…and David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. “Hoosiers” is arguably the heavyweight champ of feel-good sports movies. The story is as much about the underdog, fundamentals and discipline as personal comebacks and second chances. The beauty of “Hoosiers” is that you don’t have to be a basketball nut to derive enjoyment. The film is story driven; basketball merely serves as a device that gives the characters a means of starting their lives over. However, if you’ve ever picked up a basketball, this film is sure to make you run for the nearest court to nail the game-winning shot with no time left on the clock. “Hoosiers” is also full of wonderful performances by Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey and Dennis Hopper. Hopper received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor ...

  People said, A sixth Rocky Balboa movie with a near-60 year old Sylvester Stallone? No way. Everyone figured it was a desperate dream on Stallone’s part, and that he’d dragged people along for the madness. But people forget that “Rocky” the original movie was such a long shot in the beginning too. Here was a no-name guy who had dreams of being a movie star with his fist wrapped around his own B-movie script that movie studios were trying to buy at a (then) reasonable price. By accepting the deal, he would have been able to move his family into a better home. Taking what was on the table would have changed Stallone’s life. But it wouldn’t have changed Stallone’s life forever. So he kept that big fist of his tight, closed his eyes to everything that was being offered, and focused only on what he wanted: to see the script he wrote realized ...

  Will Ferrell has his own distinct audience. Most of the films he makes are geared for that audience. However, in “Talladega Nights” he strips all those gears and tears the knob off. Ferrell plays NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby, the outrageous blue collar hero of the high-octane sport of stock car racing. The name alone, as American as apple pie, is worth the price of admission. “Ricky Bobby” has got to be the most Southern name of any driver in NASCAR! It’s As usual, Ferrell turns in a Will Ferrell acting job, part script , part ad-lib. When he starts chewing through a scene, it’s sometimes hard to tell where the scripted stuff ends and the improvisation starts. As Ricky Bobby, Ferrell turns out to be full-on American, stupidly redneck, impossible heroic, impossibly dumb, and vulnerable. Few actors could achieve that range within a single movie. And few critics would acknowledge Ferrell’s ambiguous ...

  Why was “The Benchwarmers” released in Blu-Ray? It wasn’t a major hit, and there’s very little about the film which is enhanced by the clarity of detail and richness of colors inherent in the high definition/Blu-Ray process. Is it so we can marvel at the weave of the nylon mesh of David Spade’s baseball catcher duds? So we can see the individual drops of young Sammy Sprinkles’ spittle? This is one of an increasing number of movies whose Blu-Ray availability is beside the point. The clarity of definition neither helps nor hinders the movie, though it could use the help. For a decreasing number, Dennis Dugan is probably known best as Richie Brockelman, Private Eye, an occasional character on “The Rockford Files” who was granted his own, short-lived TV series. Dugan eventually moved over to directing (though he also appears here as a supporting character), primarily of TV sitcoms and a few movies. ...