Now, I am not sure if they used the "Pig in a Poke", or the "Crusty Cat Tail", but they sure did pull the razzle-dazzle on the audience with this one. The trailer makes the movie appear to be the exciting story of the infancy of Professional Football spiced up with the romance of two players competing for the attention of a witty, upstart female journalist. Wait, it must be the "Statue of Liberty" play. Just when you think the director is going to pass you downfield to a cute, funny movie, he hands off on the end around to another ordinary story.
"Leatherheads" is the tale of Jimmy "Dodge" Connelly of the Duluth Bulldogs. Professional football is in its infancy and not catching on with fans. Teams are going belly-up all around, and the Bulldogs are one of them. After seeing the publicity garnered by one collegiate athlete, Connelly has the idea to sign the Princeton University star back named Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford. He hopes crowds of fans will come to see Rutherford play and pay good money to do so, thus saving his team and the league. The ploy seems to work, but, at the same time, Lexie Littleton, star reporter of the Tribune, comes to town to uncover the truth about Carter Rutherford.
Rutherford turns out to be a publicity "double threat". Not only does he play football like a man possessed, he also served in World War I, won acclaim there as well and came back to the states a hero. At the Ardennes in southern Belgium, Rutherford captured an entire platoon of Germans singlehandedly in Sergeant York style. America loves him. Unfortunately, one of the soldiers from Rutherford's platoon contacts the Editor of the Tribune claiming Rutherford is a fraud. I suppose the Editor could just print the other soldier's revelation, but, instead, he sends star reporter, Lexie Littleton, to charm the truth out of Rutherford, and she succeeds.
Under the spell of Littleton and in a moment of weakness, Rutherford reveals that he did capture the Germans, but his heroics are exaggerated. Rutherford actually fell asleep in a trench and did not notice when the rest of his platoon moved out. With the trench vacated, the Germans move in to attack the allies. Rutherford, trapped behind lines, throws his hands in the air and shouts, "I give up" in German. The other Germans think he is one of them, throw their hands up too, and the allies come back to capture them all. With the press in attendance, the story is blown-up to sell to the folks back home.
There is some political volleyball with "Should she tell the truth?", "Will it ruin football?", and "What's good for the country?", but the story is published and Littleton is put in the hot seat. When Rutherford recants the story he told Littleton, Connelly pulls a fast one tricking Rutherford to confess in front of the Commissioner of Football, promoter C.C. Frazier and the Editor of the Tribune, but the movie is not over yet. To remind us that this is football movie, one last, meaningless game is played and the Bulldogs win using muddy jerseys and trickery. Somewhere during the movie, Connelly and Littleton fall in love. In the tradition of Hollywood cowboy movies, Connelly and Littleton get hitched, and ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after, but not on a horse. Instead, they hop on Connelly's Harley Davidson, complete with sidecar. End of show.
Like a preseason NFL game, there is football at the beginning of this movie and football at the end, but the product in between is questionable. The movie has its moments, but cannot sustain the momentum very long. Actually, there is more football in the trailer, (which is ultimately more interesting than the movie), than there is in the entire film. For a comedy, it is not particularly funny. For a romance, it is not particularly romantic. I left the theatre thinking the Xs and Os did not play out quite the way they were drawn up on the chalkboard. Maybe they should have used the other playbook.
A rating of "B" is very fair for this movie. How can a movie with Renee Zellweger and George Clooney rate lower than that? Not every great talent can direct himself in a movie and that is probably where Clooney went wrong. It is a cute idea with a lot of potential, but, like a Heisman Trophy winner who did not make it in the big leagues, the plot moves along like a grizzled veteran coming off injured reserve.
Title: "Leatherheads" Director: George Clooney Rating: PG-13, Run Time: 1 hour, 54 minutes, Genre: Comedy, Romantic Comedy Cast: George Clooney as Jimmy "Dodge" Connelly, Renee Zellweger as Lexie Littleton, John Krasinski as Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford, Jonathan Pryce as C.C. Frazier, Peter Gerety as Commissioner Pete Harkin
"Leatherheads" is the tale of Jimmy "Dodge" Connelly of the Duluth Bulldogs. Professional football is in its infancy and not catching on with fans. Teams are going belly-up all around, and the Bulldogs are one of them. After seeing the publicity garnered by one collegiate athlete, Connelly has the idea to sign the Princeton University star back named Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford. He hopes crowds of fans will come to see Rutherford play and pay good money to do so, thus saving his team and the league. The ploy seems to work, but, at the same time, Lexie Littleton, star reporter of the Tribune, comes to town to uncover the truth about Carter Rutherford.
Rutherford turns out to be a publicity "double threat". Not only does he play football like a man possessed, he also served in World War I, won acclaim there as well and came back to the states a hero. At the Ardennes in southern Belgium, Rutherford captured an entire platoon of Germans singlehandedly in Sergeant York style. America loves him. Unfortunately, one of the soldiers from Rutherford's platoon contacts the Editor of the Tribune claiming Rutherford is a fraud. I suppose the Editor could just print the other soldier's revelation, but, instead, he sends star reporter, Lexie Littleton, to charm the truth out of Rutherford, and she succeeds.
Under the spell of Littleton and in a moment of weakness, Rutherford reveals that he did capture the Germans, but his heroics are exaggerated. Rutherford actually fell asleep in a trench and did not notice when the rest of his platoon moved out. With the trench vacated, the Germans move in to attack the allies. Rutherford, trapped behind lines, throws his hands in the air and shouts, "I give up" in German. The other Germans think he is one of them, throw their hands up too, and the allies come back to capture them all. With the press in attendance, the story is blown-up to sell to the folks back home.
There is some political volleyball with "Should she tell the truth?", "Will it ruin football?", and "What's good for the country?", but the story is published and Littleton is put in the hot seat. When Rutherford recants the story he told Littleton, Connelly pulls a fast one tricking Rutherford to confess in front of the Commissioner of Football, promoter C.C. Frazier and the Editor of the Tribune, but the movie is not over yet. To remind us that this is football movie, one last, meaningless game is played and the Bulldogs win using muddy jerseys and trickery. Somewhere during the movie, Connelly and Littleton fall in love. In the tradition of Hollywood cowboy movies, Connelly and Littleton get hitched, and ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after, but not on a horse. Instead, they hop on Connelly's Harley Davidson, complete with sidecar. End of show.
Like a preseason NFL game, there is football at the beginning of this movie and football at the end, but the product in between is questionable. The movie has its moments, but cannot sustain the momentum very long. Actually, there is more football in the trailer, (which is ultimately more interesting than the movie), than there is in the entire film. For a comedy, it is not particularly funny. For a romance, it is not particularly romantic. I left the theatre thinking the Xs and Os did not play out quite the way they were drawn up on the chalkboard. Maybe they should have used the other playbook.
A rating of "B" is very fair for this movie. How can a movie with Renee Zellweger and George Clooney rate lower than that? Not every great talent can direct himself in a movie and that is probably where Clooney went wrong. It is a cute idea with a lot of potential, but, like a Heisman Trophy winner who did not make it in the big leagues, the plot moves along like a grizzled veteran coming off injured reserve.
Title: "Leatherheads" Director: George Clooney Rating: PG-13, Run Time: 1 hour, 54 minutes, Genre: Comedy, Romantic Comedy Cast: George Clooney as Jimmy "Dodge" Connelly, Renee Zellweger as Lexie Littleton, John Krasinski as Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford, Jonathan Pryce as C.C. Frazier, Peter Gerety as Commissioner Pete Harkin