Major League (1989)
Major League is meant to make you laugh, pure and simple. Baseball is merely the platform for some funny hi-jinks, but these characters could have been plugged into any sport and it would have been...
Major League is meant to make you laugh, pure and simple. Baseball is merely the platform for some funny hi-jinks, but these characters could have been plugged into any sport and it would have been...
“I must break you”. At the time wrote the words above are uttered, it’s hard to discern whether writer/director Sylvester Stallone was speaking through Rocky’s fiercest opponent yet, Ivan Drago (Lundgren, Masters of the Universe),...
The seed of inspiration for Rocky was planted on March 24, 1975. Sylvester Stallone attended a closed-circuit Los Angeles movie theater presentation of Chuck Wepner fighting Muhammad Ali. Severe underdog Wepner wasn’t expected to...
by Vincent Leo · Published November 3, 2006 · Last modified January 28, 2019
The Great White Hype is a broad satire of the boxing industry, particularly in how publicity and marketing govern the suitability of one’s rise to the top more so than sheer talent. Spoofing everything from...
The tagline for The Benchwarmers reads, “It’s never too late to take a stand,” and if it were up to me, I’d add, “…and walk out of the theater” to the end of it. Mouth agape,...
Shia LaBeouf stars in this solid Walt Disney production, which represents one of their finest in terms of live-action films in recent memory. The technical aspects of the film are top-notch across the board,...
1970s / Comedy / Romance / Sports
by Vincent Leo · Published February 17, 2006 · Last modified November 12, 2019
Semi-Tough is a difficult movie to describe, and perhaps impossible to recommend. It doesn’t neatly fit into any defined genre, and there also isn’t any determinable plot one can put a finger on when telling...
It’s evident to anyone that has seen enough historical or biographical movies that the term “Based on a true story” has no real, practical meaning. Hollywood has almost always changed the real story of...
The great director John Huston scores again with one of his most understated films, a small-time character study on two boxers on opposite ends of their boxing careers. Keach plays Billy Tully, a former...
The 1976 classic sports film, The Bad News Bears, has been given an upgrade in 2005 — they removed the word “The” from the title! Outside of this, there is little fundamental difference between this...
Reviews from film writer Vince Leo, covering all eras and genres of films from classics to the latest releases.
Film reviews from Vince Leo, from classics to new releases, since 1996.