Tony Danza plays a garbageman (Gorman) who has a beat up truck that needs to have a lever kicked into shape constantly, through which he develops the magic ability to kick empty water containers over a mountain. The professional US football team of Philadelphia sees this and decides to sign him as a kicker for a hefty sum.
But this is no Cinderella story. When he gets to his princely castle he finds a lot of problems waiting for him, including a team that doesn't appreciate having a civilian on board, malicious papparazzis, and the crushing demands of high-level public performance. This last turns out to be too much for him and he kick-tile disfunction from it, which subsequently leads to even further problems with a fickle public.
It's very simplistic but extremely tidy and comprehensive. Every relevant critique of fame and the professional sports world is there in child-friendly form. For example, people will be nicer to him just because he's famous when he first joins the team and the coach is verbally abusive - critiques of fame and sports training.
The relationships are also well-developed. Gorman slowly earns the respect of the team by being a good friend and a positive guy. Domestically, you can also tell he's an average dad facing a very common problem - he doesn't have a huge measure of respect from his family - so you get a good sense of the pressure he's under to try and win back some of his pride.
It's a movie made using stick figures - very bare and simplistic, so it's tough for it to achieve a 10 - it was clearly made to be digestible by young children. Nevertheless, it has a tight plot and solid character acting with very few flaws. It's also just riveting and entertaining, even if you don't know an don't care a lick for sports or US Football.
Honourable Mentions: Over the Top (1987). Stallone plays Hawk, a trucker who develops superior arm strength by installing some weight-lifting device in his truck and becomes the world champion of arm wrestling. Sure. It could happen. Why not?
