THE WRTING ON (AND OFF) THE WALL FOOTBALL, CLINT'S `BABY' LIGHT UP SILVER SCREEN.Byline: TOM HOFFARTH There's a million and one reasons why Clint Eastwood, Hillary Swank and Morgan Freeman should be preparing Oscar speeches for tonight. The juice behind ``Million Dollar Baby,'' rushed into release at the end of last year so it could be eligible for Academy Award voting, gives everyone a ringside seat as it tries to slug it out for best picture, best actor and actress, best director, best supporting spittoon, best trailer-trash family brawl and, if we're not mistaken, best reason for Hollywood to keep looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. scripts with boxing at its core. But it wasn't the best sports movie of 2004. Pound for pound, that title belongs to a bunch of high school kids from Texas who spent Friday nights under the lights. Since you didn't ask, here's our top 10 and bottom five list of last year's sports-related movies, some of which may even warrant some golden statue recognition: TOP 10 1. ``Friday Night Lights'': Sure, we ``Remember The Titans.'' But without a lot of hype, without any major stars outside of Billy Bob Thornton, and with good intentions, this finally brought to the screen an adaptation of one of the best books ever written about high school football, even if all the facts weren't worth using. The documentary-style that director Peter Berg and producer Brian Grazer went with was the genius way to pull it off. The action might be ``Any Given Sunday'' over-the-top for some realists, but really, what better movie about the circus of prep football has ever been made? And that Tim McGraw has some actin' skills, too. 2. ``Riding Giants'': Stacy Peralta exposes the bigger-than-life souls of big wave surfing Big wave surfing is a discipline in surfing where riders paddle into or are towed onto waves which are at least 20 feet (6,2 m) high, on surf boards known as "guns" or "rhino chasers". The bigger the wave, the faster it travels, and the bigger the surf board needed to catch it. legends Greg Noll, Laird Hamilton and those who dare to take life's biggest risks on a piece of foam - without a seat belt. 3. ``Million Dollar Baby'': In the first hour-thirty, it's a female version of ``Rocky.'' We even want a Hit Pit gym T-shirt. Then it evolves (without giving away the ending) into ``Terms of Endearment en·dear·ment n. 1. The act of endearing. 2. An expression of affection, such as a caress. endearment Noun an affectionate word or phrase Noun 1. .'' Without getting all touchy-feely, this is as much about pugilism pugilism (py  `jəlĭz'əm): see boxing. Pugilism Balboa, Rocky lower-class Philadelphia boxer wins golden opportunity to fight in prize bout. as ``Team America'' was about naked puppetry puppetry Art of creating and manipulating puppets in a theatrical show. Puppets are figures that are moved by human rather than mechanical aid. They may be controlled by one or several puppeteers, who are screened from the spectators. . Great performances all around, but we're pulling the plug right now on any more talk about how it ranks with ``Raging Bull.'' 4. ``Touching the Void'': True story: Two British mountain climbers are stuck on a ledge. Then bad things happen. First, read the book. Then rent this DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. . 5. ``Miracle'': Kurt Russell pulls it off as Herb Brooks, although it was hearing Al Michaels recreate the suspense he did originally on tape-delay for ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. in 1980 that makes it work. 6. ``Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story'': Gross box-office earnings: $166 million, tops among sports-themed movies. Lance Armstrong cameo with Vince Vaughn: Priceless. 7. ``Wimbledon'': Forget that Kristen Dunst couldn't serve her way out of a paper bag. Think Ashley Harkleroad hooking up with Tim Henman. 8. ``3'': Barry Pepper spiced up the role of Dale Earnhardt without a made-for-ESPN maudlin maud·lin adj. Effusively or tearfully sentimental: "displayed an almost maudlin concern for the welfare of animals" Aldous Huxley. See Synonyms at sentimental. performance. 9. ``NASCAR NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), organization that sanctions American stock-car races, est. 1948. It held its first race in Daytona Beach, Fla. 3D: The IMAX IMAX Noun a film projection process that produces an image ten times larger than standard Experience'': If only ``3'' was in 3D. 10. ``Up For Grabs'' and ``This Old Cub'': Two baseball documentaries - one on Barry Bonds' 73rd home run ball, the other on Ron Santo - made the rounds at several film festivals and art houses, and could be in wider distribution this year. BOTTOM FIVE 1. ``Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius'': Jim Caviezel goes from Jesus to a golf god, but not even Mel Gibson could have saved this double bogey. 2. ``Mr. 3000'': Somehow made ``Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle'' look like ``Ben Hur.'' So disappointing, even Dick Enberg (playing himself) failed to muster a believable ``Oh, my!'' 3. ``The Cookout'': A rookie with the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Nets moves into a posh neighborhood and fires up his grill, with Tim Meadows, Farrah Fawcett, Jonathan Silverman, Queen Latifah and Marv Albert. Would have played better as a WB reality show. 4. ``Hustle'': Ted Sizemore's back in jail, and Pete Rose isn't. 5. ``Against the Ropes'': Meg Ryan is the trainer, Omar Epps the potential champ. All of which proves that, when you're making the comparisons of this to ``Million Dollar Baby,'' it's worth the extra dough to cast the right people for the right roles. CAPTION(S): 6 photos, box Photo: (1) no caption (Bryan Payne) (2) JEFF GORDON (3) KEVIN MILLAR (4) JOSE CANSECO (5) no caption (The movie: ``Hardwood'') (6) - San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California that currently play in the National League West Division. New York Giants history Early days and the John McGraw era outfielder Barry Bonds, on fan reaction he receives, during his press conference last week in Phoenix. Box: Sunday PUNCH - Tom Hoffarth |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion