Monday Night Mayhem

I'm 35 years old and the Cosell years on Monday Night Football bring me back to an age when football was the most exciting thing in my life. Although John T. overplayed Cosell's character, this movie kept my interest throughout the length of the film. Maybe it's my age, but this movie brought back memories of the famous 'monkey incident', the O.J. years as well as many other exciting events of the Cosell Monday Night Football years. I would highly recommend this movie for anyone looking for a very interesting and well documented account of Monday Night Football and the infamous Cosell.

Monday Night Mayhem is a great movie with Turturro's best performance yet. But my enjoyment of it on Dubai One TV last week was not helped by the censorship of the sequence detailing the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics by Palastinian terrorists. Sequences in the film are flagged in advance by titles reading, for example, 'Clay v Liston', or 'Superbowl 1959'. The title announcing 'Munich Olympic Games' appeared, but instead of showing Howard Cosell's reporting of the tragic events which occurred, we found ourselves back in New York and on to other events in Cosell's life. Had it not been for the incompetence of whoever made the cut in leaving in the title, I would have been unaware of this censorship. Are TV companies purchasing broadcasting rights to movies allowed to censor them in this way? Piers Jessop.

A candid behind-the-scenes look at Monday Night Football from its infancy, "Mayhem" exploits the trials and tribulations of what has become an institution for NFL fans the world over. Being a football fan, if you take this movie at face value like I did, you can appreciate what the viewer doesn't see. This movie delves into the conflicts between on-air and off-air personalities well beyond what you may have read in the newspapers. However, as a movie fan, I was disappointed at the overall acting. Although a finely written script, I had to do my best to drown out John Turturro's poor imitation of Howard Cosell, to appreciate the unparalleled verbiage that only Cosell could provide. Same is true for those imitating Frank Gifford, Keith Jackson and "Dandy" Don Meredith. All in all, I gave this movie 7 stars.

This has got to be John Turturro's best role so far. He was actually believable as Cosell. It shows how Cosell made Monday Night football as much as everyone hated him. I remember some of those games and comments. He was always a guy full of surprise comments and an articulate verbal arsenal. They made Frank Gifford look really stupid in this movie. I also think they made a big mistake when they did not resign Cosell. They left out the famous speech between Cosell and Meredith. This is a must see for any Monday Night football fan. 8/10

An entertaining behind the scenes look at Monday Night Football from it's inception to the departure of Howard Cosell.

The movie is extremely friendly to Cosell, and is based mostly upon him, and Roone Arlidge. Not much dirty laundry is aired during this movie....Of course there are the well known incidents such as Cosell getting drunk and vomiting on Meredith's boots, Chet Forte's gambling, the clashing of egos in the broadcast booth, and the little monkey comment that caused so much furor.

John Turturro as Cosell seemed to be a stretch. I felt Turturro was a little over the top in his portrayal, but not so much it was annoying.