Draft Day

Draft Day, the latest movie from one of my all time favorite directors, Ivan Reitman is a complete and utter bore. The world could have continued spinning if this movie had not been made and no one would have felt cheated in the slightest way. It's a yawn inducing movie with a really bad bait and switch, and the switch is so unlikely that it borders on the ridiculous. Because of that, I give Draft Day one bucket of Killer Korn.











I am a football fanatic. I love the game and play fantasy football pretty much every season. I know the ins and outs of the off season and the comings and goings during the regular season. I have my favorite team who I pull for (I won't get into that here), I do watch the draft, and I even watch the combine. I say all that to say I know the game in all it's beautiful and flawed facets, so while watching Draft Day I realized one thing, this movie is not for people like me. The hardcore football lover will laugh and snicker and maybe even boo this movie, and it earns all such derision.

Draft Day takes place in one day, draft day. It follows Kevin Costner's Sonny Weaver Jr., the General Manager of the sorry Cleveland Browns. If you've seen the trailer you pretty much knew that going in, what that switch is that I mentioned above is the amazingly weak romance between Sonny and Jennifer Garner's character Ali. First off, there is absolutely NO chemistry between the two actors, and secondly the whole romance feels like it was put together and thrown in at the last minute. It just didn't feel organic and it came across as if the writers wondered what else they could throw into the script to give it heft.

I am not a big Costner fan because basically the man can't act anymore. He used to be a fine actor when he was younger, and if the Kevin Costner who played Jake in Silverado showed up, this movie would have been far more interesting to watch. Instead this movie is saddled with and the viewer is subjected to an actor who looks like he wants to retire. We get the same old Costner, hands on the hips, frustrated, and the same facial expression throughout. How would a woman as lovely as Ali fall for a schlub like Sonny? She wouldn't and yet, the director, producers, and the writers want us to buy this garbage plot line while Sonny wheels and deals on the most important day of any football team.

And when I say wheel and deal, I mean make a deal no GM would ever THINK about making. I almost dropped my popcorn (and you all know how I feel about my popcorn) when the big trade is made. Any GM that makes the deal Sonny does in this film would be run out of town by fans wielding torches and pitchforks, then they would burn down the facilities. This movie was clearly written by people who either don't like football or don't know it. Draft Day was just all over the place, it lacked focus and purpose which makes it in my opinion a truly bad film. I have heard some comparing this film to Brad Pitt's amazing Moneyball and that is just blatant disrespect for Moneyball. The two have absolutely nothing in common, not to mention one was a true story and one was a complete waste of time. Sadly the NFL hitched it's cart to a sickly horse that won't pull it's cart to the market. I say skip Draft Day, wait for the real draft because it will be imminently more interesting than the movie and enjoy the wings. I'll see you at the theater.

And be sure to visit me at MarkEricEntertainment.com