March 31-April 3 | Friday-Monday | 2 hours, 9 minutes | Rated PG-13 |
Woody Harrelson plays an basketball coach on the cusp of working with the NBA who is kicked out of his position after some seriously bad behavior, and forced to do community service coaching a basketball team of players with intellectually disabilities. As you might expect from a movie like this, he learns to respect his players for both their skills and their personalities — and of course starts up a relationship with the sister of one of the players. But can he lead the team to a win at the Special Olympics finals? You’ll have to watch it to find out. It’s a fun, funny, warm-hearted feel-good movie, without too many challenges or cliche-breakers, but sometimes that’s exactly what you want. The movie currently has a 95% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Sometimes you just want to watch something feel-good, which is where Champions scores.” -Emily Zemler
“Woody Harrelson offers a winning, low-key performance with a high feel-good percentage.” -Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
“What makes Champions a treat is the deftness with which Mark Rizzo’s script sidesteps sentimentality in favour of something more raucously truthful” -Mark Kermode, Observer (UK)
“Even though the plot is riven with clichés and as predictable as the tides, driven by a soundtrack of cheesy power-pop classics, by the end you just want to hug everyone in it.” -Leslie Felperin Financial Times
“Champions is a forward-thinking film masquerading as a deeply conventional one. We can say we’ve seen it all before—but when, and where?” -Stephanie Zacharek, TIME Magazine
“Is it formulaic? Yes. Does it reach Kingpin heights? No. But Champions is an engaging watch, and the ensemble of developmentally challenged actors upstages the pros.” -Thelma Adams, AARP Movies for Grownups
“Harrelson shines as a man learning that there’s more to life than NBA fame, and he has a terrific leading lady in Katilin Olson, as Alex.” -Rafer Guzman, Newsday
Champions opens at The Clyde on Friday, March 31, and plays Friday, Saturday, and Monday at 7:30, plus Sunday at 2:00.
