Reviews

The Comebacks

Racking up penalty yards

By TOM MEEK | October 24, 2007

1.5 Stars

THE COMEBACKS: Bringing back bad sports spoofs.

As quarterback of our beloved Pats, Tom Brady can do no wrong, but his Hollywood namesake, a B-tier director with such classics to his name as The Animal and The Hot Chick, racks up the penalty yards. Worse yet, the hero of this flick, Coach Lambeau Fields (David Koechner), is depicted as the distraction that causes Billy Buckner to muff the grounder in the 1986 World Series. Coach screws up a few other classic sporting contests before ending up at Heartland U., where he’s charged with turning around a long-time losing football program. It’s a sports-film spoof of sorts: instead of Radio as the team’s mentally challenged hanger-on, they have iPod (Jermaine Williams). Invincible, Rocky, and The Gridiron Gang get sent up as well, but most gags misfire as sexist or racist. Long before the big game rolls around (the Toilet Bowl, I shit you not), and the film shows a touch of heart, the clock has run out.

Collective effort
So what happens next?
Minnesota dreaming
As a steady stream of Twin Cities sports superstars relocates to Boston, a hoops-crazy reporter asks himself: What price fandom?
Long way home to Foxboro
Belichick brings in a DUI legend
More

Topics: Reviews , Tom Brady , David Koechner , Sports , More

Comments

Add a Comment

ARTICLES BY TOM MEEK

ELEGY | August 20, 2008
Sex and power dominate in this Roth adaptation

FLY ME TO THE MOON | August 13, 2008
Doesn't muster much buzz

HELL RIDE | August 05, 2008
Spaghetti western and Hell's Angels turf war

STEP BROTHERS | July 23, 2008
Farting sets the standard of good taste

SPACE CHIMPS | July 16, 2008
Witty and ingeniously conceived

See all articles by: TOM MEEK

Most Viewed

Most Emailed

FIEDLER ON THE SPOT
Having taken the reins of BU’s contentious College of Communication, Pulitzer winner Tom Fiedler learns to navigate the thorny world of academia

PHOTOS: RADIOHEAD IN BOSTON
August 14, 2008 at the Comcast Center, Mansfield, MA

WOMEN ON THE VERGE
Clinton die-hards have created a new-girls’ network bent on remedying decades of sexism by putting women in elected office

TIGER TRAP
Sports blotter: "Walking in Memphis" edition

PHOTOS: NORTH KOREA'S SURREAL MASS GAMES
While everyone else watches the Olympics, Asia's weirdest sporting event transpires in the world's most secretive country

FIEDLER ON THE SPOT
Having taken the reins of BU’s contentious College of Communication, Pulitzer winner Tom Fiedler learns to navigate the thorny world of academia

WOMEN ON THE VERGE
Clinton die-hards have created a new-girls’ network bent on remedying decades of sexism by putting women in elected office

PAPER CHASE
The counterintuitive, durable case for journalism education

FROZEN RIVER
A cold film with a warm ending

FANS CHEER; EARTH WEEPS
Radiohead at Comcast Center, August 13, 2008

HOT TOPICS

Daniel Day-Lewis , Jack Black , Michael Clayton , Michael Haneke , Osama bin Laden , Tom McCarthy , Paul Thomas Anderson , Michael Jackson , Paris Hilton , Tommy Lee Jones

Reviews

The Comebacks

The play's the thing

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

What We Do Is Secret

Elegy

Tropic Thunder