Possums

Mac Davis plays a devoted fan and the radio voice of his alma mater Nowata High School. After a very long losing streak, the school administration decides to do away with the football team. Davis starts missing the Friday night games and decides to buy up commercial time and broadcast fantasy games featuring a winning version of his beloved Possums. Finally the small Oklahoma town takes pride in their dismantled team. The real Possums are challenged by the real State Champs. The Possums lose again, but score their first actual touchdown in years.

This is a charming, down home movie. You actually feel the heart warming and emotional accomplishments of Davis' character. The action scenes truly represent high school football play.

This movie leaves you in a happy, upbeat mood. And is really fun for the family to watch.

Davis was very believable. Others in the cast: Andrew Pine, Greg Coolidge, Monica Creel and a cameo by former famed Oklahoma University and Dallas Cowboys coach Barry Switzer.

I watched this film with my 11 year old grandson and we both enjoyed it a lot.

On the surface it is pretty similar to the standard Disney small town saga. There is the bumbling middle aged parent, the high school in-crowd looming over the new boy in town. There's the venal mayor and the greedy developer. There is the standard conflict of generations between father and son. And, of course, there's the cute girl whom the new boy is crazy about but is afraid to ask out.

But as things turn out the bumbling hero doesn't need any magic or duex machina to move things his way. He is quietly persistent, aware of his follies, and knows when to back off. The new kid in town is accepted in short order, both by the town's perennial loser of a football team and by the pretty girl. And wonder of wonders, the female teen love interest is an honest to goodness pretty girl, not some Britney clone.

The plot and writing stumble a bit toward the end but the ending is both satisfying and believable.

I live in a town that's about 20 mins from where this movie was filmed. I had 2 friends that were used as extras. I rented it simply because I knew one of the guys that played a football player in the movie. I was very much impressed with what I saw.

This movie is sweet, uplifting, and fun. My friends and I got into it as if it were really a game. This movie should have been pushed more than it was. It's a nice lil film...

9/10

"Possums" is formulaic, yet fantastic. An almost excessively cute film with a predictable ending, you'll like it nonetheless.

The "name" actors -- like Mac Davis, Andrew Prine, and Cynthia Sikes -- offer their usual, professional performances, but with that added enthusiasm which comes from really enjoying the story being told. Veterans like Clive Revill and Dennis Burkley are expertly cast in more minor roles. Also of note are a number of locals, folks like then-Nowata, Okla., newspaper publisher Ken Murnan and Coffeyville, Kan., musician Rodney Lay (formerly of Roy Clark's band) who took roles and gave credible performances. (I lived near the real-life town of Nowata, Okla., where this flick was shot.)

But most important here is the story -- a twist on the typical "local boy makes good" tale. The Nowata Possums don't exactly make "good," but in a town desperate for any sign of life from its high school football team, the boys make "good enough" for now, and finally offer Nowata a ray of hope for the future.

Heartwarming fun for the whole family, it deserves a whole lot more exposure than it has received.

A variation on the no-hopers make good theme. When the Possums football team is disbanded because it's never won a game in its entire existence, a fan recreates it in fantasy radio commentaries until, bit by bit, the team rebuilds itself as the pride of the town and takes on local rivals in a final 'shoot-out'. You've seen it all before, but it's done with conviction and real charm.