Pretty much every weekend you will find my family with butts firmly planted on couch or chair with the dog watching TV. Netflix delivers 1 - 3 new videos for us to watch or we rent something from iTunes or dive into our own collection of DVDs. What better way to spend some time than with the whole family doing something we (typically) enjoy while having a bit of popcorn or frozen yogurt dessert. This weekend has been no exception with 3 new (to us) movies from Netflix and one from our own library. Here are some quick reviews of each.
From the Rough - We started with Pierre Bagley's bio-pic about Catana Starks, the first woman to coach a college men's golf team. The setting is Tennessee State University where the administration has just decided to start a golf program. Coach Starks takes over and has to search far and wide for members of her fledgling team. This is a typical feel-good sports movie with a scrappy coach working hard, running into major challenges mid-way through the movie, and then…(well you know). Tajari P. Henson is very convincing as Coach Starks and our favorite character was Roger played by the great (and unfortunately, late) Michael Clarke Duncan. If you want a sports movie that hits all the right notes, you can't go wrong with From the Rough, it gets 4 Mick Happies. Side note, my family usually won't watch sports-based movies with me but they watched this one and enjoyed it.
Draft Day - To follow one sports movie with another, I was on my own. Draft Day stars Kevin Costner as the General Manager of the Cleveland Browns, Sonny Weaver Jr., on the fictional 2014 NFL Draft Day. Joining Costner are Jennifer Garner as his co-worker and girlfriend and Dennis Leary as the Browns Head Coach. In this movie, we are given a glimpse into the high-pressure behind the scenes work at an NFL franchise on one of the biggest days of the year. It is hard to know if what is portrayed on screen is accurate to what goes on in real life, but what you get in Draft Day is compelling and will keep you interested all the way through. Weaver is tasked with making "a splash" to help put fans in seats or it may cost him his job. We get to go along for the ride as Costner deftly plays a man who is on the edge of losing it on the biggest day of his GM career. By the end of the movie, both my wife and daughter had joined me to see how things wrapped up and asked questions to be caught up on what they missed. There are many many ESPN cameos and interesting characters. Draft Day was an excellent movie and never seemed to have a slow point. Draft Day gets 4.5 Mick Happies.
Moms' Night Out - We followed up the sports movies with a comedy about stressed moms and incompetent dads thinking that would be fun. The Andrew and Jon Erwin directed film includes some familiar actors/actresses/celebrities including Patricia Heaton (who we liked from Everybody Loves Raymond), Sean Astin and Trace Adkins. Sarah Drew plays the lead, Allyson, who is losing her mind trying to deal with 3 kids and needs a break. What follows is a car crash of a night as Allyson and two friends try to get a little down time. The movie started off well and hit many of the right notes with some sharp (and accurate) portrayal of the modern stay-at-home overworked mom. It then proceeds to be less fun as the film progresses with the husbands being nearly useless - it's bad with the men without kids are the ones with the most common sense. Trace Adkins is fun as Bones, a tattoo artist the ladies run into. Another quibble with the film is that it is a bit over the top with the presentation of Christian values - I am completely okay with faith-based films, but this one tends to get a little preachy at times and wastes screen time that could have been used for more laughs or wrapping up minor plot points. Overall, Moms' Night Out was the weakest of the films this weekend at 2 Mick Happies.
Hackers - Last but not least, my wife wanted to end on a proven good movie after Moms' Night Out didn't quite leave us happy. Hackers is the classic 1995 film written by Rafael Moreu, directed by Iain Softley and starring none other than Jonny Lee Miller and Angeline Jolie (both looking very much like teenagers - or at least early 20-somethings). The film also has Jesse Bradford and Matthew Lillard along with Lorraine Bracco and Marc Anthony (yep, that one). This is the fictional story of some high school hackers who get into some trouble when they tap into the wrong company's computer and have to fight the company and the FBI to save themselves. Miller plays a hacker who 7 years previously had been indicted for crashing over 1,500 computer systems with a virus. Jolie plays his present day nemesis and, of course, erstwhile love interest. As I said before, this is a classic. There is chain-smoking teenagers, weird outfits, edgy computer geekery, a laughable visualization of the interior of a computer system and generally a lot of fun. Including one of our favorite lines ever about Spandex. You can't go wrong with a movie that has a character named Cereal Killer who proclaims "Look at that pooper". Hackers is a must see if you haven't already and gets 5 Mick Happies. If only 1995 was really like that.
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