup, The Program

Perhaps my all time favorite...

Slapshot! Whether you love it or hate it, at very least admit that it was just ahead of its time.

tony b.

"Eddie Shore, Toe Blake, old time hockey..."

My ten favorite sports movies:

10. Chariots of Fire - Beautifully choreographed film about sports competition.

9. Jerry Maguire - Touching story about being all you can be.

8. The Pride of the Yankees - Its over dramatized, not-too-factual, overly emotional, but it works!

7. The Longest Yard - Very funny football flick that makes ya feel good.

6. Seabiscuit - Underdog, little horse that did it all. A wonderful story.

5. A League of Their Own - Touching (true) story of overlooked athletes.

4. Rocky - Hokey and predictable, it'll get ya cheering for the underdog (in all of us).

3. The Hustler - Wonderful drama with Paul Newman at his best.

2. Raging Bull - Fantastic portrayal by DeNiro as a self-destructive fighter.

And my favorite sports film ...

1. Field of Dreams - Emotional story about resolving issues of your life, with baseball as its backdrop.

Good call on Field of Dreams. I forgot about Kostner's other good movie.

"Raging Bull" for me. Not only the all-time greatest sports movie, but one of the all-time greatest movies, period.

SC's list is pretty good, altho I don't know if pool ("The Hustler") is a sport or a game.

I might throw "Bull Durham" (also with Costner) in there somewhere. Also, "Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956), the Rocky Graziano story, was very good. Paul Newman, in his third-ever film, gives an excellent performance as Rocky, and Robert Loggia, lately of The Sopranos and well known here as Frank Lopez in "Scarface", makes his film debut.

And if pool is a sport, and poker is also as raggingbull says, then "Rounders" with Matt Damon and Ed Norton would be on my list

I'd say Raging Bull or the Rocky's too. I've seen this commercial & I can't believe someone put Remember the Titans up there. Yeah it's not a bad movie, but it does NOT compare to Rocky or Raging Bull!

I don't know if these are the greatest sports movies (they're probably not), but these are sports movies that I just enjoy watching, in no particular order...

- Necessary Roughness - also starring Robert Loggia
- Happy Gilmore - "Friends listen to "Endless Love" in the dark!"
- Field of Dreams - great movie
- Best of the Best - one of the few taekwondo movies out there; stars Eric Roberts, Julia Robert's brother
- Rudy - before he became the Fat Hobbit
- Rocky - I always train to the soundtrack
- Jerry Maguire - enjoyable sports movie/bordering on chick flick

Remember the Titans should definetly be on it. It's an amazing movie. -Pat

It's good & sweet, and makes you feel all warm & fuzzy inside, but I wouldn't go as far as calling it amazing. I think Miracle was better than it.

White man can't jump is great.

and while Rocky I is one of the best sports movies, Rocky V is probably the worst ever

I like SC's list. Also agree with pl - "Somebody Up There Likes Me."

Some other unmentioned:
"Bang the Drum Slowly" - Very Early Robert DeNiro and Michael Moriarity.

"The Jim Thorpe Story" - sentimental because I was a Jim Thorpe fan (went to grade school with his grandson, named Thorpe Seely, but not like grandpa, wild kid, killed in a car accident at age 14.)

"League of Their Own" - probably because of Hanks, "There's no crying in baseball!"

"All the Right Moves" with Tom Cruise

the wrestling moving with Matthew Modine. the name escapes me.

Yea good call on "White Men Cant Jump." Probably my favorite basketball movie.

My favorite basketball movie is "Space Jam".

MaryCas, the Matthew Modine movie was Visionquest! Very good, very underrated. Linda Fiorentionoinntoonoo....(Mrs. Steven Segal)...co-starred.

To my list of the worst...add Fear Strikes Out.

In college, a long time ago in a decade far, far away, during Holloween, I saw a guy dressed as Jimmy Piersall, wearing a Boston Red Sox baseball uniform and carrying a large section of cyclone fence...

tony b.

My favourites:
Raging Bull, The Hustler, The Color of Money.

Mick

Absolutely. This one can also be in the "Movies that make you cry" thread.

I forgot that one. Actually I thought it was kind of good. The book was OK also.

I remember when Piersall played briefly for the Mets in 1963.

He hit a home run, and then ran the bases backwards

On the flip-side, Jimmy Piersall and Harry Caray might have been one of the better play-by-play and color commentary combinations in baseball when they worked together with the White Sox! Very entertaining...they were in the booth almost 25 years ago to the day when the Disco Demolition promtion took place.

The book is good, the movie flawed because of Anthony Perkin's poor athletic ability. Bad compromise since Piersall was an elegant fielder and good hitter over a nearly 20 year major league career.

tony b.

I've got to go with Rocky for a favorite. Great music, predictable but still great story. I made sure to have a picture taken in front of the Rocky statue at the Spectrum in Philly.

I don't think it was that predictable. After all, he didn't win.

I was watching some of "Rocky" last night on AMC. Was the actor who played Willi Cicci in "Godfather" and "GFII" the guy whom Rocky collected for in the beginning of the film? He had glasses and looked to have put on some weight, but I think it was him. Maybe if the guy held a hose for Rocky to drink out, I could be certain...

He's the same. (Joe Spinell)

Thanks SC.

Head on over to ESPN because the question of the day asks what the greatest sports movie is. Here's the results so far:

1) Caddyshack (32%)
2) Hoosiers (30%)
3) Field of Dreams (24%)
4) Bull Durham (10%)
5) Raging Bull (5%)

I voted for Raging Bull & I can't believe it's in dead last with only 5%!

I thought I heard on ESPN Radio that Hoosiers won. They're all debatable. Out of those 5, I would vote for Field of Dreams. But my real vote would go to Major League. Being a life-long Indians fan, the movie's ending was very improbable at the time of its release (1989). Thank goodness we reached the World Series in '95 & '97. I still can't believe we couldn't win one title.

It's true that Hoosiers won. Major League was a great movie, despite the horrible reviews it might have received when it came out. I am not a big Indians fan, but you do find yourself rooting for them to beat the Yanks, and the film placed 14th on the list. Too bad the sequels had to suck, though.

Capo
Right on about the sequels. I didn't even bother with the 3rd one. I don't know if any sequel is as bad as Caddyshack II. I don't know how Jackie Mason showed his face in public after that debacle.

I actually liked "Major League 2".

I'm with you Freddie C. I liked the 2nd one better than the first one.

The football factory is a class film aswell as rocky I&II while rocky V was just like how the hell is this film this bad its so bad makes my teeth hurt

Last night on ESPN Classic, I watched "Knute Rockne All American" for the first time. I really liked it. It's kinda corny, but is still really good. And of course there's Ronald Reagan's famous line... "Win just one for the Gipper".

My two favorite are Slap Shot and Caddyshack. The 2 worst are probably the sequels. Caddyshack 2 is one of the worst movies ever made, and Slap Shot 2 I believe never even made it into theaters. It went straight to video.

raggingbull2003, you hated HOOSIERS? Boo!

Oh Freddie C., I love you man, but there are far worse football movies than ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, trust me(in fact, I thought REMEMBER THE TITANS was actually worse).

I agree that MAJOR LEAGUE was pretty darn good. However, what irony is how the movie's plot about the owner trying to move the Indians to Miami....and the poor Indians losing to (MY) Florida Marlins in the World Series in 1997. Man the irony is as thick as this very delicious mustard-laden turkey sandwich I'm eating at the moment.....yum!

Freddie C, I also watched Knute Rockne, All American the other night. It is a little hokey, but the acting is good so it doesn't degenerate into a lame movie. And the football action is choreographed very well.

If the definition of "sports" could be expanded to include surfing and dirt bike racing, I would have to add The Endless Summer and On Any Sunday, two classics by director Bruce Brown.

The Endless Summer is best viewed on the biggest screen possible...if you have a projector, it's even better.

tony b.

Another good surfing movie is BIG WEDNESDAY, co-written and directed by John Milius(who among other things was a scripter on APOCALYPSE NOW and later directed CONAN THE BARBARIAN).

It's hard to pick a favorite but it's also hard to go against Rocky. A bad one that I can think of right now is the Rodney Dangerfield one, The Ladybugs.

For a more recent one, I suggest Friday Night Lights, it was done very well and seems like it almost went unnoticed when it came out.

here mine

bad news bears
any givien sunday
Rocky
lucas
rudy