Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to five Minute Film Finder, brought to you by Pioneer Library System.
Hello and welcome to another episode of five Minute Film Finder. I'm Ben.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: And I'm Darren.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: Today we are talking about some sports movies.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Yeah, exciting.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
So I'm not a sports guy, but I love sports movies. Like there's something about the like the like classic tropes and arcs and like the like underdog redemption story.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: You know that there's going to be these story beats in almost every sport movie. Like baseball, football, doesn't matter. There's these certain story beats that you're almost always gonna hit in those movies.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it's almost just like chicken soup. Like you know exactly what you're getting. It's gotta make you feel a certain way. And like you'll certain like it's got the, the comedy side of it and it's got the serious and like the heartfelt side of it. And like equal Measure we've talked about like Sandlot. Oh yeah.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: And Mighty Ducks.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: Those movies, the kids sports movies are like like in another league.
Pun intended.
But like, let's see.
Do you have a favorite sports movie of all time?
[00:01:21] Speaker B: That's a tough one.
I really like bad football movies.
Any football movie is great for me.
We were talking about Wildcats with Goldie Hawn. That's a movie. I liked the Longest Yard. Doesn't matter which version really.
Any given Sunday the program.
Football movies are great. I love football movies. Remember the Titans?
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Remember the Titans? Yeah, That's a great one.
I was a big sucker for the kids ones. So like little giants.
For some reason that one really got me when I was a kid. I think I was like just the right age. I was almost the same age as them at the time. I was just like these little ragtag group of weirdos.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's the Mighty Ducks for me.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: I'm the same age as those kids and I really felt that. And it's filmed in Minnesota. I'm from Minnesota, so it was my movie when I was in there.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Perfectly aligned. Great.
So with all that being said, let's jump into our first movie. If Wilhelm could set our timer, we will be talking about 1989's I Believe.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Major league.
So I'll start us off by reading the IMDb plot synopsis.
The new owner of the Cleveland Indians puts together a purposely horrible team. So they'll lose and she can move the team. When the plot is uncovered, they start winning just to spite her.
Which I mean that covers.
Okay, so sort of the plot yeah, sure.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: And I couldn't help but notice the Ted Lasso vibe. So.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Yeah, that was one of the first things I thought. I was like, this is the Ted Lasso plot. But before these types of movies had to have heart.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Uh huh. Right.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: It was like, oh, no, she can just be evil and selfish.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Doesn't matter.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like. And I was just like, okay.
I bet they watch this and are like, we could do this better.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: We could absolutely take this and like, make it into like a long run stunning, like, heartwarming story.
And it. So it, it's super fun.
It also is a comedy in 1989. So we, we must mention that there are some problematic jokes.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Yes. And that's true. Both of these movies, they're about 10 years, 10 years apart. And there is problematic humor, lots of language. They're both rated R. Yeah. Movies of their time.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So lots of language, lots of crude sex jokes.
But I mean, all that being said, a lot of the humor is like more slapsticky and like silly.
It's not a parody by any means.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: No, but it feels like it gets so close. Like it easily could have been a parody if they just turned it up one notch.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: And I believe, if I'm remembering correctly, the sequels, like dip further into this. It gets a little bit more absurd.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: They also lowered the ratings. So like Raider leagues rated R. The sequels rated pg. Oh, right.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: So it just becomes a cartoon.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, yeah. So they, they took out that adult humor and dialed up the wackiness as they went along in the Major League Series. Yeah. Great.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: So who, who can we talk about in this movie? It's stacked with great actors from that time.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: You. You get an early. Wesley Snipes.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: A flash of his early, like, starring, you know, this was before he was anything big Tom Barringer right in the middle of his, like. I'm a pretty big star at this time. Yeah. Barringer is around a lot.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: Yeah. I believe this same year he was in born on the 4th of July.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Platoon, around that same time as well.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
So we also have a peak 80s. Charlie Sheen.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: Charlie Sheen, yeah, of course. Charlie.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: As wild.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: As Wild Thing with that, with that song, his, his intro music and his haircut and his funny glasses.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: Honestly, that haircut, I was just like, could I pull that off? That's pretty, that Jagged Back is pretty cool.
But this movie's super fun.
As we were talking about just the kind of formula of a sports movie, it goes back and forth between being very funny to having kind of a Serious, heartfelt arc.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: These men actually putting their bodies on the line for this team and growing together.
There is an arc there with most of these guys.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So I was watching this movie, and my wife came in, and she's like, why are these men so old? And I was like, okay, it's part of the plot.
Part of the plot. But also, this was on purpose. However, some of them. It was even, like, a stretch for the plot of the movie, the second picture.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Yeah. He was so old.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: Easily, like, mid to late 40s, maybe 50s at the time. Yes. Yeah.
But the Tom Berger catcher character, like.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: The lead kind of focal point of. He's the lead in the movie. Right.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Everybody else, you know, and easily, like, the most serious and gruff, like, kind of character.
He also is the love story of our movie with Rene Russo, an early Renee Russo, also, kind of, like, peak of her powers, like, because she was also a supermodel right at the time.
And, like, their story is, like, very, like, real of, like, he needed to learn to grow up. And she was like. She had to retire from sports because she was, like, an Olympic swimmer.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: Swimmer, I believe. Swimmer.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Yeah. And. And she funny enough for our tie in. She was. She became a librarian.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: I was, like, really proud of developing split.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: Already.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
But, like, it was really fun to have that kind of real arc in it because it kind of grounds everything. And you're like, okay, yeah, these are a bunch of, like, baby boys who are in their late 30s and or 40s still.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: And kind of illustrates that point that he. And he's kind of like, he's representing all of the other players kind of. Right. Like, as that man in that role. So. Yeah.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
So to wrap up, I would suggest, if you love a sports movie, if you love a fun movie.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Any fan of underdogs? Yeah. Right. You know, this is a good underdog movie.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Yeah. If you like Ted Lasso. But you don't need a redemption for the bad guy.
It's a good one.
So we'll take a quick break, and we'll be right back with our next movie.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: All right.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: And we are back. And I'm gonna throw to Darren for our next movie. Wilhelm, start the timer. And what are we talking about?
[00:08:39] Speaker B: So we have another sports movie like we've talked about. This one is going to be from 1999, 10 years after major league. We have mystery Alaska.
The IMDb description is, the residents of a small town get overexcited when their hockey team gets chosen to host a televised event, which does not at all describe like what this movie actually is about, which is about a professional hockey team going to nowhere to play a scrimmage against some dudes on an ice on a pond. Like some guys in Alaska, who are they live breathe hockey in this town. That's the idea is like they all grow up skating. If you can't skate, skate. They call you mean names and run you out of town. Yeah.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Quite literally for one of the characters.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Yes.
We have a relatively early American starring role for Russell Crowe.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: I was so shocked at how young he was when he came on the show.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: And he's an old man. Right. In the movie because you know, he's kind of like the Tom Beringer thing where he's, he's, he's getting slow. His legs are a little slow because he's, he's an old man. He's the sheriff of this little town.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: In Alaska, Mystery, Alaska. And he's a. He's a hockey player. There's. They're all hockey players in this town.
And through a media guy's machinations they.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: End up former president from the town and.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: And former flame of the sheriff's wife. Russell Crowe's wife in this movie. Great cast you have. The guy we're talking about, Hank Azaria is the. The guy who used to live in.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: The town who you may know from a million voices on the Simpsons. On the Simpsons.
But I think this movie was so much fun. However a strange one given that it's 10 years after our last movie. Looks older than.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Major League. Just like the it and they had similar budgets.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: It was interesting. I looked them up the way these.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Major league had a $33 million budget and mystery Alaska had a $28 million and that's later. So I guess that's less.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: Yeah sure. Inflation, all that stuff. But.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: But still is kind of curious. Like I didn't expect it to be a 10 year gap just by the visual aesthetic of the two movies. And we should also mention the director of this movie is Jay Roach, who you may know as the director of all of the Austin Powers movies.
This movie came out the same year as the second Austin Powers movie, the Spy who Shagged Me. So a movie with a huge budget that looked great. So it's almost like the like priority wasn't super heavy on this one. So it was just kind of like let's just make a fun little fast movie.
But it's got a stacked cast, huge cast.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Even the minor supporting characters are actors that have either been in a bunch of stuff doing that kind of supporting acting role or have gone on to do more stuff later.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: Yeah. I'd say this movie's silliness feels more grounded. It just feels like all the jokes are from a. These are small town people who are a bit crass.
But none of it feels like we got this crazy cast of characters that's like, oh no. These all feel like friends in a town.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Yeah. The guys that stand out are, you know, the womanizer or the big guy. Like it's not. And the big guy is nice. He's ridiculously nice. Tree. His name is Tree.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: They have to talk him into being mean.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Being the enforcer. Kevin Durand in an early role from him. You've seen him in a bunch of stuff.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, playing the big guy. Yeah. He's been in action movies my whole life.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
So were you a hockey guy? Because you're from Minnesota.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: So I couldn't skate.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: Couldn't skate.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: It was terrible, terrible skater.
And so that was a tragedy of my youth.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I briefly played roller hockey at the skating rink in Norman. But there's something great about hockey movies, I think because we're both in the age range for Mighty Ducks.
I think this probably at the tail end of that because I think the first Mighty Ducks was in like 92.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: Sounds right.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: And spanned about five years after that for the sequels. But I think maybe like the. The attention was waning for. For hockey movies and they're hoping to.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: Make like get those adults, you know that. Yeah.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: You guys liked it, right?
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: We're still doing it.
So curious, like what a. Like not over the top movie this is. Right from that same director at the same time that he's doing Austin Powers. Mike Myers does make a cameo in this movie as a hockey commentator.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: Funny, super funny little role he's got.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: It's like very classic of the time. Just like fast quippy. And there's Wilhelm.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: There's Wilhelm.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: But like I found this movie like similarly like I think it has a little more heart than Major League.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: It. The. It's more. He's. It's about a family man. Right. Like he's a family man. His kids are in this movie. So it's a little different from Russell CROs perspective and that.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: And like it. It all felt a bit more real. It's like. And like about community and like not.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: About sports stars that are kind of, you know, with Major League where they're kind of above the. The common man. Right. This is. This was about common men.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Playing.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: Caring about the sport.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And then going to play these hockey players and. And doing pretty well. Yeah.
[00:14:22] Speaker A: And like, it's. It's a fun movie. Like, even just like the opening little montage of the young guy skating on skating with like, there's like some huge mounds of ice and it's like, kind of beautiful. In that moment, you're like, oh, this is like, it has like something like they clearly, like, had their moments that were in Alaska. I don't know how much they actually shot there, but, like, they clearly had their moments in the real place and.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: It like, show looking good in those points.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
But that being said, I think we can highly recommend both of these movies.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: Another underdog movie. Like we talked about, both underdog heavily featured that kind of feeling, so. But yeah, you know, a good little cast of weirdos in both movies.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
Well, thank you for listening. If you. If you love a sports movie, check these out. I believe these were both on Hoopla this time.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Sounds right.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: I don't believe either of them were on Kanopy, so check those out and we will see you next time.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: Thanks for having me. Bye.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Five Minute Film Finder is a digital program brought to you by Pioneer Library System in Oklahoma.
All opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and not those of the organization.
Five Minute Film Finder is produced, recorded and mixed by Ben C. Theme music by Ben C.
If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please email podcast at pioneerlibrariesystem. Org. Remember to like, review and subscribe.
Thanks for listening.
