The ESPY Awards, a celebration of the past year in sports, will once again bring together the top celebrities in the worlds of sports and entertainment. The ESPY Awards recognize major sports achievements, help fans relive the unforgettable moments, and salute the leading performers and performances. And for the second year in the event’s 13-year history, fans will determine the winners in all categories.
The 2005 ESPY Awards, telecast from Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre on Sunday, July 17 on ESPN at 9pm ET, will be hosted by Friends star Matthew Perry.
The awards include sport-specific awards, including the distinguishing “Best in Sport” awards and the “Best Sport Film” of the year. Past winners include the soccer indie Bend It Like Beckham and the baseball gem The Rookie.
Hollywood.com has come up with an ESPY-inspired list of great sports movies from 2004 as well as a choice few released so far this year. And in honor of ESPN, we’ve categorized these films by using some of the cabler’s own “inside” lingo: We’ve labeled earnest sports dramas Outside the Lines in honor of the ESPN show that investigates off-the-court sport issues, and branded farcical yarns as Around the Horn, inspired by the skein in which sports writers from around the nation get together and quip about the day’s sports stories.
Let the games begin!
Favorite Sports Films of 2004
Miracle
The roster: Kurt Russell, Patricia Clarkson; directed by Gavin O’Connor.
The pitch: Based on one of the most revered sports stories ever, Miracle details how the U.S. Olympic hockey team, against incredible odds, defeated the seemingly invincible Soviet Union team at the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. We watch how the tough-as-nails coach Herb Brooks (Russell) whips his young, exuberant U.S. hockey team in shape, turning a motley crew of 20 hockey players into heroes. And their coach, a legend.
MVP (Most Valuable Performance): Kurt Russell. He slides right into his role as Brooks, a sports icon who died right before the movie was released. Russell–along with the rest of the large cast–justly earned the rave reviews he got for portraying a man that has become synonymous with pride. Thanks in no small part to his performance, Miracle skated away with the 2004 ESPY for Best Sports Film.
Outside the Lines or Around the Horn? Outside the Lines. Although the movie is at times fist-pumping fun, its core is an earnest story of triumphing against all odds. And given Brooks’ untimely death eerily coinciding with the film’s release, an air of gallantry is tacked on to its spirit for good measure.
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
The roster: Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller; directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber.
The pitch: Dodgeball is a slight variation of the zeros-to-heroes theme often seen in sports comedies. Peter LaFleur (Vaughn) is the owner of an appropriately named sports gym, Average Joe’s, whose clientele includes the neighborhood misfits. Meanwhile, gym mogul White Goodman (Stiller) proposes to tear down Average Joe’s and turn it into a parking lot for his state-of-the-art facility, Globo Gym, if Peter can’t come up with the mortgage. So they turn to–you guessed it!–a dodge ball tournament to win the money.
MVP (Most Valuable Performance): Ben Stiller. While Vaughn is certainly his typically hilarious self in Dodgeball, nobody thrives in creating an over-the-top character (especially for parodies such as this one) like Stiller. He did it in Zoolander, which isn’t all that unlike the dynamic here, and he does so with the villainous Goodman.
Outside the Lines or Around the Horn? Around the Horn. The title alone should suggest farce. But as if that’s not enough, the interplay between frequent collaborators Vaughn and Stiller is absolutely priceless.
Friday Night Lights
The roster: Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke, Lucas Black; directed by Peter Berg.
The pitch: Based on H.G. Bissinger’s popular book, Friday Night Lights takes a hard look at high school sports. Set in Odessa, Texas, it is a town in which nothing much ever seems to happen. The rock that holds it all together, though, is the pride of Odessa, its high school football team, the Permian High Panthers. With coach Gary Gaines’ (Thornton) tough-love style of coaching, all the boys want–as well as the town–is a championship trophy.
MVP (Most Valuable Performance): Billy Bob Thornton. While the supporting cast–consisting mostly of those who pose as the high-schoolers–turn in fine performances, Thornton takes charge much the way the real-life Gaines did. And after proving himself a credible coach, Thornton is tapped to take over the reigns from Walter Matthau as Buttermaker in the upcoming remake of Bad News Bears. Who knows? Thornton could just become a winner at next year’s ESPYs.
Outside the Lines or Around the Horn? Outside the Lines. Based on a true story of the same blue-collar town of Odessa and its only outlet, the Panthers, there are a few necessary comic relief moments. But overall, football is taken very seriously in this film.
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Favorite Sports Films of 2005
Coach Carter
The roster: Samuel L. Jackson (a past ESPY host, by the way), Rob Brown, Ashanti; directed by Thomas Carter.
The pitch: Based on another true story, the film focuses on Ken Carter (Jackson), a high school basket ball coach who gained national attention by benching his undefeated team for poor grades. After accepting the job of helming his alma mater’s high school basketball team, he is taken aback by the team’s laissez-fare attitudes about their school work. So, he puts into motion certain steps to ensure the team does well both on and off the courts. After much dissension from students and faculty alike, the drastic steps ultimately prove to be not only necessary but appreciated.
MVP (Most Valuable Performance): Samuel L. Jackson. This is a tailor-made role for Jackson, especially given his talent for lots of yelling. But he tempers his, well, anger nicely as Carter, whose has only benevolence for his community. He wants to see his charges succeed, move on and take charge of their lives, so he takes things into his own hands. As in all of Jackson‘s roles, what he says always holds a lot of weight.
Outside the Lines or Around the Horn? Outside the Lines. Carter has a serious tone to it, similar to the kind of topics Outside the Lines seeks out. So many such stories go unnoticed and untold, so it is nice for one to get its day in court, with a leading man at the forefront to give it some credibility.
Fever Pitch
The roster: Drew Barrymore, Jimmy Fallon; directed by Peter Farrelly.
The pitch: Based on Nick Hornby’s bestseller of the same name–but about a different sport (soccer)–Fever Pitch is more or less a love story. The only question for Ben (Fallon) is whether his love is stronger for his (’04 ESPN mainstay) Red Sox or for his girlfriend, Lindsey (Barrymore). If you watched the 2004 World Series–and who didn’t?–you might have noticed Fallon and Barrymore‘s curious spot alongside the on-field mayhem of the Sox’ celebration. If you noticed it, you got a sneak peak at Fever Pitch.
MVP (Most Valuable Performance): Jimmy Fallon. Barrymore can play this role in her sleep, but Fallon is a revelation. This is his first meaty role since leaving Saturday Night Live–save for the little-seen and oft-ridiculed Taxi–and even though the movie wasn’t a blockbuster as hoped, it grossed enough money and acclaim to launch a legitimate film career for the Adam Sandler-worshiping Fallon.
Outside the Lines or Around the Horn? Around the Horn. It’s worth noting that this movie comes from the Farrelly brothers, the guys who brought us There’s Something About Mary and Dumb and Dumber. Fever Pitch is their most serious movie to date, but there is still plenty of shenanigans to go around…the Horn.
The Longest Yard
The roster: Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Burt Reynolds; directed by Peter Segal.
The pitch: Sandler steps in for Reynolds in a slightly more lighthearted remake of the 1974 classic sports flick. After an arrest lands him in jail, Sandler is forced to quarterback a team of misfit jailbirds, in order to play against the prison guards in a game that neither will soon forget.
MVP (Most Valuable Performance): Adam Sandler, natch. He has proven himself quite malleable when it comes to comedies– and even really dark comedies (see Punch-Drunk Love). So, all Sandler has to do is inject his shticky comedy into Yard, and it’s a hit. He’s just one of the lucky SNL alums to make the smooth transaction onto the Big Screen.
Outside the Lines or Around the Horn? Around the Horn. I mean, this is Adam Sandler we’re talking about here, and although there are some gritty scenes in the movie, he wouldn’t sway from his proven formula–and why should he?
Cinderella Man
The roster: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, Paul Giamatti; directed by Ron Howard.
The pitch: This heavy drama is based on the hard-luck life of Depression-era boxer Jim Braddock (Crowe), who came back against all odds to beat the reigning heavyweight champion. Braddock did what he had to in order to keep his family afloat during the Great Depression and never shied away from a fight or from hard work, even he had to do so with a broken hand. Firmly in his corner were his wife, Mae (Zellweger), and his equally impoverished trainer/friend Joe Gould (Giamatti).
MVP (Most Valuable Performance): Paul Giamatti. The obvious answer, even to those who haven’t seen it, might have been Crowe, but Giamatti, hot off the heels of his own Cinderella story, Sideways, brings the necessary punch to keep the film moving forward. Which isn’t to say Crowe doesn’t do an absolutely flawless job in portraying a minor hero. Not to worry–both actors might be rewarded with Oscar nominations.
Outside the Lines or Around the Horn? Outside the Lines. It’s the consummate underdog (true) story, as directed by the one and only Ron Howard. Braddock’s was a tale of necessity breeding courage–and a natural for the big screen. With such breathtaking and vivid fight scenes, it once again hammers home that boxing is a rough sport, but sometimes victory doesn’t lie in physical ability.
Murderball
The pitch: The best documentary winner at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Murderball follows a group of quadriplegics who play a very mean game of rugby–in wheelchairs. In a sport already known for being rough, these guys certainly pull no punches–literally. Against all imaginable odds, they make it to the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.
MVP (Most Valuable Performance): All the players. These guys represent everything it means to be an athlete: courage, fitness, triumph and anguish. Along their journey, they crush any obvious stereotype that may have previously come to mind. And whatever you do, don’t take pity on them!
Outside the Lines or Around the Horn? Outside the Lines. This isn’t totally unlike something you might see on Outside the Lines. It’s just longer and more vulgar. The lesson is eons-old, yet some people never learn it: Don’t ever count anyone out.
