DRAFT DAY (2014) ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Ivan Reitman
Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary,
Frank Langella, Chadwick Boseman, Ellen Burstyn,
Sam Elliott, Tom Welling, Terry Crews
Another entry in the ever-expanding subgenre of Kevin Costner sports movies. This one's set in the massively popular, relentlessly marketed, rabidly overhyped world of professional football. Kevin's the beleaguered general manager of the Cleveland Browns, under pressure from everybody (and orders from his boss) to make "a big splash" on draft day. So he trades away the future for the #1 pick, and then starts to realize that the most coveted "sure thing" available, a hotshot quarterback from Wisconsin, might not be such a sure thing, after all. Reitman makes effective use of split screens and a ticking clock to crank up the tension, and Costner's edgy self-assurance compensates somewhat for a script that has more than its share of sports-movie clichés and a couple of needlessly melodramatic subplots. Sam Elliott plays the Wisconsin football coach in a scene that Badger fans will probably guess was not filmed anywhere in Madison.
Chadwick Boseman
(1976-2020)
