Conglomerate Blog: Business, Law, Economics & Society

McFarland, USA with Kevin Costner is the latest in a run of PG Disney movies that are live-action, family films. In a film industry made up of animated movies on one side and PG-13 action movies and R-rated drama, these movies are big hits with our family of spread-out children's ages. We also enjoyed Million Dollar Arm with Jon Hamm.

To be honest, our oldest daughter didn't want to go because she thought it sounded so similar to Million Dollar Arm. The premise of that movie was that an aging (almost washed up) talent agent went to India to find great cricket players to be MLB pitchers; hilarity ensues as cultures clash, leading to the inevitable heartwarming "becoming a big family" moment between the young Indian athletes and the agent. The agent has an opportunity to return to his former glamorous life but doesn't. The premise of McFarland is that an aging (almost washed up) football coach moves to a small town near Bakersfield, California, which is populated with migratory farm workers with Mexican roots. The very white Coach (last name White, new nickname Blanco) sees potential in a small group of bad football players and attempts to turn them into cross-country runners. Hilarity ensues as cultures clash, leading to the inevitable heartwarming "becoming a big family" moment between the White family and the families in town. Coach White gets the opportunity to move on to a glamorous life as the Palo Alto track coach, and you can guess what happens.

Though the premises are very similar, the movie was really enjoyable. Particulary if, like us, you are from the "Texican" part of the world. The story is sweet and gritty enough to be real. And, the story is true. At the end, we get to meet the real characters of the story, set 25-ish years ago. The movie has a challenge: cross-country is not exciting to watch. Other sports movies have pitching contests, stealing bases, football touchdowns, etc. Cross-country was not designed to be a spectator sport. But, the movie does a good job of building tension in races anyway. The movie runs long (over two hours) and probably could have been cut down somewhat, but the scenes move the story. As evidence, our seven-year-old never got squirmy.

My friend and I had one quibble: The movie is set in 1987, a year I know very well. None of the ladies in the movie have 1987 hair. They have 2014 hair. There should have been more bangs, perms and hair spray.

Film | Bookmark

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8345157d569e201b7c75ee28d970b

Links to weblogs that reference Family Film Blogging: McFarland, USA:

McFarland, USA with Kevin Costner is the latest in a run of PG Disney movies that are live-action, family films. In a film industry made up of animated movies on one side and PG-13 action movies and R-rated drama, these movies are big hits with our family of spread-out children's ages. We also enjoyed Million Dollar Arm with Jon Hamm.

To be honest, our oldest daughter didn't want to go because she thought it sounded so similar to Million Dollar Arm. The premise of that movie was that an aging (almost washed up) talent agent went to India to find great cricket players to be MLB pitchers; hilarity ensues as cultures clash, leading to the inevitable heartwarming "becoming a big family" moment between the young Indian athletes and the agent. The agent has an opportunity to return to his former glamorous life but doesn't. The premise of McFarland is that an aging (almost washed up) football coach moves to a small town near Bakersfield, California, which is populated with migratory farm workers with Mexican roots. The very white Coach (last name White, new nickname Blanco) sees potential in a small group of bad football players and attempts to turn them into cross-country runners. Hilarity ensues as cultures clash, leading to the inevitable heartwarming "becoming a big family" moment between the White family and the families in town. Coach White gets the opportunity to move on to a glamorous life as the Palo Alto track coach, and you can guess what happens.

Though the premises are very similar, the movie was really enjoyable. Particulary if, like us, you are from the "Texican" part of the world. The story is sweet and gritty enough to be real. And, the story is true. At the end, we get to meet the real characters of the story, set 25-ish years ago. The movie has a challenge: cross-country is not exciting to watch. Other sports movies have pitching contests, stealing bases, football touchdowns, etc. Cross-country was not designed to be a spectator sport. But, the movie does a good job of building tension in races anyway. The movie runs long (over two hours) and probably could have been cut down somewhat, but the scenes move the story. As evidence, our seven-year-old never got squirmy.

My friend and I had one quibble: The movie is set in 1987, a year I know very well. None of the ladies in the movie have 1987 hair. They have 2014 hair. There should have been more bangs, perms and hair spray.

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31