Underdogs

Underdogs is a low key, slow burn underwhelming drama that just about sustains your interest.

D B Sweeney is a veteran football coach newly arrived at a struggling High School in Ohio.

Logan Huffman is the team's quarterback who is drawn to the cheerleader of the rival high school football team which leads to rivalry with her boyfriend who is the quarterback for that High School.

The interesting part of the film and this is based on true facts is that the Huffman's father is the inventor of the EdenPURE space heater and has to defend his invention from his former employer. The former employer is also the dad of the rival high school's quarterback.

The film is rather contrived and low key, there is enough spin put on it to make it viewable but it never rises above than just being average thanks to the space heater side plot because it never passes muster as a sports movie.

Incredibly flat movie that had a promising cast and a nice story.

The movie just lacks any punch as everything is predictable and just kind of fumbles along. And, while the lead actor was OK, he was physically too small and underweight to portray any standard high school QB - not believable at all.

There's too many classic football movies to re-watch vs watching this one.

I'm a veteran of sports movies... "Rudy", "We Are Marshall", "One on One"-- I grew up on them and still can't resist the genre. So I'm well aware of the underlying metaphor of struggle and victory as it applies to daily life. I also hold a college degree in Literature, so I can sniff out cheese in a movie. "Underdogs" was refreshingly different.

Yes, I loved it because I grew up in the region-- in the cradle of the birthplace of football. But I liked "Rudy", even though I've never worshiped the Football Jesus at Notre Dame. So, only minimal kudos for my love of place. I loved this movie because, unlike many sports movies, it was clear-eyed and real.

The cinematography was sharp and by no means low-budget. The camera was so omnipresent yet graceful that it was able to pick up the subtleties of actors' expressions that catapulted the story along. The pacing was never slow either. The movie roared along like a high-school football season,with the viewer caught up in the play-by-play of the tumultuous season, as well as the companion struggle of the movie's main protagonists. The movie really let its young actors tell the story, too, so the point of view came right from the characters' hearts. Although the adults in the film did the usual pontificating, it was really the kids' story.

As a veteran of many Film Festivals, I can say that this movie is not traditional Film Fest fare. As Sally Sparrow said so well in an episode of British TV series "Dr. Who", 'sad is happy for deep people'. So not your typical Film Fest Sturm und Dang, but plenty of clear-eyed, uncliched retelling of the football myth and legend in our culture.

As my title says this is a movie where I became more worried about the potential business growth of the heater rather than the success of the football team on the field. I have seen many football-driven stories before but this one was lacking the appeal to the team. I felt it combined a bunch of stereotypical sports movie moments and even felt it was taken from previous movies.

For one - Big Mac felt like a complete ripoff of The Blind Side even adding in the scrawny cousin as a package deal.

The coach reminded me of Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights but instead of worrying about the football team he worried more about smooshing with the local bartender. Focus on the team Coach!

At the heart of the story to me really was how corporate America continues to look for ways to screw over the little man. The father who worked at the factory seemed to have a mental limitation which was taken advantage of - this happens in everyday life and this movie showcased it.

I will say the house of the CEO of the factory was almost too impressive when the kids jumped into the backyard lake I wondered if it was safe with the recent bacterial outbreaks in still water but with his money he more than likely treats it.

In the end I do hope for a spinoff for this movie where it focuses more on the fathers space heater and selling it. Maybe a Pursuit of Happyness sequal where he teams up with Will Smith as he sells his bone density scanners.

Anything is possible!

Long story short if you are looking for a non-sports movie about a father trying to sell his space heater and make his well deserved millions then this is your movie!

If you are looking for a Football movie then you may as well turn on the boob tube and hope that a rerun of Varsity Blues is on.

PS - How much did Joe Namath get paid for his appearance? Shouldn't be much more than $1000 and a case of Coors Light.

I just saw this film yesterday at the Cleveland International Film Festival. I must say, I was very impressed.

The overall cinematography is in line with most modern day multi-million dollar Hollywood productions, even though this was produced as an independent film and shot in less than a month in Stark County, Ohio. It's amazing to see how far film makers can go when they actually have talent and aren't relying on a bloated budget and over-hyped marketing campaign. UNDERDOGS shines in that the shots themselves are well composed and can, at times, even evoke emotion.

The actors and actresses all performed extremely well. Though this is a family-oriented film, there wasn't a lot of "cheesy" moments or poor acting typically associated with those types of films. The characters themselves are very memorable and you could almost hear the audience praising the heroes and booing the villains as the film went on. There is enough humor sprinkled throughout to keep it from becoming too serious.

Though this was primarily a football movie, I found it quite engaging even though I didn't understand a lot of the football jargon. The parallel plot of an employee fighting against his greedy employer really helps drive home the whole spirit of being an underdog, which most people can really relate to.

Overall, fun and enjoyable film and highly recommended!