A minor league basketball coach (Woody Harrelson) is assigned to manage a team of players with intellectual disabilities.
A minor league basketball coach with anger management issues finds his purpose with a dysfunctional team of intellectually challenged players. champions You have heart and enough humor to laugh from time to time. But it has a few problems that detract from the warmest intentions you have inside. champions Gets downright raunchy and vulgar. There is no nudity but sex and erotic dialogues. The characters spend an inordinate amount of time discussing dirty deeds in colorful ways. This focus felt out of place, overdone, and adds a vulgar aspect that was not needed.
Woody Harrelson stars as Marcus, a skilled basketball coach with a bad reputation. He is prone to outbursts that often lead to physical altercations. Marcus finds himself at Iowa as an assistant coach for his best friend, Phil (ERNIE HUDSON). He burns that last bridge when Phil refuses to listen to him during the closing moments of an important game.
Drowning mishaps during rebuke on ESPN SportsCenter result in a DUI. Marcus faces serious prison time but is relieved. The judge ordered him to perform ninety days of community service as a coach for a local rec team of special needs players known as “The Friends”.
His first day of practice didn’t go well. Darius (Joshua Felder), his best player, refuses to speak to him and storms out. Showtime (Bradley Edens) only takes one shot… from half-court… swerved back. Sweet but shy Johnny (Kevin Iannucci), who never bathes, provides the only support. Just when Marcus thinks it can’t get any worse, he meets Alex (Kaitlin Olson), a Tinder hookup that went south, who happens to be Johnny’s older sister.
Director Bobby Farrelly, known for working on classics with his brother Peter dumb and DumberReunites With Harrelson After Striking Comedic Gold in Knockdown Funny kingpin, He takes the same clunky approach here, with different results. The sexual innuendo and eventual romance between Harrelson and Olsen makes sense. There’s sensual tension that you feel leads to love. Friends make jokes about, swapping partners, and seem more unrealistic. People with intellectual disabilities can be intimate, funny, and engage in ribald locker room talk. It is understandable but not to this extreme. Friends becomes succinct caricatures for exaggerated humorous effect. It honestly robs the film of a sweetness factor that it tries to maintain.
a positive message
champions Has a predictable narrative that veers into melodrama. No wonder the runtime of over two hours. The result is never in question. This in itself is not terrible. Of course, we want happy endings for these characters. There’s just too much going on that could have been more concise. Crude subplots add length when meaningful exploration of the supporting characters would have been possible. Several “friends” were quite interesting. We only see glimpses of his life off the court. That said, the film does convey a positive message about those with intellectual disabilities. They can reach great heights and deserve every opportunity to fulfill their potential.
champions Gold is a production of Circle Entertainment. It will have a theatrical release on March 10 focus features,