Leatherheads
Director: George Clooney
Year Released: 2008
Rating: 2.0
Aging footballer (Clooney) figures the best way to save the sport he loves and attracting an audience is by recruiting a war hero who plays ball for Princeton (John Krasinski), but intrepid reporter (Renée Zellweger, attempting to channel Rosalind Russell) wants to expose Krasinski's character as a fraud who lied about his courageous exploits. The '20s screwball gags don't really work very well in 21st century cinema (physical humor is only really funny when Keaton, Arbuckle, Lloyd, Chaplin, Tati, etc. did it because they were so well schooled in it), there isn't a lot of football footage (for those going in expecting that) and the story is a little humdrum: there's a need for rules and honesty in professional sports, don't lie to the American public and playing sports is about having fun. But Clooney is right about one thing: "You're only as old as the women you feel."
