Embarrassing even to watch. Seen it all before.

Rating: 4/10 (15 August 2015)

I'll be honest and say that until I read some reviews on here, I didn't realise that this was supposed to be a comedy. I will also qualify this review by admitting that I have no interest in American football and am not familiar with the game, rules, history or teams.
I am, however, familiar with the formulaic story of a bunch of sporting misfits come good under the guidance of an inspirational coach (Hackman) - having seen it repeated seemingly a dozen times. The truly talented player who missed out on the big-time (Reeves) is able to clarify what is really needed to the other meatheads in the team. I'm sure you can see where this is leading.
This 'comedy' brings nothing new to the table and makes the support cast even more irritating and unlikeable than usual vehicles of this type. The cheerleaders are gruesome and (obviously) too stupid to spell out the name of team they're cheerleading (is that a verb?) for.
The head cheerleader (and waitress/bartender) loves footbaall but doesn't date players (unless it's Keanu Reeves) in the same way that the waitress never dates pilots/soldiers/political advisors blah blah. The prolonged gaze they share across the bar is as close as the movie gets to comedy - and I suspect that that was unintentional.
And a special word for John Favreau, who as everyone knows, has gone on to excel in all fields of movie-making. This is one of the most stupid and annoying characters ever to have inhabited a sporting movie. Ifans comes a close second.
All in all, its all been done before - and a lot better. There's a lot of shouting, a lot of pointing, a lot of shouting 'let's go' and commentators amazed at the things they are witnessing on the field. They should have asked me - I could tell them exactly what was going to happen from the opening frame.