Best Damn Sports Movie Ever. Question Mark?

Well, second only to The Power of One, maybe. And Dodgeball. Bull Durham's also another hallmark, touchstone, what have you. Me, I'm not really a sports movie kinda guy, I guess. And sports fans would probably argue that Invictus is more about location than sports: historical and geographical. And of course, presidential politics under the W. Bush years have made the presidential metaphor heavy handed indeed. Does not Nelson Mandela find himself in Obama's shoes the first day in office? Then again, Mandela's never worked with Republicans before.
Anyway, potentially long review short, another fine effort from Malpaso and company. I don't know where Eastwood gets the energy to direct Oscar contenders every year, but he's catching up to Woody Allen, that's for sure. Maybe even surpassing him, at least in terms of diverse subject matter, and having generally above-average Oscar-worthy films to boot. Morgan Freeman probably should've won for this instead of Million Dollar Baby... okay, never mind. That's a whole other review. Matt Damon does a fine job as the beleaguered soccer star, who also manages to hold his marriage together along with everything else. Some would say the player's wife is an obligatory role in sports pics like these, but there are no small parts, right? Only small actors. What's-her-face does fine, but I wonder what Emily Mortimer would've done with the part. The cinematography was okay, nothing too flashy. Lots of sweeping shots of the crowd, and some of those shots of planes in the air were a little strange! At least, the first one. Maybe if I had a DVD of it I could dissect the phenom a little further (hint, hint?). I couldn't tell if it was digital video or not, but one of the shots of the rugby players in a huddle did look a little streaky. Otherwise, looked pretty film-y. I just can't tell what's what from the tech. specs page.
Oh well. The hipsters over at The Onion and The Village Voice probably didn't like the movie, but I thought it was all right, Obama metaphor and all. We're not in as bad of an economic shape as South Africa yet, but we'd all do well to learn from Madiba's equivalent to reaching across the aisle. And really, that mainly goes for Republicans at this point.

****
-so sayeth The Movie Hooligan