Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Leatherheads Review


Not offensively bad or anything, just not very good. All three leads seem to really be trying to make the movie work as well as possible, but there are some deep problems here. The first 60-70 minutes are FAR more enjoyable as the film focuses in on the roughian early years of professional football, nicely juxtaposed with big business college ball, and Clooney's character's efforts to legitimize the sport (economically) by bringing in one of the collegiate game's biggest stars. The film takes a turn for the worse in the later acts when it turns its focus to the legitimacy of Krasinski's war-hero background and the whole movie really suffers for it. I think one of the problems here is that Krasinski is just too likeable an actor for his character here; it's tough to feel fired up for the final showdown between Clooney and Krasinski because of it. I mean, in effect, we have a guy who falsified his war stories and abandons his team to follow the money but Krasinski makes him so likeable that we almost don't care about those things and the climax really suffers for it. George Clooney should've been born 60 years earlier, this film is a pure homage to 40s screwball comedies and he fits the bill perfectly. I was really disappointed in this one but it least it gave me one of the most enjoyable scenes of the year: an inspired and hilarious street fight between the two leads.

Overall Score: 5/10

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