Talkie Tuesday: Draft Day

Hello everyone!

So a (long) while back, I saw the trailer for Draft Day, completely by accident, and decided I really needed to see this movie. One, it has Kevin Costner in it, two, there are some other familiar faces running around, three, it's football, and four - Kevin Costner. Enough said?

I've been a fan of Mr. Costner's for a while now, I can't even remember for how long, and although I know he obviously filmed before I saw any of his movies, it's a tie between whether I've seen the Bodyguard or The Prince of Thieves first. I'm fairly sure The Postman came afterwards at some point when there was nothing else to watch on TV and I saw the actor's face and decided I would just sit through it even though it didn't look promising (at the start). So, seeing him in the trailer for this kind of movie, it was a no-brainer that I would want to see it even if it did take me a long, long time to actually sit down and do it. 

First off, let me just say that I'm not American, ergo I have literally about zero idea when it comes to football. I'm sure a lot of you will then ask 'Well, why did you decide to watch a football-oriented movie, then?'

I'll tell you.

Aside from the reasons stated above, I've always been a big fan of seeing how things were done in the background; how movies get made, what kind of decisions take place at a command post, what happens as you're trying to organize a concert, etc. Having been a volunteer for a long time, this makes sense to me, because I've been in the background a lot, and I also sometimes prefer, when joining an online forum or making one, to remain sort of hidden away and just do the things that need doing without necessarily putting myself out there. If everything runs smoothly, why should I want to?

So Draft Day was interesting to me from the point of view that I wanted to see, how players get drafted and what goes on behind closed doors with deals and jockeying for position, etc. I may only know a couple of football-related vocabulary (namely touchdown, quarterback, NFL, and the like you see in movies), but that didn't make this movie any less interesting for me.

Draft Day, Summit Entertainment, Lionsgate

The movie starts off on the morning of draft day, and we see Sonny Weaver Jr. (Costner) in his house, with apparently his pregnant girlfriend (Jennifer Garner), and they seem to be having a bit of a tiff (side-note: I love her car, I swear the Chevy Camaro my ultimate dream car). For most of the movie, this will be one of the ongoing plotlines, as Sonny tries to come to terms with what Ali expects of him in regard to the child and their relationship, but the biggest is obviously the fact that he needs to draft players for the Browns so that the team can get a kick start to the season. We are introduced to some other key players in the game, namely the coach of the team and Sonny's own personal Scooby Gang doing background checks and eyeing shady websites (David Ramsey brings comedy from Arrow, if you ask me). We then see the play-by-play as general managers jockey around with the overall number one pick, a quarterback named Bo Callahan, and it looks like Sonny might have traded the next three year first round picks of the Browns for him from Seattle. Of course, the gang isn't quite happy with it, though the owner is, and throughout the movie we get to see how everyone wants to get in on the action and tell Sonny how he's supposed to do his job. Miraculously though, by the end of the movie, Sonny manages to get back his first round picks, leaves Callahan to Seattle, but gets THREE other picks: defence Vontae Mack, running back Ray Jennings, and punt returned David Putney (yes, I totally had to look their positions up; guilty as charged!).

So what do we learn? The a great GM can outplay pretty much EVERYONE on the board and bring home a whole lot more than a Super Bowl ring. I also enjoyed the formatting when phone calls were made, showing both participants in the same screen and overlapping pictures, it was a neat trick.

Draft Day, Summit Entertainment, Lionsgate

One thing I was kind of annoyed with, though, was that Sonny's mother couldn't honestly wait to scatter his father's ashes until AFTER the biggest day in football season besides the SB. I mean, seriously, how hard can it be? I understand that she's mourning, and she wants to honour her husband's last wishes, but considering said husband was long-time coach to the Browns, you'd think he would be more than understanding about the pressure his son was under on that particular day, but no, every other employee goes out in honour of that when they should have been working, obviously trying to make Sonny look bad, but to be honest I would have probably had the same reaction as he did (with a lot more throwing items around, to boot). Not only was it a pig-headed move, but completely insensitive considering I'm sure Sonny would have been the first on the spot if it had been any other day.

Other than that though, it was a very enjoyable movie and I'm sure I'll rewatch it again sometime (maybe with some more knowledge of football!). It definitely made me want to watch more of the NFL, that's for sure!

Have you seen Draft Day? What did you think?

Have a good one x