Michael Medved: ‘Draft Day’ sure to make best movie lists
Apr 11, 2014, 8:46 AM | Updated: 9:06 am
It not only mentions the Seahawks, but Draft Day begins with the Seahawks.
It’s sort of a science fiction version of the Seahawks because in the movie, it’s a struggling franchise and they have the first draft pick, which means they had a terrible record before. They are going to trade to Kevin Costner, who is the general manager for the Cleveland Browns.
The movie is terrific. It’s certainly one of the most enjoyable movies of the year. And even if you’re not a big football fan, and of course everyone in Seattle is a big football fan right now, this is a movie that people will cherish, enjoy, laugh at, and feel touched and inspired by.
It really does work remarkably well.
Ivan Reitman wrote and produced Draft Day. Denis Leary plays the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, who believes that his general manager, Kevin Costner, whose father just died and whose girlfriend (Jennifer Garner) has just announced that she’s pregnant – everything is stacked against him and the clock is running.
And if you don’t announce your draft pick, in the NFL Draft you have 10 minutes, you lose your turn. This is the ultimate ticking clock movie.
Draft Day has some very surprising twists and turns to it. And when they come into Seattle, there’s this great aerial shot as you come up on the Space Needle and then CenturyLink Field where it says “Seattle, Home of the Seahawks.”
There are also some interesting things about trying to test the character of somebody that you’re going to build a whole franchise around – and that’s one of the interesting aspects of the film.
It’s rated PG-13 because of some harsh language, but nothing intense in terms of sex or violence.
It gets 3 1/2 stars out of four. This could end up being on Top 10 lists at the end of the year. I think the movie is going to do very well and it’s very hard to image people, even determined football non-fans like my wife, would even enjoy it.