Everyone loves a good sports movie. The problem is that everyone seems to love the same sports movies over and over again. The Longest Yard, Hoosiers, Bull Durham, Rocky, Slapshot and all the rest of their iconic ilk are still undisputed classics, but what are audiences to do when they run out of the old standbys? Or when that new wrestling movie with Channing Tatum turns out to be a chilling psychodrama instead of a feel-good underdog tale?
You turn to the underrated sports movies, obviously. But figuring out which of the many unsung sports movies are genuinely underrated, and which have earned their place amongst the forgotten, can be a real chore. It always sucks to rent a movie you were hoping would be another Bad News Bears only to find out it’s just a lame old Kicking and Screaming.
Related: The 100 ‘Guy Movies’ Everyone Should See
As always, CraveOnline has your back. We’ve assembled 19 of our favorite underrated sports movies – lovable heartwarmers, esoteric art movies, dopey comedies, gritty dramas, historical oddities and enjoyably hackneyed formula flicks – to help spread the good word about just how many “other” great sports movies there are out there. Or at least, how many fun ones are lying around the dusty store shelves and disused corners of the internet.
Did we leave out any of your favorite underrated sports movies? Let us know what we missed in the comments below. We’re always looking for good movie recommendations too.
19 Underrated Sports Movies:
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
19 Seriously Underrated Sports Movies
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Airborne (1993)
Sport: Rollerblading
One of the most '90s movies ever made stars Shane McDermott as a teenage surfing guru who moves to the Midwest, where his Buddhist philosophies don't gel with a grunting, hockey playing small town ethos. Airborne doesn't seem like a sports movie at all until it climaxes with an absolutely insane rollerblade race downhill through dangerous streets, featuring killer stunts, and lasting damn near forever. In a good way.
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BASEketball (1998)
Sport: Baseketball
From one of the directors of Airplane! came this underappreciated dumb comedy starring "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone as the inventors of a new sport which combines baseball, basketball, drinking beer and talking smack. The comedy is impossibly broad, and incredibly funny, but there's also a good message here about the commercialization of sports undermining the social value of the game. It's just hidden under some really, really stupid jokes.
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Blue Chips (1994)
Sport: College Basketball
Director William Friedkin (The French Connection) directed this mostly underappreciated college basketball drama starring Nick Nolte as a coach who has to break the rules to put together a winning team. Co-starring Shaquille O'Neal (it's his only good role and his only good movie), Blue Chips smartly illustrates how decent people make unethical decisions when their backs are pressed against the wall, and the slippery slope down which that path takes them.
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By the Sword (1991)
Sport: Fencing
This hard to find but engaging drama stars F. Murray Abraham as a former fencing master who now works as a janitor for a prestigious fencing school run by Eric Roberts, who doesn't realize that Abraham played an important part in his past. It's a little dated but Abraham gives a genuine performance and it culminates in a satisfying and unexpectedly dramatic duel between the two stars.
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Fast Company (1979)
Sport: Drag Racing
Director David Cronenberg may be better known for his horror movies (The Fly) and serious dramas (A History of Violence), but in 1979 he also made a thoughtful ode to drag racing. Fast Company is beautifully shot but more contemplative than most sports movies, and as such it tends to turn off casual viewers. But if you can get on its wavelength, you'll find a lot to appreciate in this unusual drama.
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The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005)
Sport: Golfing
"Big Love" star Bill Paxton directed this wholesome, and wholly involving historical drama about 20-year-old Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf), a talented golfer stymied by class boundaries in the sport. But when he enters the U.S. Open and competes against his idol, Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane), The Greatest Game Ever Played starts to feel like an appropriate title.
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The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)
Sport: Major League Baseball
The story of Jackie Robinson, starring Jackie Robinson himself in his only feature film role. The Jackie Robinson Story is as hero-worshippy as it gets, but even that's pretty impressive given the time period in which it was made. The late Ruby Dee co-stars in a film that's worth seeing for the novelty alone.
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Let It Ride (1989)
Sport: Horse Racing (and Gambling)
Longtime loser Richard Dreyfuss was just about to give up gambling when he gets a hot tip on a race. And then another. And then another. As his winnings start to pile up and his lucky streak gets increasingly absurd, he discovers that being a winner isn't all it's cracked up to be. Superb comic timing and an unlikely premise make Let It Ride an underrated comedy classic.
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Long Gone (1987)
Sport: Minor League Baseball
William Peterson turned down the lead role in Platoon to star in this affectionate ode to Minor League baseball, and although it's really hard to find, you can kind of see why. Long Gone is an atypically down to earth drama about racism, corruption and earnest characters who couldn't stop playing baseball even though their lives might be easier if they did.
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Mean Machine (2001)
Sport: Soccer (Football)
A little seen but very effective remake of The Longest Yard stars Vinnie Jones as a soccer (football) star who assembles a team of inmates to compete against their guards. It's pretty familiar stuff, but Jason Statham steals the movie as an unstable maniac who turns out to be a damn good goalie.
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Mystery, Alaska (1999)
Sport: Hockey
Russell Crowe stars in this impressively well-written underdog tale, about an amateur Alaskan hockey team selected to play against The New York Rangers. Jay Roach's film doesn't overplay its hand: the Rangers aren't evil, the protagonists aren't cookie cutter heroes, and the game doesn't go the way you think it will. Mystery, Alaska is a smart sports movie disguised as a hackneyed one.
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Oxford Blues (1984)
Sport: Rowing
Rob Lowe stars as a young, rebellious American who enrolls in Oxford to pursue the woman of his dreams. Naturally, it ends in a rowing competition (naturally!). But Lowe was rarely this charismatic in his youth, and Oxford Blues has an atypically interesting cast of characters that make the finale genuinely involving.
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The Perfect Game (2009)
Sport: Little League Baseball
Clifton Collins Jr. is fantastic (as usual) in this sincere underdog sports movie for kids. He plays an alcoholic has-been enlisted to coach a Mexican Little League team that overcomes financial hardship to play one of the most impressive ball games in the history of the sport. Based on a real life story, and a little cheesy, but for the little kid demographic it was made for, The Perfect Game is actually pretty inspirational.
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The Replacements (2000)
Sport: Football
Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman co-star in a well made football drama about second-stringers brought in to replace professional players during a strike. The Replacement toys with the morality of that but mostly it's just an efficient, well acted football drama that doesn't really do anything special, but also doesn't do a damned thing wrong either.
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Ski School (1990)
Sport: Skiing
Teen heartthrob Dean Cameron stars in this sexy comedy about a misfit skiing team who'd rather party and hang out with topless ladies than actually ski. When they do ski it's actually pretty impressive, but the real draw here is the film's unusual sense of humor, with oddball flashbacks to the origin of the Lambada and quotable dialogue like, "It's not how far you go, it's how go you far."
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Sugar & Spice (2001)
Sport: Cheerleading
Overshadowed by the breakout success of Bring It On a few years later, Sugar & Spice actually now feels like the cooler film. A team of cheerleaders bands together to pull off an elaborate heist to help their pregnant leader provide for her child, leading to damn funny subversions of crime clichés. Sugar & Spice is sometimes adorable, sometimes darkly witty, and way better than most people remember.
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Undisputed (2002)
Sport: Prison Boxing
Overshadowed by its more elaborate sequels, Walter Hill's original Undisputed nevertheless remains a clever twist on the sports genre. A heavyweight boxing champion (Ving Rhames) goes to prison, where he's challenged to a match with the local champ (Wesley Snipes). Snipes should be the underdog on a collision course with victory, but he's a confessed murderer. Rhames plays a smart guy just trying to make the best of a bad situation, but he's also an accused rapist. The film works no matter which protagonist wins, and that makes the final match a real pulse-pounder.
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Varsity Blues (1999)
Sport: High School Football
James Van Der Beek stars in this sly football drama as a backup quarterback dragged into the spotlight when the town's star player (the late Paul Walker) breaks his leg. Van Der Beek's character is smart enough to want more from life than football, but Varsity Blues cleverly dramatizes the allure of the stardom on a local level, challenging him to find a happy medium between personal ambition and social expectation.
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Warrior (2011)
Sport: Mixed Martial Arts
Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton play estranged brothers who each need to win an MMA competition for different, very personal reasons, and Nick Nolte plays the alcoholic father who is responsible for too much of their hardship to heal his sons' wounds. Fantastic fight sequences, intense drama and three remarkable performances make Warrior one of the best sports movies of the new century - maybe even THE best - but for some reason audiences stayed away. Everyone who has seen Warrior seems to recognize how great it is. The problem is just that not enough people have seen it.
