De Volta às Quadras

There are a lot of movies that get released that sport a cast of known actors but for whatever reason gets shoved straight to video. Sometimes it's obvious why but others end up being really entertaining and make no sense they didn't get a bigger push. The latest The Hot Flashes features Brooke Shields, Daryl Hannah, Wanda Sykes, Andrea Frankle, Camryn Manheim, Virginia Madsen, and Eric Roberts and is sponsored American Cancer Society but does it make for a good film?

The Hot Flashes follows an under-appreciated group of middle-aged women, all former high school champs who challenge the current arrogant high school girls' state champs to a series of games to raise money for breast cancer prevention. This movie is actually pretty entertaining for what it is, but is never really able to step out of feeling like some sort of Lifetime movie. That isn't such a bad thing, but given the cast involved you would kind of expect more. Everyone here delivers some fun performances and seems to be having a great time but the movie itself just seems to struggle to really find its footing. Some of the film is a drama while other aspects are a comedy, but never really commits to either. Most of this film is pretty predictable, but thanks to the cast it entertains in somewhat of an awkward way at times as they try to pull this team together. There are all the clichéd characters for this kind of film and they build up numerous situations, but only some of them are resolved at the end. There are some you just let go or let your imagination fill in the gaps but there are others that have a pretty strong build up and they seem to get lax and rush the resolution.

This is one of those movies that will find a particular audience that will love it and others that will probably skip it all together, but no matter which of these categories you fall in, you are sure to be entertained in this quirky comedy. It plays most things safe, but still tries to craft a story in recognition of some important subject matter and the film deserves its shot for that alone.

Saw this last night at the USA Film Festival in Dallas. Wasn't aware of the director's background until she was introduced before the viewing. But she is impressive! The PSA encouraging women to get their annual mammogram is really funny as is the movie. The whole theater laughed and actually cheered during the basketball game sequences. My husband had to shush me when I kept cheering the great shots made by the Hot Flashes. These five women put in lots of hard work to become so proficient on the court, although there was probably a lot of footage left on the editing room floor. If it were not for a brief "sex" scene and the hilarious off color jokes, I would love to take my 11 year old granddaughter to see this to encourage her budding career!

The cast is impressive, realistic humor and believable underdog sports comedy.Because of typical Mean Grrl bullies,there are a few derogatory sexual/racial comments by a few bullies but it pushes the movie forward.Its underrated,inspiring if not ridiculous.Its a good movie,to watch and laugh.Just enjoy it :)

''A group of middle aged women play basketball and prove a point.'' And that is, with not many other words, the entire movie. The entire 90 minutes you sit there, there are no other plots, no other events, no other nothing. Just that. 5 middle aged women playing basketball to raise some money for charity. The first half of the movie seems a bit interesting, as the actions happen in different places, the dialogs are varied, but then , in the second half of the movie, things become, let's say, static. It only focuses on the gym where the games are played and that's it. Quite boring for 45 minutes. And even worse, the ending is ridiculously predictable, it doesn't give any thrill. Important is that there are no useless scenes, everything that happens, matters. All in all, if you are just trying to waste the next hour and a half, I am quite sure that you can find something more thrilling than this.

I enjoyed this a lot. It may be no better than a silly TV movie, but for what this is, the acting and writing are good. Of course it's a formula. I like the formula.

There is also an inspiring story. Nothing come easy for the women, but then everything seems to work out eventually. only in the movies.

And there are a number of moral dilemmas. The girls have to do everything they can to sabotage what the women are doing, right? But what about the cause the women are fighting for? Well, there is one other reason the girls might see the light.

And it's not all funny. There is some unexpected drama, but even that seems to work out in a good way.

Brooke Shields is as good as she ever was. Not a great actress, but good for this type of material. And she still looked amazing. And she was the only one wearing short shorts in practice, though Clementine also wore them in the games.

Beth's husband might be cheating. Wait ... what? She looks like that and he cheats on HER? Not possible. She must be paranoid. Men cheat with women like Beth.

Wanda Sykes and Camryn Manheim are more highly regarded as actresses, and they're both good here.

I do have one complaint. Too much rap music. The games between the women and the girls were accompanied by music that to me isn't music. Now the first game played, between two high school teams, had "We Got the Beat" by The Go-Gos--even though that's from the era when the women were in high school. Not typical of my taste, but I like it.

Most of the music in the movie was good, such as the background music with tuba that reminded us we were supposed to be laughing. And square dance music, and real country music.

If you like silly formula comedy, you should enjoy this.