Top Sports Movies

I can't believe I've waited this long to do this list. I love sports and I love movies and naturally I also love sports movies so this list is long overdue.

When I sat down and started to scratch out a list of my most favourite sports flicks I quickly realized that I was going to have to leave a lot of great movies out of my Top 10.

To start, here are a few of the movies that rank high in my personal list but didn't make the top ten:
The Longest Yard (Original), Field of Dreams, Hoosiers, We Are Marshall, The Greatest Game Ever Played, Brian's Song, Seabiscuit, Miracle and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Now on to the real list. I'm sure some of my choices won't match yours but this is my list after all so feel free to leave me any comments or suggestions.

Number 10
The Rocket (2005):
A story about Quebec's most famous hockey player, Maurice "The Rocket" Richard, focusing on the struggles of a French Canadian in the National Hockey League dominated by Anglophones.

I'm not a big fan of having to read subtitles but while there is plenty of French spoken, there's also an equal amount of English so it evens out. Just a great hockey movie.

Number 9
Rocky (1976):
Rocky Balboa is a struggling boxer trying to make the big time. Working in a meat factory in Philadelphia for a pittance, he also earns extra cash as a debt collector. When heavyweight champion Apollo Creed visits Philadelphia, his managers want to set up an exhibition match between Creed and a struggling boxer, touting the fight as a chance for a "nobody" to become a "somebody". The match is supposed to be easily won by Creed, but someone forgot to tell Rocky, who sees this as his only shot at the big time.

This movie deserved to win the Best Picture Oscar in 1977. Stallone gives an Oscar worthy performance and the scenes with Rocky and Mick his trainer are wonderful.

Number 8
Bull Durham (1988):
Veteran minor-league catcher Crash Davis is assigned to the Class A Durham Bulls to handle the team's star rookie, wild pitcher "Nuke" LaLoosh. Team groupie Annie Savoy romances both players, creating a comic triangle.

This is a hilarious and classic baseball movie. The interaction between Crash and Nuke makes for some great quotes and moments.

Number 7
The Bad News Bears (1976):
Former minor leaguer Morris Buttermaker is a lazy, beer swilling swimming pool cleaner who takes money to coach the Bears, a bunch of disheveled misfits who have virtually no baseball talent. Realizing his dilemma, Coach Buttermaker brings aboard girl pitching ace Amanda Whurlizer, the daughter of a former girlfriend, and Kelly Leak, a motorcycle punk who happens to be the best player around. Brimming with confidence, the Bears look to sweep into the championship game and avenge an earlier loss to their nemesis, the Yankees.

This movie is not for kids as it is brutally honest and full of foul language but it is a winner. Walter Matthau is brilliant as coach Buttermaker.

Number 6
The Pride of the Yankees (1942):
Biopic traces the life of Lou Gehrig, famous baseball player who played in 2130 consecutive games before falling at age 37 to ALS, a deadly nerve disease which now bears his name. Gehrig is followed from his childhood in New York until his famous 'Luckiest Man' speech at his farewell day in 1939.

This black and white movie has stood the test of time. The movie stars Gary Cooper as Gehrig and also the real Babe Ruth as himself. I'm not a big fan of old movies but I could watch it again and again.

Number 5
Remember The Titans (2000):
In the early 1970s, two schools in Alexandria Virginia integrate forming T.C. Williams High School. The Caucasian head coach of the Titans is replaced by an African American coach from North Carolina. Tensions arise when players of different races are forced together on the same football team. Many of these tensions are eased during the two-week training camp in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. When players returned to Alexandria the players found the city in turmoil due to the forced desegregation of the high school. As the season progresses the team's success caused the community to accept the changes.

This is a wonderful story based on true accounts. An enjoyable movie from start to finish.

Number 4
Rudy (1993):
Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but wanted to play football at Notre Dame instead. There were only a couple of problems. His grades were a little low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of 5 people and has set his sights upon joining the team.

I challenge anyone to watch this movie and not get caught up in the emotional ending. There's nothing better than seeing the little man succeed after years of perseverance.

Number 3
The Natural (1984):
An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league in this magical sports fantasy. With the aid of a bat cut from a lightning struck tree, Hobbs lives the fame he should have had earlier when, as a rising pitcher, he is inexplicably shot by a young woman.

Quite simply this is the best baseball movie ever made in my opinion.

Number 2
Caddyshack (1980):
Comical goings on at an exclusive golf club. All the members are wealthy and eccentric, and all the staff are poor and slightly less eccentric. The main character is 'Danny'; he's a caddy who will do almost anything to raise money to go to college. There are many subplots, including the assistant green keeper's pursuit of a cute (obviously stuffed) gopher.

The movie stars Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Bill Murray and Chevy Chase. With four comic greats such as these, the movie was destined to be a hilarious classic.

Number 1
Slap Shot (1977):
Paul Newman plays Reggie Dunlop, the coach of a pathetic minor-league American hockey team. His career at a standstill and his marriage in tatters, Dunlop has nothing to lose by taking on a new group of players who are one evolutionary step above Neanderthals. Only when the team begins winning does he decide to get behind these players, and to encourage the rest of the team to play as down-and-dirty as the newcomers. Slap Shot is the sort of film for which the "R" rating was invented: Its nonstop barrage of profanity and its raunchy action sequences are of such intensity that the film will probably never be shown intact on commercial television.

When it comes to sports movies, this one is head and shoulders above the rest. This is by far my favourite sports flick of all time.

So there you have it...my Top Sports Movies (so far). Did I miss one you think should be in the Top 10 or is there one that doesn't belong there, let me know what you think by leaving a comment.