SYNOPSIS:
When veteran football player Dodge Connolly (George
Clooney) recruits war hero Carter 'The Bullet' Rutherford,
to aid the failing fortunes of his team, he gets far more
than he bargains for. With Carter’s arrival comes the
smart and sassy newspaper journalist Lexie Littleton (Renee
Zellweger), whom is tasked by her Editor to uncover the dirt
on Carter and the truth behind his undeserved hero status.
Both Carter and Dodge fall deeply for Lexie’s beauty,
but only one of them can win the girl. A hilarious, quick-witted
romantic comedy, Leatherheads is all about playing dirty and
scoring first.
MOVIE REVIEW:
This reviewer remembers the year 2006. 2006 was the year of
George Clooney. There was a certain movie entitled Good Night,
And Good Luck, which Clooney directed, produced, wrote and
starred in. It was one damn fine movie, and who would have
thought that one of the Hollywood’s sexiest heartthrobs
was so talented? The political film was nominated for a few
major awards at 2006’s Academy Awards. Incidentally,
2006 was also the year which Clooney brought home a Best Supporting
Actor Oscar statue for his performance in Syriana. So you
begin to wonder why Clooney’s next directing effort
which he also produced and stars in doesn’t get a theatrical
release here.
Maybe
it’s because the movie takes place in the 1920s (our
parents were probably not born then). Maybe it’s because
the movie is set against the backdrop of America's pro-football
league (we prefer watching movies with soccer). Maybe it’s
because the local distributors just thought that this romantic
sports comedy wouldn’t find an audience here (we feel
more comfortable watching something we are familiar with).
Clooney
plays a team captain of a struggling football league, and
he suddenly gets an idea of saving the team by recruiting
a college football star who is a national war hero who has
captured a platoon of German soldiers. Along comes a pesky
reporter (Renee Zellweger in another custom made role) who
is determined to get an inside story of this seemingly undeserving
war hero. And as you would expect, romance between the three
protagonists spark even before you say l-o-v-e.
We
are not saying that this is a bad movie, but there is this
missing element of engagement in its 113 minute runtime. We
can see that Clooney, Zellweger and actors like John Kraskinski
(The Holiday, Dreamgirls) and Jonathan Pryce (The New World,
Pirates of the Caribbean) turn in fine performances, but the
shuffling and meddlesome pace of the movie does not help to
keep the fidgety viewer glued to his seat. There is a jazzy
soundtrack score courtesy of Randy Newman (Monster’s
Inc, Cars), but the fact that the movie cannot decide whether
it wants to be a goofy slapstick comedy or a witty period
piece does not help to keep the viewer focused on the screen.
The production values are commendable, given the attention
to details, but the meandering relationships between the characters
do not help viewers to care for any of them at all.
The
result is a sigh of disappointment that Clooney is capable
of so much more, but somehow misfires with this movie, and
that we can only wish for more with his future works.
SPECIAL
FEATURES:
This Code 3 DVD contains eight minutes of Deleted
Scenes which involves a fumbling cow and also some
casual bantering between the three leads.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
disc has a pristine visual transfer which makes the football
scenes look good, while the audio is presented in English,
Thai and Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtracks.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review by John Li
|
