Episodes
Thursday Nov 28, 2019
Ep. 39 - The Hurricane
Thursday Nov 28, 2019
Thursday Nov 28, 2019
Because it’s more of a courtroom movie than a sports flick, The Hurricane makes for a curious choice for our 39th Scoring At The Movies episode.
Denzel Washington is outstanding in director Norman Jewison’s penultimate film and the rest of the cast is certainly fine, but we had issues with how they presented Rubin Carter’s checkered history. He was wrongly imprisoned, but also wrongly depicted.
We could have used a lot less of the Canadians (doesn’t everyone feel that way?) and we’d rather have had more prickly Rubin instead of (mostly) saintly Rubin. So this one is far more about racial bigotry and America’s messed-up justice system than it is about boxing, but… Well, just hit that play button on the ‘Cane 'cast to find out so much more.
Pedantry Alert: The 4th movie we’ve covered this year that Ryan hadn’t previously seen before doing it for the podcast was Creed II. Also, When They See Us was actually released this year, not last year. Also also, when talking about the bleak palette, Ryan wasn’t very clear about saying “a prison AND Canada”, not “a prison IN Canada”.
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The website: scoringatthemovies.podbean.com
Thursday Nov 14, 2019
Ep. 38 - Blue Chips
Thursday Nov 14, 2019
Thursday Nov 14, 2019
The performances by the blue-chip prospects (not to mention Nick Nolte as their complicated coach) in Blue Chips, the 38th episode of Scoring At The Movies, are so much better than the movie as a whole.
Was the problem with the script, even though sports-movie guru Ron Shelton wrote this? Was it poor choices in William Friedkin’s direction, particularly the inappropriate use of so much classic rock on the soundtrack? Was it studio interference? Well, something was missing in any case, especially in the movie’s crappy second half. We DID appreciate the main theme of the massive corruption that’s long been present in “amateur” sports. The students are really just unpaid servants.
This episode isn’t all serious criticism though. We enjoyed some of the film’s humorous touches, plus Ryan has a fun rant about “directional” schools. So don’t take a payoff...or abruptly quit because you were the payoffer. Just dunk this one into your earholes!
Twitter time: @moviefiend51 and @scoringatmovies
Our website: scoringatthemovies.podbean.com