Film #2: The Forgotten (The Replacements)
I’m a sucker for a football movie. I cried at Rudy. Any Given Sunday sent chills up my spine. But this. This is one I can’t stop watching. Sure, it’s got way too familiar plot (a bunch of rag-tag losers learn how to win and believe in themselves) and the entire film is super-predictable, but this is just a fun film to watch.
Keanu stars as former college stand-out Shane Falco, who washed out of his NFL career, but gets a second chance when the NFL goes on strike. Reeves doesn’t do a hell of a lot here in terms of acting. It’s his on the field work where he really wins you over. He’s so damn believable as a starting QB, that you can’t help but root for his character. Hell, he was so good there were rumors Baltimore Ravens offered him a contract after the movie was over.
However, it’s actually the rest of the cast that makes The Replacements so good. Any time you can get Orlando Jones, Faizon Love, Rhys Ifans and Jon Favreau onscreen together, you’re going to have some fun onscreen moments. The best has to be when Jones’ cocky wide receiver is trying to seduce a reporter during an interview and Favreau just shoves Jones as hard as he can into ais locker, then he stares into the camera, almost bursting into laughter and walks away. It’s this really weird moment that I cannot stop laughing at.
And yes, the movie is totally predictable — but you still fall for it. You get caught up in the emotion of the game. You root for the guys even though you know exactly what’s going to happen. Maybe it’s the magic of the sport of football or maybe the team who made this movie knows how to make something tried and true still seem special.
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