Champions |
* * * Stars - Rating PG-13 - 2023 - Comedy - 2h 3m
A former minor-league basketball coach is ordered by the court to manage a team of players with intellectual disabilities. He soon realizes that despite his doubts together this team can go further than they ever imagined.
Director: Bobby Farrelly (There's Something About Mary)
Starring: Woody Harrelson Madison Tevlin James Day Keith
Release date: March 10 2023
Official Trailer
Review
Leigh Paatsch | HeraldSun
65% TOMATOMETER
% AUDIENCE SCORE
Same old game but a worthwhile new result
Like many a movie where a small sporting underdog is faced with some big odds to overcome Champions has a very familiar path to follow.
Our heroes will start out with no chance at all. Then their luck will change a little until it starts to feel like they might have some chance after all.
Finally there is the big game the final result of which will go right down to the wire with an outcome sure to have an audience punching the air in triumph.
While we have definitely seen this kind of movie many times before - and undoubtedly will do so again - there is no way anyone will resent the well-worn track taken by Champions.
To put it simply there is a uniquely irresistible and upbeat chemistry shared by the cast of Champions that casually ushers all cynicism out the door.
Woody Harrelson anchors the story in the central role of Marcus a former star basketball coach whose designs on breaking into the NBA big-time have been decimated by two unfortunate incidents in the one night. First of all Marcus pushes over a fellow coach during a televised game that becomes an instant meme on social media.
Then Marcus goes out to a local bar to drown his sorrows an ill-advised move which ends in a drink-driving charge.
The judge hearing the charges against Marcus issues an ultimatum: the defendant can do a stretch in prison for 2 years or fulfil a community service order for 3 months.
Of course Marcus goes with the latter choice which is the sole twist of fate needed to have him coaching a local special-needs basketball team known as the Friends.
It is here that Champions reveals the impressive set of trump cards that will keep you watching right through to the end: its predominantly disabled supporting cast.
Though a majority of the Friends are complete acting rookies their interactions with Harrelson as Marcus (and their unfiltered reactions to some of his more questionable antics) are invariably as convincing as they are endearing.
The three standouts of what turns out to be an all-star team line-up are Madison Tevlin as Cosentino (both the only female player for the Friends and its most earthily outspoken member) James Day Keith as Benny (at loggerheads with an insensitive employer who won't let him play away games) and Bradley Edens as the trick-shot specialist Showtime (who will only ever shoot from outside the three-point line and never when facing the right way).
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