BroadcastChic
Excellent, a Must See
Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Stephanie
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
brandonsullivan91
At first I just wanted to thumbs up the other 'bad' reviews to express my dislike. It baffles me that the majority of reviews with agreement from others are 'good'. The movie has an identity crisis. It has an odd desire to be a slapstick piece that lacks the timing or editing to get a laugh (from me). It also dragged, dragged, dragged, the unforgivable movie sin in my opinion. This happens when you do not create enough interesting moments in the plot, so you stretch out every scene to a tedious length. I'm not sure that the acting was so bad, just bad material mostly. No aspect of this movie is adequate enough for me to recommend. The sports scenes aren't very compelling because they are slapstick-esque and corny. The romance love triangle is not engaging, I could care less about all three of them. And it dragged! Did I mention that? Jeez! It's not a complete turd, but it does smell.
classicsoncall
It's a film about grown men in tights and headgear, I can go with that. I see no reason to go so hysterically negative on the film like a bunch of reviewers on this board have. It's a fun, escapist flick, and if you take that approach it's entertaining enough. The repartee between Clooney and Zellweger may not be up to that of Cary Grant and Roz Russell in "His Girl Friday", but they do have a few good moments, the best probably when they meet for the first time. The backdrop of the 1920's and the origins of pro football combine for a bit of quirkiness, as Clooney gets some mileage out of playing the kind of character he portrayed in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". The odd thing that intrigued me had to do with Dodge (Clooney) and Carter (John Krasisnki) trading at least a dozen head punches between them when they called each other out on the football field, and neither of them had a mark on their face afterwards. Yet in the bar scene when Dodge recognizes his old buddy Eddie, there's a quick cutaway during the fight, and when the camera comes back to Eddie, he has a cut on his nose and lip. Where the film let me down was when they mentioned football plays like pig in a poke, chasing the cattail and a Crusty Bob - I sure would like to know what those were. Also, the bulldog could have used more screen time.
Neddy Merrill
I rented Leatherheads last night betting on George Clooney's ability to bring back the look and feel of great 30s and 40s movies...and lost. The movie is about the maturing of sandlot professional football into the modern NFL and the parallel maturation of Clooney's 45 year old team captain into a real boy (so to speak). Renee Zellweger plays a feisty reporter and there is an attempt at a Stacey & Hepburn sort of rapid screwball comedy thing between the two which never quite coalesces. The movie similarly never gets going and the handful of plot turns aren?t particularly interesting. Also there are a few unrealistic elements such as the newly hired NFL commissioner?s ability to dictate to the Chicago press what story they will print about a falsified World War I story. Also in the final set of scenes Clooney?s Dodge Connelley stays up all night drinking, gets into a bar brawl, saves the girls and then successfully captains a professional football team ? pretty good for a later-middle age man in the 1920s. Go see Michael Clayton where Clooney just acts ? best movie of 2007.
napierslogs
"Leatherheads" is set in the 1920s in the mid-western states about the beginnings of pro-football. George Clooney, appropriately, plays a guy in his mid-40s who hasn't really grown up yet and is determined to just play football and legitimize it as a professional sport. His objective is in sight when he learns of 'the bullet' (John Krasinski) a college football phenom. But along with the arrival of an actually good football player, comes Renee Zellweger, an independent and confident young woman who writes for a Chicago newspaper.It's the type of film that would normally be a period drama, here they are telling it more as a comedy, and although it's not very funny, it's still a good movie. Of particular note is the cinematography and score, the colours and jazz backdrop the film perfectly and give you the feel of the era, while keeping the feeling of the film light."Leatherheads" works because it's a fun story, not laugh-out-loud funny, but still enjoyable and it never gets dark or serious.
