Top 10 of 2025: 9. F1

★★★★--Any time Brad Pitt is in a movie, it is probably gonna end up on my list at the end of the year. Kind of a commercial for a sport no one in the United States care about, but I’m glad I saw it on the big screen. This was so bad ass. Crazy visuals and sound. There were times when I was stunned. Only happens every so often. I think the last time before this year (the hill scene in One Battle After Another also got me) was Oppenheimer. Before that, Nope. The race footage is that good. Hell, this was one of my favorite sports movies. Doesn’t hold up to the best of the Rocky/Creed movies, but I’d say it could hang with pretty much anything else. 

 

Directed by one Joseph Kosinski. I sort of hate all his other movies. They include: Tron: Legacy, Oblivion, Only the Brave, Top Gun: Maverick, Spiderhead (which I haven’t seen), and he wrote Twisters. Rounding out the solid cast were Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin, Train Dreams, Night Swim) whose character is irritatingly named Kate McKenna (not to be confused with the greatest SNL actor of all-time, Kate McKinnon), potential future-star Damson Idris whom I only know from this, and Javier Bardem. And love that Hans Zimmer score. 

Air - Ben Affleck - 2023

★★★-Air retells the story of Michael Jordan's historic signing with Nike in 1984 before ever playing a second of professional basketball. The idea for the film came from screenwriter Alex Convery, who noticed that the story was glossed over in the documentary series The Last Dance. 

Matt Damon stars as talent scout Sonny Vaccaro who had the biggest hand in the signing. Others at the table during the historic pitch include Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike played by Ben Affleck, marketer Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), player rep Howard White (Chris Tucker), shoe designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher), Jordan’s agent David Falk (Chris Messina), and Jordan's parents (played by the Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon). 

The movie apparently had Jordan's blessing as Affleck met with him before filming on what should be included in the movie (he specifically said that Davis had to play his mother). Nike wasn't consulted, supposedly, but that doesn't matter because they come off looking fucking great. As does Vaccaro, who is considered something of a dubious character (for more on him, check out the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, Sole Man, which focuses on his life). 

Reviews were mostly positive with the Rotten Tomatoes score at a Certified Fresh 92%. Though there were some people that didn't like it. NPR's Aisha Harris criticized the film's “craven exercise in capitalist exaltation” and lack of character development. Similarly, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called it a “shallow, parochial and obtuse” corporate promo.

I liked it though it feels weird rooting for Nike. Claims that it is pretty much a commercial for Jordan's sneakers and Nike are pretty accurate, but it tells a hell of a story with a lot of talented actors. Certainly not the worst movie I've seen about Michael Jordan.

Rocky IV is the greatest movie of all time

If he dies, he dies. Holy shit this movie is amazing. Watched it on Election Day because I needed something that could get me to believe in America again. This did it. Then a few days later, the results came in. I'm proud of you, America. We did it. Watched Rocky single-handedly defeat the Russians, and then Biden did that shit again.

Rotten Tomato Consensus: Rocky IV inflates the action to absurd heights, but it ultimately rings hollow thanks to a story that hits the same basic beats as the first three entries in the franchise.

Gist of the movie is that Soviet boxer Ivan Drago played by Dolph Lundgren beats Rocky's best friend, Apollo Creed played by Carl Weathers, to death during an exhibition match. This match is fucking incredible. Creed comes out dancing to James Brown singing "Living in America." James Brown is absolutely on fire here. Fictional people that were at this fictional fight got one hell of a show. First, they basically got a 10-minute insane James Brown concert, then they got to watch Apollo Creed die. Hell of a date night. Anyway, so Rocky decides come out of retirement to fight Drago in Russia, for no money, on Christmas, much to the shock of wife Adrian (Talia Shire). "You're doing what now?" In the next movie, we see Rocky is broke by the by. Maybe Adrian was right to be pissed about this, ya know? But nobody, even Adrian, thinks Rocky can win. But after repeated montages and truly impressive CompuBox numbers, he does and wins the Cold War for America in the process. Also, Uncle Paulie has a butler/sex robot that later goes on tour with James Brown. I shit you negative. Greatest film of all time. 

Maybe the most mumbly movie of all time, with Stallone and Lundgren, this shit consists of 33% montage. In one he climbs a mountain, for fuck's sake, with no equipment and wearing a light jacket in the Russian wilderness. 

Playing Drago's wife in the movie is Brigitte Nielsen who is actually smoking hot. Seeing her in her Flava of Love years is shocking after watching this. She is said to be an Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer at the 1980 games held in Russia. Totally on steroids. Her and Drago have a kid who also grows up to kick ass in Creed 2, but this bitch has left Drago for a higher-up at the Kremlin. Meanwhile, Drago's life is dark and in fucking shambles. 

Stallone, who has to be roided out of his mind here, is the MVP of the movie. Wrote, starred, directed a perfect movie. 40% on Rotten Tomatoes my ass. 

The Arsenal Stadium Mystery is the worst sports movie of all time

The Arsenal Stadium Mystery. Fourth movie I've watched for the Greatest Years in Cinema Project from 1939. First of the obligatory movies about sports from those great Hollywood years. This one, decidedly B, is not good. This is before they made sports movies worth a shit. The first one that is palatable is Pride of the Yankees in 1942 about Lou Gehrig starring Gary Cooper. This is like the crappy, lighter, British precursor that stars the real players from the club. Need I say more? For this reason, I was not expecting any sports movie from this year to be any good. So I figured I'd go with this movie over a couple of others because it had this whole murder mystery aspect to it. Fuck it. Why not.

An Arsenal Football Club movie, it is second English soccer talkie. Still figuring this whole thing out, I guess. Have to REALLY appreciate Arsenal to be a fan of the movie at this point. Like a historian or something. It basically follows the lead up to this big... game? Match? I'm sort of a fan of the Premier League going back to 2015 (mostly for pub trivia purposes) and was a fucking sportswriter and had to look that shit up every time I cover the damn thing that has been the sport of the future for my entire life, probably going back to win this movie was made. Again, huge fan. ANYway, the big MATCH is between Arsenal and this fictitious amateur team called the Trojans. Arsenal has absolutely nothing to gain from this and may indeed be playing against murderers as the best player on the Trojans suddenly dies during the MATCH. It's a brutal sport, after all. They stop the match and this Sherlock Holmes esque dude, more on him later, comes in to investigate. Suspension mostly falls on a couple of his sons of bitches teammates (one of which brings a fucking female ventriloquist dummy [which I assume is a crude sex toy] that is creepy as shit but brings the team luck or something), his Swedish GF, and side bitch (these relationships were all a bit hard to follow so I may be mistaken).

Ok. We'll start with this. The soccer is bad. I assumed this is what happened when you put old timey actors in sports roles but the Arsenal team was indeed made up of mostly real Arsenal players. Lionel Messi these guys are not. Move at different speed than players in the game today. Nor do they have the ball handling skills.

Something random of note I will point out. One of the chicks whose role was unintelligible but was most definitely a  suspect in the murder is being questioned all friendly like by the police and to be funny, I guess, she goes and puts Epsom salts in the sugar bowl. Hilarious and weird. What the hell is going on here? I have no idea. Ruins the tea which is equivalent to killing everyone in the room, apparently.

Fast forward to the end of the movie and it is pretty interesting and sort of insane. Wasn't really a fan until those last couple of minutes. When they find out who the murderer is, which they do through an elaborate setup that turns his hands black (don't ask), there is a really effective scene where the guy knows he's fucked and looks at all the tunnel exits. Like five or six cops stand in each one, looking at him with disgust. He then plays hero ball, taking it from coast-to-coast and scoring the winning goal to beat a historically great team the English Premier League. Everyone has had enough of this shit and the cops come out and arrest the guy. They call the detective on the phone asking how he knew who the killer was or whatever. He says, "it's elementary my dear Watson," puts on a Sherlock Holmes coat and hat, and grabs a giant magnifying glass and dances his way with these ladies on a stage off screen. Surprise Sherlock, I guess, but they'd been alluding to him being like Sherlock the whole time. It is weird as shit though and comes so far out of left field that is sort of funny.