TomOpus

My enthusiasm was already low (couldn't care less for Warner). This was the nail in the.... coffin.

dex14

mwbmis

The Martz and Vermiel casting still confounds me.

Rival11

Not going to lie, I normally HATE sports movies - they're usually beyond terrible but this one has me intrigued.

DJariya

New trailer

Shannon Nutt

This looks like it will be decent, but man - that trailer makes this thing look like it was shot for cable.

dex14

Opens this weekend.

Reviews: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/american_underdog

DJariya

I’ll be checking it out Monday. I have to support my colleague Kurt Warner and he was my favorite Ram when they were in St. Louis.

JeffTheAlpaca

Only 9.6 million at the box office and this bombed.

I will check it out since it is not like Hollywood has been flooding the market with sports movies the last 8 years though it happened 21 years ago it still seems kind of fresh and most people saw or remember this story back in 1999.

mwbmis

It's not really a sports movie per se; that's really more the backdrop for Kurt and Brenda's story. They explore his time with the Barnstormers and the '99 Rams, but they fudge the facts on that a little bit, and the sports outcomes are never really the story. The '99 Rams season obviously ends in triumph though the part with the actors ends after the Ravens game in week 1.

DJariya

I was planning to see this a few weeks ago, but I had some other things come up. Not sure if I will make it before this leaves theaters. So I might have to wait until this hits Red Box in a month or two.

Artman

Yeah, my dad wanted to see this so we checked it out last wk. Definitely would play better at home, it has very little football. The filmmaking is very poor - far beyond budget limitations, it's just bad. The actors all do a professional job, that's not really the issue for me. The Warners were clearly going for the faith based audience (I'm not kidding, it looks like there are God Rays coming down in the stadium), and I just felt it would've been much better served as a football first movie, with those other elements sprinkled in. But, they made the movie they wanted to make.

So, Dad picked this one, I picked Jack Reacher 2 years ago - so we're even!

Throwing Copper

I haven’t seen it yet, and I’m a huge Warner and former Rams fan, but this always looked very cheap from the trailers.

Looks like a basic cable movie. Will peep on VOD.

DJariya

Well, 13 days later, I decided to venture out and see this today. It's still playing at my local AMC. You know what, I actually really enjoyed it. Sure, it has the typical sports movies cliches and that was fine. I was never bored and Warner's story is quite inspiring. They covered his career from college to the AFL to his 1st game with the Rams. Then they quickly breezed through the rest of his 1st season until he won the Super Bowl and used the real footage.

The "faith-based" element is very small. I would say less than 10% of the movie. They don't preach or anything like that. Just a couple of quick mentions of God and Warner praying before his big game. I had to laugh how they made Mike Martz, Warner's offense coordinator and later his head coach, a dick to him and later warmed up to him. Typical cliche.

I give it a B and probably a 7.5 out of 10.

It's amazing how Levi was once this scrawny dorky looking actor on Chuck and now he's buffed out and playing a football player and Shazam. I did see a trailer prior to the movie also starring Levi as the father of a kid with autism and that did look faith based.

I say for anyone who has a slight interest in this, just wait until it hits VOD or Red Box in a month or two.

mwbmis

What they skipped is that he had been with the Rams since the end of '97. They assigned him to Amsterdam for the '98 spring season; movie Kurt in Amsterdam would have been curious, but by that the point the movie had to start ramping up to the finish. Apparently he even got in a game in the 98 Rams season (I didn't remember that, and I followed that team pretty closely even in the 3-13 season).

Martz was really tough on Kurt. That part was accurate. It's also true that Vermeil wanted to sign Jeff Hostetler after Trent Green got hurt, but Martz talked him out of it because he thought Kurt was ready. They signed Paul Justin to backup instead.

DJariya

Yeah I see that in his stats. He played 1 game in 1998 at "Number 10" But, I guess that doesn't count and 1999 was his true rookie year.

https://www.pro-football-reference.c...W/WarnKu00.htm

Michael Corvin

Sucks to hear it's a low budget affair, but I'll be in it for Levi when it hits streaming services. Seems like he was perfectly cast.

Sorry but I found this funny. This post was followed by two dozen people posting about the Rams/Pats and even being at the Warner Super Bowl. Good stuff.

Orbi-Wan Techno

Picked it up at Redbox. Wow, way better than you would think. Great cast and very heart-touching.

Throwing Copper

It really is. The trailer makes it look like a Lifetime movie.

But it’s real good for what it is. Not an Oscar film, but a worthy watch for just about anyone.

his St Louis Rams stuff doesn’t even come until 80 mins or so

d2cheer

Crap I thought I posted my thoughts already. I really dug this movie. I liked how it was done and the NFL stuff was basically an after thought. He was an amazing player to watch. I paid attention to that whole season since I didn't want him to break Dan Marino's TD record. I now really wish he would have in the end that also would have just added to the legend he became.

JeffTheAlpaca

It was ok but were there a lot of wow or blow you away scenes?

I don't think so. Maybe the Rams uniforms and helmets looked good in the game action.

I was surprised Mike Martz was all over his ass and did not believe in him.

I don't think Warner has a Southern accent but in some scenes in the movie he has a drawl.


It would have been a lot more inspirational if he did this with the Bills, Dolphins, or some other team not in the NFC West.

TGM

OK movie, can't say any of the melodrama really resonated with me... until the very very end with the coda about them making that apartment complex for the blind son.

the dickhead ex husband who dropped the boy on his head must've really loved this movie coming out.

oh and the Arena football stuff was awesome, the best part of the movie.

DJariya

This is now on Hulu for anyone who has it and might be interested.

MLBFan24

Great movie. I usually dislike sports movies, but I was very entertained.

The “faith based” issues were never a problem. It was mentioned a few times, but never felt preachy to me. Just a few sentences here and there.

When you tell the story of the NFL, you have to include the story of Kurt Warner. The Greatest Show on Turf did wonders for fantasy football back then

JeffTheAlpaca

I want to see a Ryan Fitzpatrick movie.

He has more passing yards than Aikman.