Apologies to Dead Heat

I feel like I owe the film Dead Heat an apology after citing it in my review of Cop Out as an example of a forgettable buddy cop film. The movie I meant to cite was "Red Heat" in which James Belushi plays a tough Chicago Cop and Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a Soviet cop. Dead Heat was nothing to write home about but was not nearly the steaming pile of dog excrement that was "Red Heat".

I will edit the blog to correct this mistake but for those who have already read it, I apologize for the mistake. To Dead Heat I apologize once more.

And to Red Heat, I apologize for nothing! You suck!

Cop Out

In the opening scene of Kevin Smith’s buddy cop film, Cop Out, Detective Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) explains to his partner that his interrogation techniques are homage to famous movies. Of course, Hodges repeatedly mispronounces it HOMM-age. This bit is there in part to set up the subsequent sequence where Hodges gets information from a suspect by quoting nearly every movie released in the last 25 years. My personal favorite was including the line “Nobody puts baby in a corner” in a police interrogation. But I think there is something more significant to introducing the concept of homage at the very outset of this movie. This film is itself homage to the 80’s cop movies that were staples of my movie-going adolescence.

So what is the net result? Basically it breaks down like this:

The good news for Kevin Smith – Cop Out is a recognizable homage to 80’s buddy cop films.

The bad news for Kevin Smith – Cop Out is a recognizable homage to 80’s buddy cop films.

We tend to forget that not all of those films that fell into that genre were classics. Most of them weren’t really that good. For every 48 Hours (1982) and Lethal Weapon (1987) that I loved, I had to sit through fifteen like Red Heat (1988, James Belushi, Arnold Schwarzenegger). These boasted cookie cutter plotlines involving a foreign drug Kingpin that ended with a showdown where the cops picked off the Kingpin’s henchmen in ascending order of importance before killing the head honcho himself after a tense stand-off.

So while there is not as much depth to this movie as I might have hoped, I think the critics who have trashed it have missed the boat. There is a lot that I thought was very well done in this movie. Just when I thought I had seen everything that Seann William Scott had to offer, he raised his game significantly in this film. Scott plays a type of cat burglar who swipes the extremely valuable baseball card owned by Hodges partner Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis). Hodges and Monroe later catch Scott’s character and the three share car ride that provides some solid laughs. Laughs that I don’t believe were in the script but rather came from the genuine chemistry that Scott and Morgan had onscreen.

This is important because Morgan and Willis had zero chemistry on the screen. At best you could describe Willis’ performance as understated. In reality though, you were watching an actor going through the motions simply to pick up a paycheck. This was the least engaging I have ever seen Bruce Willis in a film and when he is the dead fish up on the screen, you know there is something very wrong happening here. It is unfortunate because those who shared the screen with him did a nice job by and large. I liked the duo of Kevin Pollack and Adam Brody who played the in house police rivals to Hodges and Monroe. The first time we see the four of them together on screen produces some genuine laughs. I wish Pollack and Brody had more screen time in the film.

Also falling into that category was Rashida Jones who played Hodges’ devoted and loving wife. Jones is luminescent on the screen and captures your attention in every scene she is in. Sadly Jones came off as underutilized here in a script that required nothing more of her than to assure her over-the-top jealous husband that she was not having an affair. It seemed like she did that five or six times throughout the movie. I kept waiting for the big payoff to this elaborate setup and when the end credits finally rolled, I was disappointed to say the least.

Much has been made by the fact that this is Kevin Smith’s first studio film from a script he did not write. I think if Smith made a misstep with Cop Out it’s not giving it more of a feeling of being a Kevin Smith film. Smith has made his career by combining broad and even juvenile comedy with sensitive and poignant young adult drama. Chasing Amy and Dogma were perhaps two of his finest examples of this touch. Cop Out doesn’t have that second layer that makes us care deeply for his characters. Jimmy Monroe needs to get his baseball card back so he can pay for his daughter’s wedding. Paul Hodges is afraid his wife is having an affair. This is as deep as this movie gets in developing it main characters. For this I lay the blame with the screenwriters and not Smith himself. I think this movie would have been better off with the Kevin Smith re-write of this script. We would have had all that works in the love letter to 80’s cop films along with some much need character development.

In the end, Smith gets pretty much all he can out of this premise and script, given the fact that Willis’ charisma was AWOL during the entire film. There is a plot that while thin and predictable does hold together from beginning til end. There are nice moments with Sean William Scott where we see how much fun this genre can be. The movie was intended to be silly fun with the prerequisite cop scenes that won’t make you think too hard and in that context, it delivers on its promise.

Circumstances Under Which To See This Movie: While out on a long walk on the beach you trip over something which turns out to be a magic lantern containing a genie. He grants you your one wish which is to be a thirteen year old boy. You then find yourself wanting to see a movie you would appreciate with your new found perspective and taste. Under these circumstances I would suggest seeing Cop Out.

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

Precious is a truly remarkable film mainly for what is not on the screen rather than what is. I was very apprehensive about seeing this movie. The subject matter is as disturbing as anything I can recall in the last little while. Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe plays Clarice "Precious" Jones, a 16 year old junior high school student who is sexually abused by her father and physically and emotionally abused by her mother. She has no friends in school and is constantly picked on for her obesity. She already has one child fathered by her own father and as the movie begins, we soon discover there is a second on the way. She lives in a hell few can imagine and the thought of going into the world with her seemed daunting as a viewer.

But this is where director Lee Daniels earned his best director Oscar nomination. During the times when a horrible instance of abuse is about to happen, we cut to the fantasy world Precious inhabits during these unspeakably awful times. Suddenly we are transported to a red carpet movie premiere where adoring fans call out for autographs from Precious. These fantasy sequences play out is rich vibrant colours which serve as a start contrast to the dull muted tones we see in her reality. This first person POV coping mechanism shields the audience as much as it does Precious herself. And they establish another important element without which the movie would not work – hope. Despite all that is wrong with her life we get the sense that Precious still holds out the faintest bit of hope that there is a better life out there.

So to answer the question – is this movie hard to watch? At times yes, but not as much as you would think.

The bulk of the story, set in Harlem in 1987, involves Precious going to a special school called "Each One Teach One." Here they take illiterate girls and bring them up to a level where they can acquire their GED. Even the decision to go to this school is tortuous for Precious. We get the sense that she is bright and likes school and yet is still unable to read or write. The reason soon becomes apparent when we meet Mary, her monster of a mother played by Mo'Nique. Mary not only frowns upon schooling for Precious, she is violently opposed to it. The very mention of attending the school sends Mary intro a screaming rampage where she tells Precious "School ain't going to help none, get your ass down to Welfare!"

Remarkably, Precious attends the school anyway and we soon see her starting to read and write in her journal. She is forming connections with her classmates and teachers and we are thrilled to be going on this journey with her. But Daniels is cognisant to not let us forget of the harsh realities that still exist for her. Just when we feel like we're watching the feel good story of the year, we get doused with the icy waters of her circumstances. Her schooling gets interrupted when she goes into labour with her father's child. She is now faced with a choice of giving up the baby and going back to school or keeping the baby and making it on her own. For someone who wants to be a good mother to her baby, this is not an easy choice.

Some of the most powerful moments in this film exist between Precious and her mother. Mo'Nique plays Mary with a hatred and bitterness for her own daughter that is unfathomable. I used the term "monster" before but really there is no other word that applies. Mary was perhaps the most terrifying and intimidating screen presence not named "Darth" or "Sith". Mo'Nique won the Golden Globe for this performance and if she doesn't win the Support Actress Oscar, a criminal investigation should be launched immediately. There is one scene in particular that is chilling. Precious brings her new baby home to Mary and Mary wants to hold him. We know she hates Precious for "stealing her man" so we fear for the safety of the baby. This scene serves as an example of how dramatic tension can be created with character rather than action sequences. It was as tense as anything I can recall in the theatre.

Mo'Nique is not the only excellent supporting player in this film. Daniels has a knack for finding people who can inhabit a role and make us forget the famous person playing them on the screen. Most noteworthy is the supporting performance turned in by Mariah Carey. Yes, THAT Mariah Carey. The movie was two-thirds of the way through before it clicked in for me who she was. Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write. Mariah Carey was very good in this film. Maybe there really is a hero that lies in her. Joining Carey is Lenny Kravitz who turns in a nice performance as Nurse John.

I thought Daniels struck a nice tone with ending, something that with a story like this is not easy at all. (TINIEST SPOILER WARNINGS HERE) This is not a happy ever after story but we are left feeling upbeat and positive at the end. The dragon Precious has to slay may seem insignificant compared to other films, but in this story we are left with the feeling that she just climbed Everest.

This will sound like cliché but this movie really is a story of the triumph of the human spirit.

 

Circumstances Under Which You Should See This Movie: You are a carbon-based life form.

Up In The Air

With most of the civilized world in the grip of Olympic fever these days, I'll give you my impression of Jason Reitman's Up in the Air in terms you can understand. Upon first viewing of this film I felt like I was watching a figure skater on top of their game. Everything about it was fresh, graceful, and moving. I believed that I was watching something truly special until...it happened. Like that figure skater with the seemingly flawless performance, Up in the Air stumbled right at the end. Was the stumble enough to ruin the entire performance? Probably not. But you can't help but think how good it could have been if it was just able to stick the landing.

This movie tells the story of Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) a man who loves his job and everything that surrounds it more than anything else in life. This is not insignificant when you consider that he has one of the least enviable jobs in the world. He is a gun for hire in firing people in the business world. Clooney is able to portray Bingham as a man who believes there is dignity in what he does. We get the sense he believes what he says when he tells the recently canned, "Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it's because they sat there that they were able to do it."

The only thing more important to Bingham than the job itself is the lifestyle that accompanies it. The job requires he be on the road for more than 320 days a year and for Bingham, this is heaven. His greatest source of pride is his elite status with airlines, hotels and car rental agencies. This is a man so enamoured with the don't-be-tied-down lifestyle that he gives motivational speeches instructing people on how to free themselves of the things weighing them down in the world.

Bingham's perfect world order starts to unravel when he meets two women who will affect his life in different ways. The first is Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) whom Bingham meets one night while drinking alone in a hotel bar. The two use comparing elite status plans as a sort of foreplay and soon end up back in his room. Immediately, Bingham is taken by the beautiful woman who seems to get him in a way other women don't.

The second is Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) is a recent top-of-her-class Ivy Leaguer who the company has brought in to shake up the termination business. Her idea is to set up a process where people are fired via a video conferencing system. She believes that a script can be developed so anyone could fire someone simply by navigating this new system. Naturally, Bingham hates, hates, hates this idea and not just because it threatens to destroy his perfect lifestyle. He genuinely believes the people getting fired deserve to have that human touch during the process. Bingham's boss, played by Jason Bateman, convinces Bingham to take Keener out on the road and show her the ropes.

This is where what is really great about Up in the Air really starts to shine through. Only upon seeing this movie for a second time did I appreciate the fact that this story is as much about Natalie's journey as it is Bingham's. What this movie does exceptionally well is set up Keener and Bingham as polar opposites in every way. They bicker like a married couple but not in a cliché way like you see in many movies today. There is no feeling that their bickering is masking the fact that they are really in love with each other. It comes from the fact that they both possess the capability to be "soft" and "cold". Keener can't fathom why Bingham never wants to get married or have kids. He makes the case that he has all the companionship he requires and in the end, everyone dies alone anyway. Some of this movie's best moments are when Keener and Bingham are sparring over love and relationships. In this instance, she makes the case for love and marriage while he is the cold one, stating that marriage is for suckers.

But when it comes to their views on work, there is a role reversal which gives both characters some depth. Now it is Bingham who is the "soft" one as he continues to insist that the job can only be done properly face to face. There is something cold and even cruel about doing what they do in a video conference. Keener is the "cold" one looking at the process only in terms of what is best for the company's bottom line. As the movie goes on we see the effect that they have on each other. We can see Keener's doubts start to creep in as she experiences the harsh realities of firing people up close. And while Bingham may not admit to subscribing to her world view in matters of the heart, his relationship with Alex starts to look more and more like a traditional relationship. It even gets to the point where Bingham asks Alex to be his date at sister's wedding saying that for once he doesn't want to be the guy by himself at a wedding.

And this is subtle transformation is why I believe Reitman stumbles a bit at the end. Up until this point, the movie does a flawless job of establishing Bingham's world and then showing how it slowly starts to unravel for him. We get the sense that perhaps he is no longer satisfied being locked away in his solitary existence and that he may see a future with Alex. Without giving away too much about how the movie ends, I can say that the stumble occurs in the vagueness of the ending. Has he changed or is the same as he was at the beginning? You'll have to watch and judge for yourself but I've seen the movie twice and I can't say for sure. There are those who prefer open endings but I'm not a fan. And in the end, this is the one stumble in the performance. But when you look at the film in terms of the journey that both Bingham and Keener experience and the effect they have on each other's lives, the stumble doesn't seem as significant.

Circumstances Under Which You Should See This Movie: You're aching to see a good movie with solid performance free of the usual Hollywood clichés. Under these circumstances I would suggest seeing Up in the Air.

Valentine’s Day

Remember the early days of photocopiers? You could duplicate a document and it would be an exact replica of that document only just a little imperfect. You could see smudge marks and the paper wouldn't be as clear as with the original. Then if you made a copy of the copy, it was even further away from the original. Keep making copies from copies and soon what you were left with is a greatly inferior product which is almost unrecognizable from the original. This process is what I was reminded of after seeing Valentine's Day.

In 2003, the team behind Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill came up with the ensemble multi-storyline romantic comedy Love Actually. Due in large part to the skilful writing and directing of Richard Curtis, this became a huge success both critically and financially and created the original which would others would inevitably copy. Last year's He's Just Not that Into You, was the first generation copy. Not quite as sharp as the original but sufficiently funny and sweet when it needed to be. Watching Valentine's Day, I felt like I was watching a seventh generation copy. You could see the connection between it and the original but the difference in quality was remarkable.

Valentine's Day is directed by Gary Marshall who treats it like an episode of This Is Your Life, bringing back an all-star cast from his previous films. Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman) appears as a soldier returning home for one day to spend Valentine`s Day with someone special. Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries) plays a recent English Lit grad who struggles with juggling jobs as a receptionist and a phone sex worker. All while trying to keep the latter from her new boyfriend played by Toper Grace. Other storylines linclude:

• A flower shop owner (Ashton Kutcher) who proposes to his girlfriend (Jessica Alba) only to have that proposal met with a lukewarm reception.
  
• An elementary school teacher (Jennifer Garner) decides to surprise her dreamy doctor boyfriend (Patrick Dempsey , like I had to tell you) and ends up getting a surprise of her own.
  
• An aging Pro football quarterback (Eric Dane) decides to use Valentine's Day to make a shocking announcement. Without giving it away, picture Brett Favre meets Johnny Weir. It`s faaaaabulous!
  
• A fifth grader desperately tries to get flowers to the object of his affection. She must know how he truly feels.
  
• A sports reporter (Jamie Foxx) is assigned to do a man-on-the-street interview on the meaning of Valentine's day and makes a connection with a PR agent (Jessica Biel)who is down on love and hates Valentine`s Day.
  

And that`s not even all of the superstars and their storylines. I still haven`t covered Bradley Cooper, Queen Latifa, George Lopez, Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner, and Shirley McLain and Hector Elizondo. If you`re as bored of reading about the all-star cast as I am of writing about it, you start to get a picture of where this movie went wrong. In this instance, more is not necessarily merrier.

What the filmmakers failed to appreciate is that for the audience to get invested in the lives of these people we need to spend enough time to get to know them and then care when their lives start spiralling out of control. And when you only have so many minutes of screen time, it is nearly impossible to give these characters enough breathing room to make their journeys seem authentic. What's unfortunate is it's not like there weren't stories that could have been really interesting.

With the Eric Dane QB character, it would have been really fascinating to see where that storyline would have developed after he made his big announcement. Unfortunately the only thing we see with him after that is the reveal of who his Valentine is. I really liked the development of the Topher Grace and Anne Hathaway relationship. But because of too much time wasted on say the adorable but pointless storyline of the two Taylors, the Toper/Anne storyline had to take huge shortcuts that undermined its effectiveness. The same applies to the realization that Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Garner make. Because they have to bring it in for a landing sooner than it really should, it detracts from the emotional impact it has on the audience.

It's not just the oversaturation of A-list talent that holds this back from being on par with a Love Actually. A lot of the time, the comedy comes off as sit-com hacky. Ashton Kutcher tells his friend how he loves this day because everyone of happy and filled with the spirit of love. Then he pulls out into traffic and almost collides with another driver who promptly screams at him and chews him out. An obvious and flat punch line. The first time we see Anne Hathaway doing her phone sex job, she is on her cell phone outside an apartment building and within earshot of a middle aged woman in a bathrobe. When Hathaway makes mention of a three-way, the woman says "Let me get freshened up and I'll be right there." I almost expected to hear the CBS laugh track.

Valentine's Day is not a terrible movie. It's just not a very good one either. It is light and enjoyable on a surface level and there are times when you smile at the adorable antics up on the screen. It's just sad that with all that star power, this is the highest they could raise the bar.

 

Circumstances Under Which You Should See This Movie: You're the number one golfer in the world and for some reason you find yourself in a position where you have a lot of making up to do with your wife. She loves light fluffy "chick flicks" and she wants you to take her out to the movies. You are afraid this may not be what you hoped for in a movie but you have no more capital in the marriage and must do pretty much anything she says for the rest of your lives. Under these circumstances, I would suggest you see Valentine's Day.

The Wolfman

Let The Wolfman serve as exhibit "A" of a theory I've purported for a while now. If you have a monster movie, it will only work if the monster is the bad guy. It is nearly impossible to have a story work where the protagonist transforms into a rampaging Monster.

Ang Lee couldn't pull it off when he tried to launch The Hulk franchise in 2003. Louis Leterrier couldn't do it when he tried to reboot the same franchise five years later with The Incredible Hulk. And the recent Wolfman movie falls short for the exact same reason the others did. No matter how charming or charismatic the man (Eric Bana, Edward Norton, or Benico del Toro) may be, the monster can do nothing but grunt, growl, and destroy things. Ultimately, this makes for a lousy hero. We can't root for, empathise, or identify with a rampaging monster. And since the Monster can't communicate, there is no way to advance the story in a meaningful way.

The latest film to attempt the monster-as-protagonist vehicle is The Wolfman, Joe Johnston's remake of the 1941 horror classic. This movie stays true to the original to the point of keeping the same character names and premise. Lawrence Talbot (del Toro) learns of his brother's death and returns home to England to his family's spooky mansion. While investigating his brother's death, he is attacked and bitten by the Wolfman. Gypsies save his life but inform him that once bitten, he will forever turn into the beast himself.

I will give The Wolfman this, the attack scenes are believable and sufficiently gory. Johnston does not hold back in showing the brutality and the savagery of the Wolfman. The problem is, there is little else this movie has going for it.

Emily Blunt is wasted in a film that forgets she is there for a good chunk of the movie. As Gwen, the grieving fiancé of Lawrence's late brother Ben, Blunt does a very nice job with the scenes she has. It appears as if there is supposed to be a love story developing between Lawrence and Gwen but this gets shoved to the side when Lawrence is too busy eating people's guts. Then when Lawrence needs help, he finds Gwen and suddenly, they're in love (or something like it). We're to believe that she is not intimidated by his monstrous alter ego because she sees the true beauty within him. This might be believable if they had spent more than seven minutes of screen time together up to this point.

The ultimate undoing of this film was that it was just plain boring for too much of the time. And that is saying something for a period monster movie with a romantic subplot. The truth is, I really couldn't care what happened to him. I should have been desperately rooting for them to find a cure for his "wolfitis" so he and Gwen could be together. But I didn't care if they lived happily ever after or he dined on her entrails. And that is the surest sign you have a movie that doesn't work.

I could tell early on I was bored because I kept thinking of scenes I wanted to see that were included in better movies in the genre. The first time I saw the wolfman in a full shot, my mind went immediately to Teen Wolf (1985). So instead of being frightened of the scary wolfman on the screen, all I could think is "He's probably really awesome at basketball. I'd love to see this wolfman dunk on a couple of dudes!"

Not knowing the wolfman mythology as well as I do, say vampire mythology, I found parts of this movie to be very informative. I have collected some wolfman rules should any of you suddenly find yourselves being transformed into wolfmen.

RULE #1 – WOLFMEN ALWAYS EXIT A BUILDING BY JUMPING OUT THE NEAREST CLOSED WINDOW. I don't know what wolfmen have against walking out an open door but clearly it is never done. You would think these guys have stock in the local door and window company the way they shatter windows whenever leaving a building. Whatever the reason, this appears to be a hard and fast rule.

RULE #2 – WOLFMEN MUST GET RE-DRESSED BEFORE APPEARING AS HUMAN THE MORNING AFTER. It seems every time a guy transforms into the wolfman, we see him breaking through and tearing off his human clothes. But when we see him the next morning in human form for, what can only be described as the "wolfman walk of shame," he is fully dressed in those same clothes. Wolfmen must be very bashful about their bodies. I guess it's okay to eat the guts of any man woman or child who crosses your path but appearing nude in public is socially unacceptable.

RULE #3 - WOLFMEN HAVE ONLY ONE WAY OF SETTLING DISPUTES. Becoming a wolfman will pretty much spell the end of your career in conflict resolution. Once you become of full-fledged wolfman, you have only one way of settling disputes and it does not involve mediation. Not unless, mediation is a code word for disembowelment. But that seems unlikely.

 

Circumstance under which you should see this movie: You really want to drop $12 but you don't want to be saddled with all that story and character development. Ideally, you're just looking for some CGI gore and the occasional wolfman on wolfman brouhaha . Under these circumstances, I would suggest watching this film.

Five Movies To Get You In The Olympic Spirit

There is an epidemic spreading across Canada and it has me greatly concerned. With the Olympics now upon us, I fear many Canadians are suffering from a condition that medical experts call Olympics Hype Deficiency (OHD). OHD occurs when you find yourself not completely jacked for the upcoming Winter Olympiad.

The leading cause of OHD is often a lack of television network promotions in the weeks and months leading up to the games. Perhaps if CTV and TSN had bothered to let us know that the Olympics were coming to Vancouver this February, we would not be in this state.

How can you tell if you suffer from OHD? It's easy, just name aloud the Jamaican born member of Canada's bobsleigh team. I'll wait, go ahead.

Any time now.

I'm sorry but since you didn't immediately name Lascelles Brown, I'm going to have to conclude that you are not sufficiently jacked for these Olympics.

To cure what ails you, I suggest the five movies that will get you in the Olympic spirit. I should note that these are not necessarily the five best movies involving the Olympics. Munich (2005) for example is an excellent movie but not a real spirit booster. This movie will make your Olympic spirit want to crawl in to bed with a tub of Chunky Monkey ice cream and not come out for three weeks.

So here in ascending order are the five movies to get you in the Olympic Spirit:

5. BLADES OF GLORY (2007)

This is not a great movie. Heck, I'm not even sure if this is a good movie. But it is fun and certainly captures the drive and desire of making it to the Winter Olympics. Will Ferrell and Jon Heder are very funny and are complimented by excellent supporting performances by real life husband and wife comedy duo Will Arnett and Amy Poeller. I thought Jenna Fischer gave an underrated and overlooked comedic performance in this movie.

4. THE CUTTING EDGE (1992)

If you love figure skating movies and Blades of Glory is just a little too silly for you, watch The Cutting Edge with D.B. Sweeny and Moira Kelly. Sweeny plays Doug Dorsey, a former hockey player driven out of the game after colliding with figure skater Kate Mosely (Kelly) at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. As training begins for the 1992 Games, Mosely can't find a partner who will work with her and Dorsey is relegated to playing semi-pro hockey. Mosely's coach tracks down Dorsey and convinces him to be her partner and get one last shot at Olympic Glory. Can the spoiled skater and gruff hockey player find a way to work together to achieve their dreams both on and off the ice? You pretty much know the answer but it is a decent film if you are a fan of the sport.

 

3. COOL RUNNINGS (1993)

With Canada boasting an actual Jamaican bobsledder on our 2010 team, how can I not include Cool Runnings on the list. Many people fondly recall this movie as the funny true-life account of the Jamaican bobsled team that competed at the 1988 Calgary Winter Games. This movie has even more sentimental value for me in that I consider it to be John Candy's last really good film. Candy played the coach who was charged with taking a group of novices who had never seen snow before and turning them into genuine Olympic bobsledders. This movie was better than I expected at the time and still holds up more than 15 years later.

 

2. CHARIOTS OF FIRE (1981)

This film is to Olympic movies as the Rose Bowl is to college football games. The grand-daddy of them all! Had we been on the cusp of the Summer Olympics, this may have found its way to the top of the list. And while this will do nothing to get you pumped for snow boarding, hockey and figure skating, it is a beautiful movie about the Olympic Spirit of sportsmanship within competition. It tells the true story of two British sprinters at the 1924 Olympics. Eric is a devout Scottish Missionary who runs because he knows it pleases God. Eric is Jewish and runs to escape prejudice and cement his place in society. The crux of the film involves Eric's dilemma about running on a Sunday. He runs to please God but he won't run on the Sabbath. This is an excellent blend of sports, racial tensions, and human drama. If you have not seen this movie, do so soon.

1. MIRACLE (2004)

I know, I know. It's blasphemous to promote a movie about the Americans winning hockey gold but the truth is, this is a really good movie. If this movie can't get you pumped about the Winter Olympics then you will never be cured of your OHD. Kurt Russell takes on the role of Herb Brooks, the tough and demanding coach who led a group of college kids in one of the greatest single game upsets in hockey history. This movie does a nice job of illustrating the biggest challenge the Americans had which was overcoming their tribal differences. In the late 1970's there were only two American hotbeds of hockey – Boston and Minnesota. The Boston kids and the Minnesota kids didn't much like each other and getting them to play as one cohesive unit was Brook's biggest challenge. If you haven't seen it, now is the time to give this a look.

 

That's it I've done all I can do to combat OHD. The rest is up to you. I do see a day when OHD is no longer hanging over us like a dark cloud. I see a day when everyone from coast to coast is sufficiently jacked about the Olympics. Why am I so optimistic? Well, to answer Al Michael's 30 year old question...yes, I believe in miracles.

 

Think I've left a classic off the list? Feel free to tell me all about it in the comments box.