{"id":26152,"date":"2023-03-09T13:43:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T21:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=26152"},"modified":"2023-03-09T13:43:18","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T21:43:18","slug":"champions-is-well-intentioned-but-doesnt-end-up-on-the-winners-podium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=26152","title":{"rendered":"CHAMPIONS is Well-Intentioned, But Doesn\u2019t End Up on the Winner\u2019s Podium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Running Time: 123 minutes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This film from Focus Features opens at movie theaters on\nFriday, March 10th.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filmmakers Peter and Bobby Farrelly got their start making notable and exaggerated comedies like Dumb and Dumber<\/em> and There\u2019s Something About Mary<\/em>, which were box-office smashes. In the last decade, they\u2019ve begun directing projects individually (with Peter even trying his hand at serious drama with the recent Green Book<\/em>). Bobby Farrelly\u2019s latest is Champions<\/em>, a remake of a 2018 Spanish film. This feature attempts to blend broad humor and showcase the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. It\u2019s a well-intentioned effort, but one that never finds the right tone to deliver big laughs or convey a strong emotional response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marcus (Woody Harrelson) is a minor-league basketball coach\nwith a hot temper. His prickly personality has alienated him from most players\nand staff, hurting his career. After getting into another incident on the job\nwith boss Phil Peretti (Ernie Hudson), he finds himself in a drunken fender\nbender. In order to avoid jail time, Marcus agrees to serve 90 days of\ncommunity service managing the Friends, a local basketball team featuring\nplayers with intellectual disabilities. After a difficult start, Marcus builds\nrelationships with athletes like Johnny (Kevin Iannucci), Darius (Joshua\nFelder) and Cosentino (Madison Tevlin). But difficulties arise when he\nencounters Alex (Kaitlin Olson), a woman he had a brief fling with who also\nhappens to be the sister of a player. Despite internal conflicts, the group\nbegins to win under Marcus\u2019 leadership and find themselves competing for a spot\nin the Special Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the talented Harrelson is effective as the coach.\nThe character has a pleasant redemptive arc and the cast manage to eke some laughs\nout of his testy personality. In fact, some of the best moments are quieter\nones between Marcus and the players. When the team insults him for his\nignorance about their busy lives and capabilities, the dialogue is amusing. The\nstory also includes a couple of fun moments when the lead has to capably adapt\nhis coaching methods to assist and inspire his new friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s simply unfortunate that other scenes in the movie\naren\u2019t nearly as successful. This is particularly true when the humor is played\nup in an exaggerated manner. Almost every person the group encounters comes\nacross as excessively blunt and nasty. While there are certainly people who do\nbehave abhorrently, in this film the bits ultimately come off as too magnified\nand phony. The physical comedy often falls flat as well. There is one sequence\nthat involves a player suffering from motion sickness on a public bus and\nproceeding to vomit on the rude passengers around him. It doesn\u2019t end up\neliciting laughs. A subplot involving Marcus trying to land an NBA job through\ncoaching assistant Sonny (Matt Cook) is also broadly overplayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additionally, the relationship between Marcus and actress\nAlex starts off in such an adversarial manner that it never feels like there is\nmuch chemistry between them. The story actually jumps between a dramatic scene\nin which the pair try to deal with their personal issues to another comedic bit\nin which they try to deal with a funding shortage that will prevent the Team\nfrom taking part in a major tournament. One would expect the protagonists to\nput their heads together and come up with a clever fundraiser to get the word\nout. Instead, the screenplay has Marcus and Alex carry out a ridiculous ruse to\ntry and blackmail a nasty business owner. It doesn\u2019t play and will leave most\nviewers stone-faced. In general, one wishes that a more subtle and realistic\napproach had been attempted throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entire cast do their best and do manage to generate a\nchuckle or two here. And of course, the message is also a welcome one. It\u2019s an\namiable effort, but the script lets everyone down with some over-the-top\nelements and much of the film feels like a misfire. In the end, Champions<\/em>\ntries very hard but the final product doesn\u2019t end up on the winner\u2019s\npodium.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Time: 123 minutes This film from Focus Features opens at movie theaters on Friday, March 10th. Filmmakers Peter and Bobby Farrelly got their start making notable and exaggerated comedies like Dumb and Dumber and There\u2019s Something About Mary, which were box-office smashes. In the last decade, they\u2019ve begun directing projects individually (with Peter even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":26156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[213,2339,4094,4095,4096,4097,4660,6251,7053,7700,23562,24468],"class_list":["post-26152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-213","tag-basketball","tag-champions","tag-champions-film-review","tag-champions-movie-review","tag-champions-review","tag-comedy","tag-drama","tag-ernie-hudson","tag-focus-features","tag-universal","tag-woody-harrelson"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}