Draft Day

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source: Draft Day

This is a strange movie for many reasons...the relationships between the GM and unsigned players and his coach seem very unrealistic. No unsigned player is calling up a NFL GM on his cell phone and telling him what number to draft him at. Nor is anyone happy to go to Cleveland who hasn't won a championship since 1964 especially a first round QB pick. And no coach is setting fires in his GM's office and calling out his relationships. And no player is trashing the GM's office. No GM goes against his owners wishes on draft day...that's just silly Costner comes off a bit bland as do most of the actors, I don't feel they really care about the script. The young players are the best of them. The whole relationship thing with his pregnant girlfriend is very boring and the mother is annoying. The film is watchable but again the acting (fans, guys around the GM, coach) all come off as acting and not natural. Must have been embarrassing for the filmmakers to have Seattle with the number one pick (worst record the year before) as they won the Superbowl by a huge margin and then have this movie come out in April 2014

Surprisingly good football movie about Cleveland Browns general manager Kevin Costner on the day of the NFL draft. I say surprisingly because I wasn't expecting much. These sports dramas, particularly the football ones, often bore me. This one started off kind of like that and I was worried at first. But it picked up and I was soon wrapped up in the story. That's in large part due to the fine cast, especially Kevin Costner. You might ask why I watched this if I typically don't like sports dramas. Well the short answer is because Tom Welling from Smallville is in it. My friend was going to watch it for him so I thought "might as well." Turns out his role is pretty small. Anyway, it's a good movie. If you're not into football and you think that might keep you from enjoying this, don't worry. You don't really have to be a football fan to follow along with the plot. It's more about the behind-the-scenes business of football than the game itself.

I was tempted to give this movie a 1, but then I bumped it up to 2 because it succeeds as a feel good movie. My girlfriend is a football fan, and she liked it. So I think that's pretty much who this movie works for. Anyone who isn't so serious about movies that they puke at all the clichés. And also someone who isn't so serious about football that they become enraged at the lack of realism. Unfortunately I'm both of those things... Where this movie suffers is that it doesn't try to be unique at all. Instead of relying on the actual drama that is the NFL draft, it takes the cheap route and focuses on all this personal nonsense that no one cares about. The characters are thin, and the cast (outside of a few) isn't strong enough to pull off what little they have to work with. The Browns GM and staff is ridiculously dumb. People are saying that the trade he made was unrealistic, but that's not true. The real life Browns almost traded 3 1st for Andrew Luck, who is what Bo Callaghan is suppose to be a version of. What makes the Browns GM so inept is his lack of communication, his whole staff's lack of preparation (you scout EVERYONE, not just the guy you expect to take), and how indecisive he is... The ONLY thing that bails him out after he digs himself into this great big hole, you guessed it, conveniently dumber adversaries. They make the Jaguars GM the dumbest human on earth! Not only does he get fleeced (and if you blame it on him being a rookie, the safe pick was taking the QB) but he's so dumb he doesn't just call the Seahawks and cause a bidding war for his pick. The Seahawks GM should've already been on the phone with the Broncos, the Jags, etc if he wanted the QB so badly. No one just waits for a player to fall, all GMs are proactive, it's the nature of the competition. Because there's no telling which one of the other 31 teams will trade up ahead of you. It's not as simple as "the Broncos wont take him because they have a QB" they wont, but they will trade the pick to someone who will. If the kid is valued worth 3 1st, then someone would've offered at least 1 to take him at 4. Seriously, this movie is just painful if you actually follow the draft... and I'm assuming that's the demographic they were going after when they decided to make a movie about the draft. I really do hate movies like this. They are fun enough when you're watching them. But as soon as they end and you reflect, it's like swiss cheese, so many holes.

I'm a huge NFL fan. The Redskins are my favorite team, have been for 40 plus years. I was looking forward to a "football" movie. What I got was a stupid soap opera. I wanted some freaking football. More action, diagnosis of players. Character development. The film, in order to make any sense, should have started with Cleveland and Seattle's season before to explain why they were in the draft position they were in. Have Costner and pals in the film room diagnosing why their team sucks and why they want to move up in the draft to fill a needed position with a potential star to begin with. It makes no sense. Especially since the Seahawks won the freaking Super Bowl this year. They have the LAST pick in the first round. But no, a bunch of rudimentary split screen conversation that is complete BS and uninteresting. By the way, Costner just wouldn't wake up on draft day at 9am and mess around talking to people. He would have been up all night and if he went to sleep at all would have woken up at the teams complex. 'Draft Day' blows, whether you're a football fan or not. Watch a daily soap opera, it's more interesting and dramatic.

I'm always up for a good football movie and I'm pretty sure that hasn't been one since 2009 when The Blind Side came out. Now, we have a new story from director Ivan Reitman about that one day in the NFL offseason everyone anticipates, Draft Day. The film begins hours before the NFL Draft begins, and Sonny Weaver Jr. (Kevin Costner) is just getting ready for the day that may make or break his tenure as the General Manager of the Cleveland Browns. Sonny knows everything that is going on even before getting to the office. He has ESPN on his TV at home, and listens to all the sports radio talk. Early in the day, Sonny makes a deal with the Seattle Seahawks, who have the #1 pick and are expected to take hotshot quarterback Bo Callahan. The deal involved the Browns getting the #1 pick from the Seahawks in exchange for their first round picks for the next three seasons. Everyone is expecting Sonny to pick Callahan, but there are two other prospects Sonny is interested in: a linebacker with a good heart but a mouth on him named Vontae Mack (Chadwick Boseman) and running back Ray Jennings (Current Houston Texans running back Arian Foster), whose father Earl (Terry Crews) was a Browns legend. This move has made Browns fans happy put has angered some Browns personnel, such as head coach Vince Penn (Denis Leary) and starting quarterback Brian Drew (Tom Welling). Ultimately, the choice belongs to Sonny, who is also facing some personal issues with his father, a legendary coach, having passed away a week before the film begins and his girlfriend and fellow co-worker Allie (Jennifer Garner) is pregnant with his child. The film goes through Sonny's day with dealing all the pressure, especially from owner Anthony Molina (Frank Langella). Ivan Reitman has done an awesome job of telling a football story revolving around a big media frenzy every year. I like that he focuses the story on Kevin Costner's sunny and making about the GM of the team, a very tough job indeed. He and director of photography Eric Steelburg (who has shot Reitman's son's films) do a nice job of intertwining the phone conversations between any two characters, usually Sonny and somebody else. Kevin Costner is just excellent at the front and center of this film. He is great at being the man under pressure from every one and their cousin as his job is on the line. Jennifer Garner is good in her part as girlfriend Allie, but I think any actress could have played that part. Denis Leary is great as the coach who wants to win. Frank Langella was enjoyable as the owner, but my favorite supporting performance was Chadwick Boseman as hothead linebacker Vontae Mack. Cleveland Browns fans will certainly be happy with this film being about their team. While I am not a Browns fan, I got a football movie I highly enjoyed.