I'm not someone who watches a lot of sports movies either, for the simple fact that most of them follow the same basic plotline: motley crew of unlikely misfits form a team and, after initial conflict (personal or otherwise) manage to come together. They will be faced with almost impossible odds to win- in the form of a much superior team usually- and will, in the third act, face some sort of crisis which will almost break them. They will, however, realise that they are stronger together and pull it all together in time to pull off a miraculous win in a nail-biting finale. I've got nothing against those films- they can be fun- but they aren't generally ones that I seek out. There are, however, some sports movies that don't particularly follow this formula, or only incidentally do so, which I do really enjoy. One of these is Chariots of Fire which, though being an Oscar winner, has rather fallen out of disfavour today. I really enjoy it though, and a few years ago did an extensive review of it- links below.
I'm not really an avid sports fan; I used to watch a lot of hockey out of habit- Saturday night was hockey night in our house as kids. But even that's rather fallen off in the last few years. So I've never been one to watch a lot of Olympic coverage when the Games are on, winter or summer- just a few events here and there if I had some interest in the outcome. This year I'm purposely not watching any of it; in my opinion the Games should have been boycotted. No one should be lending the appearance of acceptability and normality to a brutal regime which has over a million of its citizens caged in literal concentration camps. But here we are, so let's ignore the Beijing games entirely. I'm not someone who watches a lot of sports movies either, for the simple fact that most of them follow the same basic plotline: motley crew of unlikely misfits form a team and, after initial conflict (personal or otherwise) manage to come together. They will be faced with almost impossible odds to win- in the form of a much superior team usually- and will, in the third act, face some sort of crisis which will almost break them. They will, however, realise that they are stronger together and pull it all together in time to pull off a miraculous win in a nail-biting finale. I've got nothing against those films- they can be fun- but they aren't generally ones that I seek out. There are, however, some sports movies that don't particularly follow this formula, or only incidentally do so, which I do really enjoy. One of these is Chariots of Fire which, though being an Oscar winner, has rather fallen out of disfavour today. I really enjoy it though, and a few years ago did an extensive review of it- links below. Another sports film I really enjoy is Breaking Away, which is a 1979 movie about a teenager in a small town who is obsessed with cycling. It's been years since I've seen it, but I've decided to re-watch it this week. I own a copy, if I can find it. I think it may still be in a box from when I moved. If not, I'll rent it- it's available on numerous streaming services. Of course, I always recommend purchasing physical media if you can, but Breaking Away is extremely hard to get your hands on... the last time I checked, a DVD of it on Amazon was going for about $100. In any case, I'll have more to say about that later. In the meantime, I suggest skipping the genocide games and watching quality sports movies instead.
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