Looking for something to do while the heat melts your very being? I know I am, so of course I turned to Netflix for some movie suggestions. These sports-based movies are new to Netflix as of July, so check them out. There are other sports movies too, but these are the newest additions and their synopses:
Best in Show (2000) is American mockumentary comedy film co-written that follows five entrants in a prestigious dog show and focuses on the slightly surreal interactions among the various owners and handlers as they travel to the show and then compete during the show. There are also short depictions of the characters six months after the show is over. Among the comedic aspects of the film are similarities between the personalities and characteristics of the owners and those of their dogs.
The Mighty Ducks (1992): Gordon Bombay (played by Emilio Estevez) is a successful Minneapolis defense attorney of the Ducksworth, Saver & Gross firm, who never loses a case but whose truculent courtroom antics have earned him no respect among his peers. After successfully defending a client resulting in his 30th win, Bombay is called into his boss’s office to be congratulated, but also chastised for embarrassing the judge. Regardless, he celebrates by going out drinking and is subsequently arrested for drunken driving. Bombay is sentenced to community service by coaching the local “District 5” PeeWee hockey team. Bombay has a history with the sport, although his memories are far from pleasant: Years ago, Bombay was the star player on the Hawks. When struggling to cope with the loss of his father, Bombay missed a penalty shot during a championship game, costing his team the title for the first time and disappointing his hyper-competitive coach, Jack Reilly (Lane Smith)
The Longest Yard (2005): Does this Netflix film sound familiar? It should. It’s the remake of the 1974 film that starred Burt Reynolds. Adam Sandler plays the protagonist Paul Crewe, a disgraced former professional quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who is forced to form a team from the prison inmates to play football against their guards
Horse Dancer (2017): When one of America’s most promising young gymnasts, Samantha Wick, is cut from the Olympic team, she decides to follow her dreams of horseback riding by joining a girls horse camp. With financial troubles threatening to shut the camp down, Samantha uses her gymnastic prowess to start a horse-dancing team to raise money and save the camp.
Fittest on Earth: A Decade of Fitness (2017): The 2016 Reebok CrossFit Games were a grueling five-day, 15-event test to find the fittest man and woman on Earth. Fittest on Earth: A Decade of Fitness follows the dramatic story of the top athletes who qualified and competed and offers an inside look at what it takes to be among the world’s elite athletes, both in training and on the competition floor. The CrossFit Games challenge competitors to perform intense physical tasks, but the hardest part is sometimes mental. Athletes often learn the details of the events only minutes before they begin, and everyone handles the pressure differently. Which of these fierce competitors will rise to the top and earn the title of Fittest on Earth?
Of course, after you are done watching these movies, you have to switch over to season one of GLOW, created by Liz Flahive (Homeland, Nurse Jackie) and Carly Mensch (Nurse Jackie, Orange Is The New Black) and Orange Is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan. If I haven’t talked about it enough, I can talk about it again if you’d like and let you know it’s so worth watching.
If you prefer the pitch to the wrestling ring, then how about season one of Club de Cuervos — When the patriarch of a prominent family dies, his heirs battle to determine who will gain control of his beloved soccer team: The Cuervos of Nuevo Toledo.
I’ll be back next month to share the newest sports movies and television shows on Netflix. What’s your fave?
