Minnesota's Top 10 Sports Movies

While Minnesota may not be the first thing you think of when you ponder the greatest sports flicks of all time, there a few that hopefully come to mind. And if not, I've created this list as a helpful reminder. I had to scrape to find 10 that could fit within the criteria, so take Top 10 with a grain of salt, some of these movies shouldn't have the term "top" applied to them.

So, without further ado, here's the top 10 list of Minnesota Sports movies, ranked in order of least watchable to the most entertaining.

Honorable Mention - Miracle (movie not set in MN, but warrants a mention and if on the list, would be at least 3rd)
Sport: Hockey
Synopsis: The inspiring story of the team that transcended its sport and united a nation with a new feeling of hope. Based on the true story of one of the greatest moments in sports history, the tale captures a time and place where differences could be settled by games and a cold war could be put on ice. In 1980, the United States Ice Hockey team's coach, Herb Brooks, took a ragtag squad of college kids up against the legendary juggernaut from the Soviet Union at the Olympic Games. Despite the long odds, Team USA carried the pride of a nation yearning from a distraction from world events. With the world watching the team rose to the occasion, prompting broadcaster Al Michaels' now famous question, to the millions viewing at home: "Do you believe in a miracle? Yes!"

TCW Take: While the movie is not set in Minnesota, it's centered around Herb Brooks, who coached the University of Minnesota hockey team and is a legend in these parts. It's one of the greatest stories in all of sports, unless of course your Russian.

Minnesota Connection: Herb's wife Patti is in the movie as an extra in the stands during the U.S. vs. Russia game. You can see her positioned up and to the left of the actor who portrayed Jim Craig's dad in the movie, during many of his scenes during the U.S.-vs.-Russia game.

10. Major League: Back to the Minors
Sport: Baseball
Synopsis: Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen) now owns the Minnesota Twins as well as the struggling minor league South Carolina Buzz. So he decides to hand over management duties for the minor league club to former pitcher Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula), and the fate of the hapless Buzz begins to change. Eventually, the Buzz take on the Twins, with Bob Uecker back delivering play-by-play in this third Major League movie.

TCW Take: Barf. The first Major League is one of the best sports movies around. The second one had enough laughs to make it watchable. They should have stopped there.

Minnesota Connection: In Roger Dorn's Minnesota Twins owner suite, a number 4 Lou Collins jersey hangs in a case, a reference to Timothy Busfield's character in Little Big League.

9. D3: The Mighty Ducks
Sport: Hockey
Synopsis: The Ducks return to their roots in the third installment of this series. Back home in Minnesota. The Ducks get scholarships to the prestigious Eden Hall Academy. Faced with a new uptight coach and the mounted pressure from the alumni board, Gordon mentors Charlie to victory in life and hockey.

TCW Take: Another film series that went too far. I vaguely remember seeing this and I vaguely remember caring.

Minnesota Connection: The name "Eden Hall Academy" is an amalgamation of the Twin Cities suburb of Eden Prairie and private schools Cretin-Derham Hall and Saint Thomas Academy.

8. D2: The Mighty Ducks
Sport: Hockey
Synopsis: Inspired by his own players, former peewee hockey coach Gordon Bombay decides to try out in the minor leagues. He becomes the star player for the fictional Minnehaha Waves, and is expected to make it to the NHL soon. However, after a career-ending knee injury, he returns to Minneapolis. Bombay is then offered a chance to coach a team representing the United States in the Junior Goodwill Games.

TCW Take: In the movie, Bombay gets caught up in the celebrity life and forgets about coaching and motivating the kids. It's the classic story of a Junior Goodwill Games coach getting caught up in the fame game. If I had a nickel for every time that happened.....I'd have a nickel.

Minnesota Connection: Seven out of 14 members of Team USA were born in the Twin Cities Metro Area (fictionally of course): Charlie Conway, Connie Moreau, and Jesse Hall are from Minneapolis; Guy Germaine is from St. Paul; and Adam Banks, Les Averman, and Fulton Reed are from the suburbs of Edina, Brooklyn Park, and Stillwater, respectively.

7. The Mighty Ducks
Sport: Hockey
Synopsis: Gordon Bombay, a successful Minneapolis lawyer, when, as the star player in his champion hockey team, he lost the winning goal in a shootout, thereby losing the game, and the approval of his coach. After being charged for drunk driving, the court orders him to coach a peewee hockey team, the worst in the league, Gordon is at first very reluctant. However, he eventually gains the respect of the kids and teaches them how to win. In the end he must face his old coach who still holds bitterness in Gordon's inability to make to win at the mature age of 9.

TCW Take: I hope you picked up on my sarcasm at the end there. Another ridiculous story line of a judge ordering a guy to coach a hockey team after a DUI. What happened to just community service or AA classes? It's the best of the 3 movies, mostly for its originality and not for its superb acting. The entire Trilogy is B material at best, but good enough for the kids.

Minnesota Connection: The courtroom scenes were filmed in St. Cloud and were dressed up to give it a more "hockey feel." This included adding small black circles that looked like hockey pucks near the ceiling architecture. Instead of taking them down, the "hockey pucks" still remain today. Also, in the movie, Adam Banks is often referred to as a "Cake Eater" this term is a reference people who live in the Twin Cities suburb, Edina. The term refers to one being rich and stuck up. "They buy their cake and eat it too."

6. Grumpier Old Men
Sport: Fishing
Synopsis: The spring and summer fishing season is in full swing in Wabasha, Minnesota, with the annual quest to catch "Catfish Hunter", the lake's largest catfish, consuming the fishing community. New arrival to Wabasha Maria Ragetti (Sophia Loren) has purchased the old bait shop with the intent of converting it into a fancy Italian restaurant. Max and John join forces to try and sabotage the restaurant and succeed to a point. In his quest to stop the restaurant from opening, Max falls for the owner and suddenly realizes what he really wants.

TCW Take: Congrats! We've reached the last sequel in this countdown, the best of the 2nd & 3rd run movies. Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon reprise their roles and continue to make each other miserable, while finding the silver lining in their friendships and life itself. The movie didn't win any acting fans over, but it's pleasant enough for a good laugh or too and quantifies the simple rural life.

Minnesota Connection: Upon entering Wabasha you will see a sign reading "Welcome to Wabasha, Home of Grumpy Old Men" as a tribute to the 2 films written by Mark Steven Johnson about his grandfather, Wabasha native Charles Gilbert.

5. Angus
Sport: Football
Synopsis: Angus is highly intelligent and steady on the football field. Faced with peer pressure and growing pains, he deals with his problems through lively humor and a boisterous attitude. Accompanied by his amusing and geeky best friend Troy, Angus spends most of his time living in the shadow of golden boy Rick Sanford, and admiring his secret love, cheerleader Melissa Lefevre. Anchored by an eccentric family, including his mother and grandfather, Angus must find himself in a riotous search for his true high school identity.

TCW Take: Less about football, more about the life of an insecure teenager. It'll strike a chord with anyone who felt high school was the wtf period of your life.

Minnesota Connection: The shots in front of the school and at the football game were shot at Owatonna High School in Owatonna. The marching band playing during the opening credits is the actual Owatonna High School Marching Band.

4. Little Big League
Sport: Baseball
Synopsis: When the owner of the hapless Minnesota Twins dies and leaves his grandson (Luke Edwards) the team in his will, the 12-year-old decides to manage the team himself. Aside from the obvious headline value of his move, no one seems to like the idea and the kid finds himself battling for his fledgling managerial career. Eventually, however, he wins the confidence of his favorite player (Timothy Busfield) and before long has the team playing like kids: for the fun of it, rather than the money.

TCW Take: Aside from the fact that its another ridiculous concept, it has just enough acting and subplots to keep one interested. Plus if you're a baseball fan you get to see Randy Johnson, Iván Rodríguez, Rafael Palmeiro (pre-steroid), Sandy Alomar, Jr., Paul O'Neill, Tim Raines, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Lou Piniella, some of the game's greats try their hand at acting.

Minnesota Connection: John Gordon, who played broadcaster Wally Holland, is the real-life voice of the Minnesota Twins. While his use of silly statistics (e.g. batting average against left handed pitchers faced at home for the first time in the last month of the season) is a parody, he did use his trademark home run call when he said "Touch 'em all, Mickey Scales!"

3. Iron Will
Sport: Dog Sledding
Synopsis: In 1917, Will Stoneman's father is killed in a mushing accident leaving Will to care for his family. Needing money for college and to save the family farm in South Dakota, Will decides to travel to Winnipeg, Manitoba to take part in a dog-sled race from Winnipeg to Saint Paul, Minnesota. With the aid of Ned Dodd, the young man prepares both physically and mentally for the harsh weather and terrain throughout the race. During the race, Will becomes popular with the newspaper media due to his strong courage in what he must do.

TCW Take: Historical in nature, entertaining and inspirational are all characteristics of this film. It's by no means an exceptional flick, but it captivates you enough till the end in one of those feel good underdog stories in that old Disney way.

Minnesota Connection: Much of the movie was filmed in northern Minnesota near Duluth. Many of Duluth's citizens were extras in the movie, a large number at the end of the race. Furthermore, the trains used in the movie were from the Lake Superior Railroad Museum (LSRM) in Duluth. Because they were actual operating trains, actors could not operate as engineers or the conductors. They were all volunteer employees of the museum.

2. Grumpy Old Men
Sport: Ice Fishing
Synopsis: Retired school teacher John Gustafson (Lemmon) and former TV repairman Max Goldman (Matthau) have lived next door to each other in Wabasha, Minnesota for decades, but have not gotten along since childhood. With not much else to do with their seemingly boring and lonely single lives except watch television and fishing, Max and John compete and argue with each other on just about everything, and partake in cruel (yet funny) jokes on one another.

TCW Take: This is is the most heavily influenced Minnesota movie on the list. The speech, jokes, ice fishing, and winter related things are all Minnesotan. It's a light hearted feel good comedy that is easy and fun to watch.

Minnesota Connection: Though many of the places mentioned in the movie (such as the local VFW and Slippery's Tavern) can be found in Wabasha, most location shots actually were filmed in other Minnesota communities. The only scene filmed near Wabasha was the "snow angel" scene, filmed in nearby Red Wing.

1. Field of Dreams
Sport: Baseball
Synopsis: An Iowa farmer hears a voice in his cornfield accompanied by a vision of a baseball field. "If you build it, he will come". He takes it as a sign to build a baseball diamond which would enable Shoeless Joe Jackson of the infamous Chicago Black Sox to play ball again and eventually get him to re-connect with his father. After picking up James Earl Jones character in Boston, the two are given another sign and must travel to Minnesota to find another clue from the mysterious voice in the corn field.



TCW Take & Minnesota Connection: One of the best, top 5 sports movies of all time, and the best of Kevin Costner's baseball flicks (Bull Durham, For Love of the Game). Although predominantly set in Iowa, a key character and subplot occurs in the iron range town of Chisholm, where Archibald Wright "Moonlight" Graham is from. Graham was a real person and ballplayer who famously appeared in just 1 Major league game as a defensive replacement in right field. After his career, Graham completed his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1908. He obtained his license the following year and began practicing medicine in Chisholm, Minnesota, where just like in the movie, "Doc" served the people of Chisholm for fifty years.

Well there you have it. From 10 to 1, from unwatchable to epic, from comically bad to just comical, this list has bits and pieces of each. While some connections were looser than others, they all had a connection to the North Star State, Minnesota.

until next time, remember that popcorn directions should never be fully trusted.

brock,
TCW

The Future According to Schwarzenegger

I started writing a post on the Future according to Cinema and had to change in mid-posting to something more specific after I realized a central theme with just about every futuristic movie: They almost all contained one actor, the governor, aka Arnold Schwarzenegger. Of Arnold's 32 current movie credits, 8 are legitimate futuristic movies, that's 1/4 of his roles based in the future. If he only had a futuristic political movie, maybe we could have predicted and (stopped) his current role as Governor of California.

The Courtesy Wave takes a look the Future according to Arnold Schwarzenegger and discovers what predictions came true, have yet to pass, or were way off. We actually can't fault Arnold for any of these predictions, however we have to point the finger at someone, and who better than the former Mr. Universe. I'll start chronologically with the future predicted year, with the movie release year in parenthesis. I'll attempt to assess the accuracy of the movie's predictions on a grading scale of A to F. This grade is not to be taken as a review on the movie as a whole, a movie could theoretically get an A and still be an awful movie to watch.

THE PREDICTED PAST:


1995: Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) Judgement day came and past about 15 years ago. This movie is futuristic in that it features an entities (the Terminator and T-1000) from the future, however the movie is set in 1995 Los Angeles, which is 4 years from the release date of the movie. The movie doesn't do a lot to predict the world in 1995, however it failed to mentioned the LA Riots of 1992. CW Future grade B+


1999: End of Days (1999)
A near future movie of the past. Stay with me here, this movie was released on November 17th, 1999 and it played on the fear of the millennium change to the year 2000. Therefore it was only predicting a month ahead, however the filming did begin in 1998. This movie doesn't play along with the Y2K fears everyone had and the media whored out. It poured more into the religious sector for those who actually thought the world was going to end on December 31, 1999. I never saw it, but from synopsis and reviews I don't think I ever will. CW Future grade D


2004: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
In 2004, the Skynet system is activated, perceives humans as a threat to its own existence, and eradicates much of humanity in the event known as "Judgment Day". Wait we've heard this before, wasn't this supposed to happen in 1997. Yes, that was the plot for the first movie, but apparently James Cameron and the rest of the brass behind the Terminator movies decided we just needed more. No thanks. C-

THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO:


2015: The 6th Day (2000)
The movie's premise is about a man who's being cloned against his will in the year 2015 (less than 5 years from now). The movie's title is based around the so called "6th Day Laws", where on the sixth day, God created Man in the image of God, and are given dominion and care over all other created things. The cloning aspect of the film isn't that far fetched, in fact cloning of sheep began in 1997 and Human cloning is a very real and hypothetical concept that has created intense debate and ethical philosophy. In fact, in 2005, the United Nations adopted a declaration calling for the ban of all forms of Human Cloning contrary to human dignity. Since then US Congress has brought into debate several anti-cloning bills. CW Future Grade A-


2018: Terminator Salvation (2009)
Back to the Terminator series, a theme of this post. The most recent installment of the Terminator franchise in which Arnold doesn't play an active role. In fact, Arnold is only credited in this movie as having archived footage of him superimposed on actor Roland Kickinger's portrayal of the T-800 terminator that Arnold made so famous in the first 2 movies. In this movie, they have predicted that Los Angeles is in ruins, sorry LA folks, but you have 8 more years to live it up before your city crumbles to the tune of a nuclear explosion. CW Future grade: C


2019: Running Man (1987)
This movie has the potential to become frighteningly close to reality. Running man is about a television show called The Running Man, where convicted criminal "runners" must escape death at the hands of professional killers. In this era of reality TV where producers are clamoring for the latest and greatest to shock our viewing audiences into watching, this far fetched idea is closer to reality then you think. Think Survivor, Amazing Race, Fear Factor, Big Brother and crazy men with guns chasing you and that's Running Man. Furthermore, they have predicted a dystopia society in 2017 where By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and American society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The global economy has withered and recessed and in many countries has already collapsed and censorship is all over the place in our culture even and probably attributed to our increased social and media connectivity. CW Future Grade A-


2029: Terminator (1984)
I'll be back. Classic line, actually fitting that the last Terminator future predictions review comes from the movie that started it all. Anyone else remember those (perceived) high tech graphics and robotic imagery. Reminds me of the first Nintendo system, at the time, amazing, 20 years later, hilariously nostalgic, but still playable, and in this case very much still a treat to watch. In a post-apocalyptic 2029, artificially intelligent machines seek to exterminate what is left of the human race. In the near future an artificial intelligence network called Skynet will become self-aware and initiate a nuclear holocaust of mankind. (Kim Jong-Ill?) The Terminator is an emotionless and efficient killing machine with a powerful metal endoskeleton, but with an external layer of living tissue so that it resembles a human being. There's actually a lot of things going on in the world that somewhat can be related to the Terminator series. Honda, that car manufacturer, is also the world's largest Robot manufacturer, and the US Military has been using non-manned aircraft for years as seen in T1. CW Future grade B

2084: Total Recall (1990) - Get ready for the ride of your life. Well that's the tag line anyway. A decent Arnold flick about unsophisticated construction worker, who turns out to be a freedom fighter from Mars who has been relocated to Earth, and attempts to restore order, and reverse the corrupt influence of commercial powers. Sounds Arnoldy. One of the futuristic predictions in this movie has already become reality! The movie used whole body scanning to detect weapons. As of December 2009, there are 20 airports in the US that use whole body scanning. As far as jettisoning to Mars and woman with 3 knockers, its difficult to predict, but not impossible to dream, especially the latter. CW Future grade B+

Sadly, I don't think I'll make it the last futuristic movie year. I would be 102 years old and although its possible, I won't hold out my hopes. But who knows what the future holds, maybe by then we'll be living to 200 and I'll have just hit middle age and can look forward to pooping my pants for another 98 years!

I hope you enjoyed the read, I will have a Future according to Cinema edition later that touches base on popular movies such as Back to the Future.

Cheers,

bsv
the Courtesy Wave