Leatherheads

Just yesterday, my family and I were itching to go to the movie theatre. After my grandfather recommended it to us for being "hilarious slapstick humour", and after seeing some funny previews, we decided to see Leatherheads. Leatherheads, George Clooney's latest movie, dives into the Roaring 20s, early professional football, the Chicago Tribune, and fake war heroes, all in about an hour and 44 minutes. As unappealing and generic as that might sound compared to the average comedy feature, it was actually a quite fun movie, which is to be expected coming from Clooney.

The movie follows the story of the Duluth Bulldogs, a professional American football team, and its most well-known player, Dodge Connelly. Luck is not always on the Bulldogs' side, as can be interpreted from the outcome of the first game you watch them play, but trickery and cheating is. Dodge becomes infamous for cheating almost every game and leading his team to victory because of it. It was okay then, though. There were no rules to American football early on, and cheating was what made the game interesting. That's one of the main themes of the movie.

After the introduction comes Lexie Littleton (played by Renée Zellweger), a quick-witted reporter for the Chicago Tribune who doesn't like her co-workers too much. After calling them "dimwitted" or something similar for the fortieth time, Lexie is assigned by her boss to a story on Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford (played by John Krasinski), a war hero with a more than embellished story. When she is promised the assistant editor's desk if she brings back some dirt on The Bullet and exposes his fake war story, Lexie sets out on quite the adventure, meeting Dodge and the rest of the Bulldogs along the way.

I know that all of this probably sounds generic to the average moviegoer, but it's actually a quite fresh and fun movie. With any other actor and actress at the forefront at the movie, it may have come off as generic and boring, but Clooney and Zellweger have enough chemistry and enough quirks to make the movie fun. There are also some absolutely classic lines and scenes. It's just a fun movie. Don't expect too much depth, because there really isn't any. This movie is more than enough to quench the thirst of any moviegoer who asks for nothing more than an hour and a half of simple humour and slapstick antics.

The historical accuracy is there. Some scenes are featured in a speakeasy, with a female African-American jazz singer performing. Basically everything you see is typical of the time period. Actually, anyone watching the movie might get a little shock when they hear that coffee is only 10 cents a cup at a diner Dodge stops at early on in the movie. However, on the other hand, some major plot areas are not at all historically accurate, especially relating to the football commissioner, since there was no football commissioner for the NFL until 1941. However, this is perhaps looking too deeply into a fun, casual movie.

The main criticism I have of this movie is that some of the scenes just go on too long, especially the punching scene which was featured in the previews. After they punch each other in the face for the tenth time and finish it off with a bad joke from The Bullet, you already are hoping that one of them will bash the other's skull in by accident or something just so that the scene can end. To offset that, however, there were some very quick and humorous scenes, like the scene in which Dodge first meets Lexie in the hotel and tries to hide his face by reading an issue of a women's magazine.

Overall, Leatherheads is worth it for the entertainment value. The story isn't fantastic, but the acting is enough to make up for it, even if you only pay attention to Dodge's witty exchanges with Lexie. If you don't go in expecting too much, you will leave satisfied, refreshed, and entertained, and that's really all the movie aimed for.

I've read so many negative, dismissive reviews of this movie and I have to say, LIGHTEN UP for heaven's sake! It's not meant to stand with Ghandi or Gone With the Wind. It's just a fun, silly movie with a thin plot and lots of laughs and sight gags. Go to see it because you just want to sit back with your popcorn and laugh. (And daydream about George Clooney.) Clooney gave us "Good Night and Good Luck", so it's not like we should feel he "owes" us a "serious" movie. It's a fluffy little piece of nostalgia, a movie you won't be afraid to go see with your tween-age kids or Mom and Pop. Gramps will love it too, with all the vivid images of the "good old days" and a great ragtime score.

Clooney and Zellweger are campy in their roles (isn't that what they were shooting for?) and Stephen Root is a quiet riot as the hard drinking team owner.

"Leatherheads" is a movie of laughs, and feel good fun a period piece of football nostalgia that's held together by it's slapstick comedy and blended well with romance. George Clooney who stars and directs gives a good turn here, yet it seems a little uncommon seeing the superstar in a period comedy piece as he's clearly a better dramatic actor still he scores some points here for his style of shooting and direction of the film.

Set in the 1920's George is 'Dodge' Connelly a football player on the field and a ladies man off it, and this is before the big money and rules changes that took into form for the game. Clooney's team the Duluth Bulldogs are a scrapper bunch at play yet the team is tough and gritty, and off the field George's Dodge character is full of drink and has eyes for a dame. Enter Lexie Littleton(Renee Zellweger)who's an elegant and sexy snap news lady of a reporter as she's a little lady in red from her nifty wardrobe. While the Bulldogs team and other foes have gone bankrupt and many move on to other traits of work like mining and labor, a plan then develops to invest in and start an organized league with the help of a famous recruit for the Bulldogs that being college ivy league stud and apparent war hero Carter Rutherford(John Krasinski). Along the way then the film blends with plenty of slapstick laughs and comic gridiron action from strange and crazy tackles to muddy fields to catchy flirtation one liners and romance that is seen in a chastely and sexy way. And the big surprise is the truth about the apparent battlefield story is revealed.

Overall this isn't a great movie, but it's OK as the slapstick and laughs carry it, so if your expecting a historical serious and dramatic look at the early NFL you want get it here. Though the costumes and uniforms of the classic throwback way of no face mask, no chin gear, nor any rules make you feel just like your back watching a 1920's era game. The chemistry between Clooney and Zellweger is good as Renee is a bright treat to watch even though the laughs are good and the scenes are fun Clooney appears out of place here in a comedy work even though his performance is good, this screwball comedy scores for laughs and is flagged for drama and it's lack of focused attention on the history of the start of the NFL.

(Synopsis) Jimmy "Dodge" Connelly (George Clooney) is the team captain of the Bulldogs in the struggling pro football league in 1925. The entire pro football league is in danger of collapsing, one team at a time, and his team is next. Dodge gets an idea of saving the team by recruiting a college football star who fills the college stadium with over 45,000 cheering fans. With the lure of big money, Dodge is able to convince Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski) to drop out of college and join the team. Carter is not only a star football player who can outrun his completion, but he is also a national war hero of WWI who single-handedly captured a platoon of German soldiers. Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger) is a newspaper journalist assigned to get Carter's real inside story about the capture of the German soldiers. To get the story, Lexie must travel with the team, and in time, both Carter and Dodge fall for her. Only one will win her love as the fourth quarter comes to an end.

(My Comment) George Clooney not only starred in this slapstick comedy, he also directed it. The movie may not win any awards, but it is enjoyable to watch. Since the movie took place in 1925, the writers took us back to that time, and slapstick was the rule. If you let yourself go and get into the movie, you will actually get the feel of that era. George is very talented, but I don't think he has a flair for comedy. Renee Zellweger and George share a chemistry together that works well for this movie. You may think this is a chick flick, but you would be somewhat wrong. The love angle doesn't really get going until the end. You will love the way they play pro football with very few rules, especially, the last game that is played in the mud. This is a cute movie, and I know they had a lot of fun making it, because it shows. (Universal Pictures, Run Time 1:54, Rated PG-13)(7/10)

I saw Leatherheads today, despite the negative comments here at IMDb. On the whole, I agree with the 'movie-guy: Doug' who ventured that this is a "slapstick comedy that is cute and enjoyable to watch". I'd add that this is a comedic period-piece, which is pleasant and witty, rather than hilarious and knee-slapping (if you want to get technical). It offers excellent sets, costumes and characterizations typical of the Roaring 20's when Newspapers were godlike, and Radio was just unfolding.

It's (loosely) about Pro Football in the 20's. The message is that the game was rough, poorly-regulated and messy! (No wonder Baseball was America's game!) College players fared better, with fervent fan support and well-tended fields of play -- but after College, great players packed it up and got real jobs (or switched to baseball, I guess). In this story, George Clooney hopes to boost the fortunes of his floundering Toledo Pro team by recruiting a college superstar (and reported war-hero), played by John Krasinski. Renée Z. is the ace reporter dispatched to get the goods on the football hero's military service record.

The film was reminiscent of the 1988 film '8 Men Out' in doing a great job of recreating the look and feel of that era. However, '8 Men Out' was based upon a real life incident and a fabulous book. 'Leatherheads' was a story one IMDb contributor says George Clooney carried around in his pocket for 20 years. So, I'd agree that the storytelling and comedy bits of the screenplay are lacking a bit. However, George does fine as a Director and Performer -- I don't buy that comedy isn't 'his thing' - he was sparkling in 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou' and 'Intolerable Cruelty' (ahhhhh, but those were Coen Brothers scripts, which showed what George could do with a real creative team behind him). Also, it looked like the cast had a hoot making this thing -- to be honest, if the DVD has lots of bloopers and special features, that alone might induce me to pick it up in 2009.

I quite enjoyed the film, but, then, I like period pieces, especially those about the Jazz Age (8 Men Out, Great Gatsby and the Sting are in my Top-20). Nice soundtrack by Randy Newman here, too. This was witty and pleasant to watch. And PG-13 comedies that are NOT about singles dating morons or kids with three dads, or sperm donors (the Previews at our matinée today) are in very short supply these days.

Might add that Renée was quite charming in the manner of a glamor girl of the Jazz Age, with soft blonde hair and strategic use of red lipstick to produce that perfect 'kissy' smile! Pete Gerety, a veteran character player, chips in with a nice spot as a new Football Commissioner. I recognized Gerety as the smooth-talking oil baron 'Lee Janus' in another Clooney project, Syriana.

7/10 - canuckteach

btw: The NFL really didn't get rolling as a major diversion until NFL Films made it a TV legacy in the late 60's. (In the 50's, it was viewed in crummy black and white with those ugly-duckling 4-poster goalposts).