Draft Day Reviews

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was directed by Ivan Reitman and since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I think you need to be either American and/or have a decent knowledge of American sports to get into this movie. Fortunately, I used to be a huge fan of the NBA back in the 90’s so I already knew what the draft was but, even so, I have to admit that I still struggled with the material. For example, it took me a good while to get that Kevin Costner’s character was not the coach of the Cleveland Browns but actually their General Manager. Anyway, it was definitely a bold move to focus only on this single day, the day college players are drafted to their NFL teams, and while it might be a huge event for the fans, I’m not sure that anyone else would really care. Anyway, to be honest, narratively speaking, the whole thing didn't really work. I mean, for example, it was pretty obvious from the very start that he would drop Bo Callahan and go for Vontae Mack. Above all, the makers tried to convince the viewers that it was a genius move but I wasn’t convinced. Indeed, even before making the deal with Seattle Seahawks, he was already pretty sure to get Vontae Mack with his seventh overall pick so the whole thing felt like a rather convoluted detour to eventually get a similar result. A bigger nuisance was that they put too much focus on Sonny Weaver Jr.’s private life. Indeed, his semi-secret girlfriend who happens to be a co-worker just turned out to be pregnant, his father who used to be a lauded coach for his team had recently passed away and his mother was eager to scatter his ashes on the football field… Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was actually still fairly entertaining and it might be worth a look but only if you really like the genre.