Top 40 Sports Movies Part 2

30. Rocky 4

Sport: Boxing

Story: Rocky ends the Cold War. Not really, but he tries. Rocky, being out of practice, takes on an impossibly hard rival nicknamed The Russian.

MVP: Stallone is the easy choice, but I am going to go with Dolph Lundgren as The Russian. It was his second film role ever and makes quite an impression.

29. Big Fan

Sport: Boxing

Story: This film is a dark look at super fandom when a die-hard New York Giants fan gets beaten up by his favorite player.

MVP: Patton Oswalt as the super fan. He gives an almost spoofish version of Taxi Driver but still with a big heaping of empathy and sincerity. This should have been a star making role.

28. Cinderella Man

Sport: Boxing

Story: A down on his luck New Yorker who can’t seem to win a fight or get a job near the docks in order to provide for his family finds new motivation.

MVP: Russell Crowe plays the titular Cinderella Man who not only finds inspiration for himself but also inspires an entire city.

27. Remember the Titans

Sport: American Football

Story: During a racially charged time period, a highschool becomes unsegregated. The film focuses on the town’s star football team.

MVP: Will Patton is a very underrated character actor and does a great job here as a go between for the new African-American residents and the racist white residents.

26. He Got Game

Sport: Basketball

Story: The most sought after highschool basketball player, Jesus, gets a visit from his father, Jake, who was convicted of killing Jesus’ mother. Jake’s freedom is based on him getting his son to go to college instead of straight to the NBA.

MVP: Denzel Washington in one of his best roles ever.

25. Any Given Sunday

Sport: American Football

Story: The film focuses on the successes and pitfalls of the members of a professional football organization, including an over the hill quarterback who gets a career stopping injury and the head coach being beaten down by the stress.

MVP: Al Pacino as the coach who gives a tempered, balanced performance. It was probably his best in years considering ever since he won the Oscar for his obnoxiously over the top performance in Scent of a Woman, the Pacino of The Godfather and of Dog Day Afternoon was pretty much lost.

24. The Natural

Sport: Baseball

Story: A middle-aged average baseball player seems to get divine powers when he starts using a baseball bat made from a tree that was struck by lightning.

MVP: Robert Redford as the heroic ballplayer. He not only knocks the performance out of the park, but he got the Td Williams-esque hitter’s stance.

23. Victory

Sports: Football/Soccer

Story: Nazi officers come up with a propaganda scheme by beating a group of Allied POWs in a game of football/soccer. These prisoners agree to the game using it for their own scheme to escape.

MVP: Hard to say. It might just be the ultimate team movie. Stallone! Caine! Sydow! Even Pele and a big group of soccer stars!

22. Bull Durham

Sports: Baseball

Story: A big fan of a minor league team who happens to sleep with a different team member each year finds herself stuck between a new up and coming pitcher and the experienced catcher mentoring him.

MVP: Susan Sarandon as that big fan. Her Annie Savoy character is a professional and self-aware manic pixie dream girl. Without Sarandon’s charm and sincerity the character could come off much MUCH worse.

21. Moneyball

Sports: Baseball

Story: The manager of a fledgling professional ball club hires a numbers man to help him restructure the way they evaluate ball players’ stats.

MVP: Brad Pitt as the manager. It is an especially subdued performance from Pitt who understands the numbers but still believes in the romance of baseball.