kearly
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I liked the Moneyball quite a bit. It was based on real events and had some insights into Billy Beane's story with the 2002 A's that I didn't previously know, and overall it had an interesting and uplifting message that applied to innovators and early adapters. But even if I knew nothing about sports, Moneyball would have still been a quality movie for its excellent acting, suberb writing (Aaron Sorkin), and solid directing.
By no means did I expect Draft Day to be as good as Moneyball. Really, all I was hoping for was a movie that conveyed what the actual draft experience is like, or failing that, provide us with great acting, witty writing, and a strong production.
Unfortunately, this movie did neither (warning, spoilers).
This movie stars Kevin Costner, who I like, and several other recognizable supporting actors including Dennis Leary and Jennifer Garner. Overall, the acting was remarkably bad, but I think that had more to do with miscasting (Dennis Leary as a football coach) and really, really bad writing. When Roger Goodell and Puff Daddy are two of the better actors in the film, you know you have issues. Costner was probably the only good casting choice they made as he is a veteran of poorly written movies and can still be likeable even when given nothing to work with.
It was directed by Ivan Reitman (!), yes the same Ivan Reitman who directed Ghostbusters, Kindergarten Cop, and Dave. Junior (the Arnold gets pregnant movie) was the last time he'd directed a movie you've probably heard of, and that movie came out in 1994. Couple Reitman with Costner and it's no wonder this movie feels like it came from 20 years ago.
As far as the movie itself, it forces WAY too much non-sports stuff into the story, such as Costner's secret girlfriend getting pregnant, or his mom constantly popping her head in to bother him on one of the biggest days of his life. At one point we see a woman introduced who has one line, and we find out later that's his ex-wife, and then... nothing more. That's it. Why bother with that character?
Not only that, but Costner's future baby mama (played by Garner) isn't just his girlfriend, she's also his front-office Capologist. Yes, I'm serious. I wonder how many women in sports history have been capologists in any of the four major sports, ever? Probably zero or very close to zero. Garner's a trailblazer, and she gets knocked up by her boss, the GM. This would be one of the biggest news stories of the year if it happened in real life, but the movie just plays it off like nobody cares and it's just about them doing their jobs, no big deal. Garner's role feels wholly unnecessary to the story and you really get the feeling she was written into the movie at the last minute for no reason other than to up the star power.
Really the only bright spot in the movie for the characters was the nerdy intern, who was basically a poor man's version of a Jonah Hill archetype.
Unfortunately, the draft portion of the movie isn't much better. We hear some references to past NFL players and the movie actually uses real teams and logos (which is actually pretty uncommon in movies based on pro-football), but all of the prospects are fictional characters and real life NFL players have minimal impact in this movie.
They discuss and show clips of Montana, Elway, and Manning. Ryan Leaf, Tom Brady, Andrew Luck and (indirectly) RG3 are mentioned in passing. It is interesting that Luck and RG3 are both mentioned, but Russell Wilson is not. Probably because the Seattle Seahawks picked #1 in this draft and play an instrumental role in the plot of the movie. A Seahawks team that does not have Russell Wilson at QB, and of course there's no PC/JS either. They don't tell us who owns the #32 pick but I'm guessing it's Philly, who must have drafted Russell Wilson in this alternative universe.
The Seahawks are picking #1, humorously enough only two months after the real life Seahawks delivered one of the most dominating performances in Super Bowl history. In fairness to the movie, it uses a lot of images from the 2012 season and it's likely the script was written in 2011. You might remember that in the Summer of 2011 Seattle was the consensus favorite to win the "Suck for Luck" sweepstakes. Amazing to think- that was just three years ago!
Anyway, the movie feels like it was written by someone who barely follows the NFL, as trades and moves are made in a very unrealistic fashion. Costner trades 3 first rounders for a guy he hasn't researched, without first consulting his coaches or scouts. Obviously, that would never happen, even the three stooges running Cleveland last year would never make such an amazingly incompetent mistake.
Costner also hates his coach (Leary) and makes Baalke-Harbaugh's relationship look like a love affair in comparison, surely a good sign of future success after the movie ends. The movie puts very little value on coach/GM relationship/chemistry, showing the depth of knowledge it possesses. Though ultimately both the coach and GM get what they want, the fact that there was so much clawing and threatening to get there surely doesn't bode well.
Of course, after pulling an RG3 trade to get the #1 pick for the Andrew Luck / Ryan Leaf of this draft, he instead drafts the mid-1st round pass rusher he wanted all along, wasting multiple first round picks and several extra million in cap space. He makes up for it by somehow talking Jacksonville's GM into trading the #6 overall pick for only three 2nd rounders, two of them future picks (which have 3rd round value). Even more ridiculous is that he immediately sells that pick to the Seahawks for his 3 first rounders back, plus their ace kick returner. Completely stupid.
But even ignoring how unlikely and stupid all these trades were, in the end, the Browns end up with a mid-first round grade 4-3 LB pass rusher with a diva attitude on a #1 pick contract and all the entitlement that goes with it, and then they blew three 2nd rounders on a RB and a kick returner, in a modern league where just ONE 2nd rounder usually gets you the best RB in the draft, and upper tier kick returners are usually not hard to acquire. Oh, and the RB has a rap sheet too. Meanwhile, they bank on the supposedly good QB already on their roster who has never stayed healthy in 8 years, and who trashed his GMs office after hearing a rumor. Championship!
Meanwhile the Seahawks are stuck with the guy the movie wants us to believe is a magical blend of Ryan Leaf and Blaine Gabbert because he's a liar with no friends who hears footsteps in the pocket. Or maybe he's the next Brett Favre, because, you know, if you have to dig through the most minute details of a police report to find the slightest issue with a player, you've probably just found one of the safest picks in the draft.
Speaking of the Seahawks, on numerous occasions pictures of the Seahawks team were shown, presumably from 2012 as they were wearing the new uniforms. Both Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor were easy to spot, and Sidney Rice was shown prominently in the movie's end credits, which oddly the entire audience stayed to watch. Yes, these Seahawks were picking #1 in the draft.
Anyway, this was just a really, really bad movie. It's rare I go in with very low expectations and still leave the theater feeling so underwhelmed. Such a boring, pointless, poorly made and above all else- stupid- movie. My brother asked what I thought of the movie in one sentence and I said "it was the Red Tails of NFL Draft movies." (Though in fairness to Red Tails, it may have been a horibad movie but it at least had some awesome CG air raid scenes, and Draft Day was sorely lacking for awesome CG that made you forget how terrible the rest of the movie was). But it also might as well be the "Godfather" of NFL Draft movies, since it's the only movie ever made about the NFL draft. In that sense, I'm kind of glad I saw it, but be warned, this is not a good movie. Not even close.
By no means did I expect Draft Day to be as good as Moneyball. Really, all I was hoping for was a movie that conveyed what the actual draft experience is like, or failing that, provide us with great acting, witty writing, and a strong production.
Unfortunately, this movie did neither (warning, spoilers).
This movie stars Kevin Costner, who I like, and several other recognizable supporting actors including Dennis Leary and Jennifer Garner. Overall, the acting was remarkably bad, but I think that had more to do with miscasting (Dennis Leary as a football coach) and really, really bad writing. When Roger Goodell and Puff Daddy are two of the better actors in the film, you know you have issues. Costner was probably the only good casting choice they made as he is a veteran of poorly written movies and can still be likeable even when given nothing to work with.
It was directed by Ivan Reitman (!), yes the same Ivan Reitman who directed Ghostbusters, Kindergarten Cop, and Dave. Junior (the Arnold gets pregnant movie) was the last time he'd directed a movie you've probably heard of, and that movie came out in 1994. Couple Reitman with Costner and it's no wonder this movie feels like it came from 20 years ago.
As far as the movie itself, it forces WAY too much non-sports stuff into the story, such as Costner's secret girlfriend getting pregnant, or his mom constantly popping her head in to bother him on one of the biggest days of his life. At one point we see a woman introduced who has one line, and we find out later that's his ex-wife, and then... nothing more. That's it. Why bother with that character?
Not only that, but Costner's future baby mama (played by Garner) isn't just his girlfriend, she's also his front-office Capologist. Yes, I'm serious. I wonder how many women in sports history have been capologists in any of the four major sports, ever? Probably zero or very close to zero. Garner's a trailblazer, and she gets knocked up by her boss, the GM. This would be one of the biggest news stories of the year if it happened in real life, but the movie just plays it off like nobody cares and it's just about them doing their jobs, no big deal. Garner's role feels wholly unnecessary to the story and you really get the feeling she was written into the movie at the last minute for no reason other than to up the star power.
Really the only bright spot in the movie for the characters was the nerdy intern, who was basically a poor man's version of a Jonah Hill archetype.
Unfortunately, the draft portion of the movie isn't much better. We hear some references to past NFL players and the movie actually uses real teams and logos (which is actually pretty uncommon in movies based on pro-football), but all of the prospects are fictional characters and real life NFL players have minimal impact in this movie.
They discuss and show clips of Montana, Elway, and Manning. Ryan Leaf, Tom Brady, Andrew Luck and (indirectly) RG3 are mentioned in passing. It is interesting that Luck and RG3 are both mentioned, but Russell Wilson is not. Probably because the Seattle Seahawks picked #1 in this draft and play an instrumental role in the plot of the movie. A Seahawks team that does not have Russell Wilson at QB, and of course there's no PC/JS either. They don't tell us who owns the #32 pick but I'm guessing it's Philly, who must have drafted Russell Wilson in this alternative universe.
The Seahawks are picking #1, humorously enough only two months after the real life Seahawks delivered one of the most dominating performances in Super Bowl history. In fairness to the movie, it uses a lot of images from the 2012 season and it's likely the script was written in 2011. You might remember that in the Summer of 2011 Seattle was the consensus favorite to win the "Suck for Luck" sweepstakes. Amazing to think- that was just three years ago!
Anyway, the movie feels like it was written by someone who barely follows the NFL, as trades and moves are made in a very unrealistic fashion. Costner trades 3 first rounders for a guy he hasn't researched, without first consulting his coaches or scouts. Obviously, that would never happen, even the three stooges running Cleveland last year would never make such an amazingly incompetent mistake.
Costner also hates his coach (Leary) and makes Baalke-Harbaugh's relationship look like a love affair in comparison, surely a good sign of future success after the movie ends. The movie puts very little value on coach/GM relationship/chemistry, showing the depth of knowledge it possesses. Though ultimately both the coach and GM get what they want, the fact that there was so much clawing and threatening to get there surely doesn't bode well.
Of course, after pulling an RG3 trade to get the #1 pick for the Andrew Luck / Ryan Leaf of this draft, he instead drafts the mid-1st round pass rusher he wanted all along, wasting multiple first round picks and several extra million in cap space. He makes up for it by somehow talking Jacksonville's GM into trading the #6 overall pick for only three 2nd rounders, two of them future picks (which have 3rd round value). Even more ridiculous is that he immediately sells that pick to the Seahawks for his 3 first rounders back, plus their ace kick returner. Completely stupid.
But even ignoring how unlikely and stupid all these trades were, in the end, the Browns end up with a mid-first round grade 4-3 LB pass rusher with a diva attitude on a #1 pick contract and all the entitlement that goes with it, and then they blew three 2nd rounders on a RB and a kick returner, in a modern league where just ONE 2nd rounder usually gets you the best RB in the draft, and upper tier kick returners are usually not hard to acquire. Oh, and the RB has a rap sheet too. Meanwhile, they bank on the supposedly good QB already on their roster who has never stayed healthy in 8 years, and who trashed his GMs office after hearing a rumor. Championship!
Meanwhile the Seahawks are stuck with the guy the movie wants us to believe is a magical blend of Ryan Leaf and Blaine Gabbert because he's a liar with no friends who hears footsteps in the pocket. Or maybe he's the next Brett Favre, because, you know, if you have to dig through the most minute details of a police report to find the slightest issue with a player, you've probably just found one of the safest picks in the draft.
Speaking of the Seahawks, on numerous occasions pictures of the Seahawks team were shown, presumably from 2012 as they were wearing the new uniforms. Both Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor were easy to spot, and Sidney Rice was shown prominently in the movie's end credits, which oddly the entire audience stayed to watch. Yes, these Seahawks were picking #1 in the draft.
Anyway, this was just a really, really bad movie. It's rare I go in with very low expectations and still leave the theater feeling so underwhelmed. Such a boring, pointless, poorly made and above all else- stupid- movie. My brother asked what I thought of the movie in one sentence and I said "it was the Red Tails of NFL Draft movies." (Though in fairness to Red Tails, it may have been a horibad movie but it at least had some awesome CG air raid scenes, and Draft Day was sorely lacking for awesome CG that made you forget how terrible the rest of the movie was). But it also might as well be the "Godfather" of NFL Draft movies, since it's the only movie ever made about the NFL draft. In that sense, I'm kind of glad I saw it, but be warned, this is not a good movie. Not even close.
