Draft Day opinions thread

If You Draft Him, He Will Come -- Apologies for the long response.

Long-time football fan and draft watcher. I liked Draft Day a lot. It’s another sports fantasy film for Kevin Costner.

Many of the details are somewhat predictable, yet slightly unbelievable, considering how the NFL Draft usually works. There’s the entirely unexplained and completely unexpected scenario of the 2014 Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks owning the first pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. (I’m guessing that Ivan Reitman had no time for some re-shoots that might’ve explained how the Houston Texans gave up the number one pick to the Seahawks in this year’s NFL Draft.*)

There are lots of familiar faces, though few of them generate the star power that James Earl Jones and Burt Lancaster brought to the 1989 baseball-themed fantasy film that starred Kevin Costner.

If you like Field of Dreams, then Draft Day could be considered a companion film, complete with an unfulfilled father-son relationship. But here, when the games are played, the real former NFL stars are shown in flashback videos, not as ghosts walking out of an Iowa cornfield onto a freshly built baseball field. Costner’s not fighting with his brother-in-law or some angry community members in this film. He’s just arguing with the team’s owner (Frank Langella) and new head coach (Denis Leary.) And there’s also a secret message that Kevin Costner and only one other actor are aware of, but we don’t get to hear or see that message until near the end of the film.

Chadwick Boseman trades Jackie Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers number 42 uniform for an Ohio State linebacker’s number 50 uniform and easily becomes another likeable star athlete.**

Jennifer Garner shifts from playing an understanding, empathetic doctor in Dallas Buyers Club to playing an understanding, empathetic lawyer and Cleveland Browns “capologist” while she engages in a not-so-secret office romance with Costner.

There’s even a moment reminiscent of the classic final scene from Field of Dreams. Only this time, “Dad” is dead and won’t return as a ghost, so there’s no, “Hey Dad” moment. Instead, Kevin Costner gets to say to his very much alive mother (Ellen Burstyn) as he’s walking away from her, “Hey mom!” just before revealing a secret to his mother that evokes a tear-jerking moment.

I hadn’t read too many reviews before seeing the film, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Some have suggested that this film could be viewed as a simplistic, 109-minute promotional piece for the National Football League and while that’s not entirely true, I understand their sentiments. But I don’t think that there was any reason to highlight the league’s well documented problems in a film that’s intended as a fantasy emphasizing the American public’s love of pro football and the city of Cleveland’s passionate fans’ long-unsatisfied dream of winning the Super Bowl.

When Roger Ebert reviewed Field of Dreams, he wrote, “Field of Dreams will not appeal to grinches and grouches and realists. It is a delicate movie, a fragile construction of one goofy fantasy after another. But it has the courage to be about exactly what it promises. ‘If you build it, he will come.’ And he does.” That might be applicable to Draft Day, too.

* The Farrelly Brothers’ 2005 film Fever Pitch never was intended to include a scene showing the Red Sox winning the 2004 World Series, but when that happened, they had to scramble to rewrite the script and arrange to film the happier ending to what was supposed to be another year when the Red Sox didn’t win the Series.)

** If and when they ever make the sports bio film about Bill Russell’s college and early professional career, Chadwick Boseman will be in line to play K. C. Jones, Russell’s teammate in college, on the gold-mead winning 1956 USA Olympic team and with the Boston Celtics NBA championship teams.

If it is what it is, what is it?

I loved it, I love football and this was a wonderful and different take on the football movie genre. I definitely recommend seeing it.

"Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible."

You're better off just throwing your money in the street

I thought it was pretty good. And the movie doesn't necessarily pertain to the NFL alone, other sports have General Managers who make ridiculously bad decisions all the time. Trust me, I'm a fan of one of those teams and have been suffering with their poor, gut decisions for nearly a decade.

Really ridiculous and unbelievable was my impression of the film. Poorly written. Not sure what the actual point of the film was other than to glamorize the draft and serve as an advertisement for the NFL (like all the pretty shots of the cities of the teams). Costner's GM didn't really seem to have any sort of strategy or plan, just winging it. Biggest surprise was motherf'er was said in it.

Don't see it. Not much of a plot in this movie. Maybe if you like american "football" you wil like ity, I don't know. As a european I never learned to like the sport with the eggish "ball". But I have seen other "football" movies that was OK. But watching Costner on the phone or pondering which player to pick for an entire movie was kind of boring.

The movie itself might not have been entirely realistic when you get to the particulars of the trades, but in all it was entertaining enough. Regarding the 17 year age gap, who cares? What made the movie for me was a great line towards the end of the movie that, for those of you who have seen it, included the word "pancake" from Costner to a particular GM that (to me) was absolutely fantastic (and hilarious). Not only did it sound like something Costner would have said in his prime (think Crash Davis), it revealed all of the turmoil his character went through that day and his anger and contempt towards said GM for what transpired earlier. I think if you're a longtime Costner fan, it's worth it to watch this movie for that alone.



The grave is no bar to my call.

The acting was flat, there were additional sidebar stories that really served no purpose than to fill up time.