Draft Day

I'm not really a huge NFL fanboy. I watch football games with family and friends and I enjoy it for sure, but I don't follow it religiously like other people do. So I obviously did not see Draft Day until 2 years after it was released. I did however get my hands on a copy of it and I wanted to at least check it out for two reasons. The first one is, I do like Kevin Costner, and the second one, I have seen a lot of sports movies but I've never seen one solely focused on the draft. Its like the General Manager setting on the Madden Games, its the element of the game that sounds interesting but you'd never really think you'd see a game (or a movie) based on that process. And that's a lot of what Draft Day is about. Its something you wouldn't expect, but its an interesting take.

Draft Day follows the General Manager of the Cleveland Browns 12 hours before the NFL draft. Sonny Weaver Jr. (played by Kevin Costner) is given the opportunity to make the number one draft pick for the Cleveland Browns who desperately need a win. Sonny's recently deceased father was a beloved coach, the team's quarterback (played by Tom Welling) ended the last season injured, there are just so many things putting pressure on Sonny and he has to decide who he is going to decide to pick for the first round pick he has given up a lot to acquire. And that's just the pressure put on Sonny by his job.

There are three players that Sonny must decide between to give his team the best chance to win. The first and seemingly obvious choice is Bo Callahan (played by Josh Pence). He is the number one draft pick having won the Heisman trophy and being named the best quarterback and the pick Weaver gives up a lot in the beginning to pick. Then there's Vontae Mack (played by Chadwick Boseman) a linebacker who is expected to be either a 6th or 7th round pick or a late teen pick, something he is concerned about from the beginning. Then there's a third guy who honestly is barely in the movie and is Terry Crew's son (in the movie).

While all this is going on, Sonny is dealing with personal problems ranging from his secret girlfriend (played by Jennifer Garner (Yeah its kind of weird with the age difference)), dealing with the recent death of his father, and his relationships with his coaching staff.

The entire movie is Sonny trying to make this decision while you can see the wheeling and dealing down even hours up until the picks made on Draft Day. Now I can't give a yes or no answer on how realistic any of this is and I get the feeling its not realistic at all, but again, as someone who doesn't pay real attention to football or know anything about the draft, I wouldn't know the wiser. And yeah, its a little entertaining, even if it is a hyperbole.

Here's the issue right off the bat. I know I said I liked the intrigue of the wheeling and dealing of the NFL draft, but that's not really a process that really needs good guys and bad guys. It doesn't really seem like a process that is as cutthroat as they make it seem, and even if it is, they don't do a great job at defining who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.

Obviously Kevin Costner is supposed to be the "good guy" in this situation because he's the underdog and the guy down on his luck who needs a win. However, Sonny does just as much wheeling and dealing as everyone else in this movie and what's more, he really doesn't consult anybody beyond his girlfriend. He's got this team of people who people who's jobs are to consult him on what the team needs, including Dennis Leary as the head coach. And Sonny kind of gives them the middle finger the entire movie. Furthermore, he kind of toys around with these potential draft picks the entire time, which I understand, the players don't necessarily know who is going to draft them until they get drafted, but there's the obvious choice statistics-wise and then there's the character argument made throughout the film. Like there are definite right choices and definite wrong choices if you're going by character.

But even then, they don't really paint these picks as horrible or great people. One isn't a complete asshole and one isn't a complete saint. That would be a good thing if the movie wasn't suggesting there were definite right choice and wrong choices if you're going by character. And even though that's the case, who cares?!?

Again, I don't know too much about football, but I'm pretty sure its pretty obvious, these choices aren't made by deciding who is the better person, and there's even a part where Dennis Leary makes a point about that, but its kind of swept under the rug by the emotional parts of the movie.

And speaking of Sonny acting emotional. The movie has all these moments of Sonny kind of acting like an asshole and chalking it up to, oh my dad died, or I'm going through a lot of shit right now.

So while the wheeling and dealing is fun, I'm not totally sure if its warranted all the time, and some characters that really don't show any sign of being a "bad guy" are treated like the bad guys.

All that said, the politics are kind of fun. Again, while it may not be accurate, I still had fun with Draft Day.

And despite the poor writing of the character and not really liking him at certain points, I did enjoy Costner's performance in this movie. He didn't look bored and while I wasn't wild about all the choices he was making, I'll chalk that up to bad writing instead of a bad performance. And that goes for everyone else in the movie. While I can't say all the characters were written that well. I thought there were a lot of good performances in this movie, and it made me interested in something I didn't know I could be interested in. I might just watch the NFL Draft next year just to see the comparisons. Isn't that a cool thing about movies? It keeps your interests in other things going and peaks interests in new things.

Overall, I won't say Draft Day is a great movie, but I was entertained by it. I thought the writing was a little shotty and some of it took away from the overall narrative. On top of it all, you do have to realize that not a lot happens in this movie. A lot of it is the personal narrative told by Kevin Costner, and while its a decent performance, its not going to blow your socks off if you're not into this kind of stuff. You might get bored. However, I found the movie entertaining enough and I enjoyed it enough.

Let me know your thoughts. This movie has been a little bit dividing from the people who I have heard from about it. Some people loved it, others didn't. Those are my thoughts on Draft Day. Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. I don't know if you're a Kevin Costner fan, or if you're a Whitney Houston fan but since they were in a movie together, Costner gave an emotional speech at her funeral. Might be worth checking out. Enjoy!