Category Archives: Sports

The Smashing Machine review — “A day without pain is like a day without sunshine”

October 5, 2025 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Bennie Safdie | 123 min | ▲▲▲1/2 I have a lot of time for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. He's the wrestler-turned-actor who has best exemplified the star power of someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger for the 21st Century. He's got the charisma and the physique, for sure. He's also the most risk-averse…Read More

Happy Gilmore 2 review — Below par, but a good walk

July 30, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Kyle Newacheck | Written by Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler | 114 min | ▲▲1/2 | Netflix Can you believe it's been almost 30 years since Happy Gilmore came out? It remains Adam Sandler's most beloved film — I mean, besides Punch Drunk Love — and he's finally come up with a sequel.…Read More

F1 The Movie review — Vroom Vroom

June 25, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by Joseph Kosinski | Written by Kosinski and Ehren Kruger | ▲▲▲▲ | 155 min If you've seen the trailer for this picture, you might've thought to yourself, "Hey, the grizzled veteran mentoring the young hotshot, a group of men embracing speed, intensity, and risking their lives for glory — this is just like…Read More

Federer: Twelve Final Days review — Roger says goodbye

June 23, 2024 flawintheiris

Directed by Asif Kapadia and Joe Sabia | 88 min | ▲▲▲△△ | Amazon Prime I've been a tennis fan for many years, and I think it's fair to say Roger Federer was my way into the sport. His ineffable elegance on the court, his many wins on all surfaces, his longevity, and his competitive…Read More

Challengers review — Sexy tennis movie holds to love

April 30, 2024 flawintheiris

Directed by Luca Guadagnino | Written by Justin Kuritzkes | ▲▲▲▲△ | Amazon Prime Hot as the sun at the US Open, Luca Guadagnino's new drama channels tennis as an allegory for competitive relationships while offering enough on-court action to work, most of the time, as a sports movie. At its burning heart it's a…Read More

Creed III review — Eye of the Tiger, baby!

March 7, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Michael B. Jordan | Written by Keenan Coogler, Zach Baylin, and Ryan Coogler | 116 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Crave It's been almost 50 years, with Six Rocky movies and now three Creed movies. This is a pugilistic franchise with a remarkable cinematic lifespan. The way it pivoted to this spin-off was masterful…Read More

Revisiting Creed and Creed II in advance of Creed III

February 28, 2023 flawintheiris

The third edition of the Creed movies, itself a spin-off of the Rocky franchise, arrives later this week directed by lead actor Michael B. Jordan. I thought this week would be a good time to have a look back at my thoughts on the first two films. (For reviews of the other Rocky pictures, go…Read More

King Richard review — Authorized sports picture tells inspirational story

December 7, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green | Written by Zach Baylin | 144 min | In Cinemas Full credit to broadcaster, writer, and filmmaker Tara Thorne for pointing this out on social media: They finally get around to making a biopic of two of the greatest athletes we've seen in our lifetimes, Venus and Serena Williams,…Read More

Six Minutes To Midnight review — Clunky wartime drama never takes flight

March 27, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Andy Goddard | Written by Goddard, Eddie Izzard, and Celyn Jones | 99 min | Crave Plus Fans of Eddie Izzard, Judi Dench, or relentlessly middlebrow wartime dramas will likely find this picture hard to resist, but I'd wager they'll also find it a bit of a disappointment. Despite a lot of compelling…Read More

The Way Back (2020) review — Affleck drama better on hoops

April 27, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Gavin O'Connor | Written by Brad Ingelsby | 108 min | Netflix Nothing like a dude day drinking beer in the shower to suggest a problem. Here we've got Ben Affleck as the dude — his Jack Cunningham is a construction worker, separated from his wife (Janina Gavankar) and heartbroken, alone but for…Read More