It’s 12 days until the draft when our story opens to a ticking clock…7 rounds, 224 young men, a day where lives are changed. Seattle Seahawks territory….
But we move quickly to Cleveland. Home of the Browns and home to Sonny Weaver (Kevin Costner) looking older, weathered, perhaps the Robert Redford of this generation, with a solid history in sports films (Bull Durham, Field of Dreams).
But those films were then, and this film is now….and now it talks the talk and walks the walk but without any chemistry (between Costner and his love interest played by Jennifer Garner) and it lacks any drama other than a rising soundtrack whenever the players move from town to town alerting us in big typed letters “Houston” or “Tampa” across the screen. Even Costner’s dead daddy issues with mother (Ellen Burstyn) don’t help to add any ‘umph’….
Frank Langella does a fine job playing the owner of the team with P. Diddy as the most enthusiastic performer as a sports agent representing “Bo” (Josh Pence) that every team wants as their first pick. Denis Leary joins part of the draft team of decision-makers who spend all day in tit for tat dialog that is a far cry from the more recent Moneyball or even the long loved classic Jerry Maguire.
There’s no “show me the money” there’s just show me to the exit door. This film is a dud. It’s not a bad film, it’s a boring film. And it gets only ♔ ♕