Film Snail

Champions
Champions

6.7

Champions

PG-13·2023·124m

Summary

A stubborn and hotheaded minor league basketball coach is forced to train a Special Olympics team when he is sentenced to community service.

Crew

Director

Bobby Farrelly

Original Concept, Original Film Writer

David Marqués

Original Film Writer

Javier Fesser

Screenplay

Mark Rizzo

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Geronimo1967

March 23, 2023

7

Have you seen "The Shiny Shrimps" (2019)? Well this reminded me very much of that comedy effort as Woody Harrelson portrays the disgraced basketball coach "Marcus". After one altercation too many on the court, he is ordered by a judge to do some community service coaching a group of young children with learning difficulties. Right from the start, he hates the idea. They have precious little team skills, hand-eye co-ordination, and the only one who is any way competent refuses to have anything to do with him. Luckily, "Johnny" (Kevin Iannucci) has a big sister "Alex" (Kaitlin Olson) who manages to get the coach to commit and focus more on the team - and, well you can easily guess the rest. This is one of those life-affirming films that is well written with loads of characters and dry - frequently pretty black - humour. The thing has an inevitability to it, but like the "Shrimps" it's about inclusion. It's about making sure everyone gets a chance to take part, to enjoy, to thrive - teamwork, family (meatloaf - yuk!) and a genuine sense of celebration feature increasingly and effectively. It isn't a film you will remember for long, it's entirely formulaic - but Harrelson and Iannucci are on good form and I did enjoy it.

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$9,263,009.00

Keywords

basketball
special olympics
basketball team
aftercreditsstinger
duringcreditsstinger
special needs
basketball coach
lighthearted