LEATHERHEADS Doesn't Score

Written by Hombre Divertido

Take George Clooney as star and director, add the youthful and funny John Krasinski from The Office, and throw the beautiful and talented Renee Zellwegger into a movie about professional football in 1925, and it would seem like a recipe for success.

Get ready to send this unfunny, confused, convoluted, shallow, mess back.

Normally a review would include a description of the plot of the film being reviewed, but since this film has no idea what it wants to be, it is difficult, if not a waste of time, trying to explain it.

What would have made for a good film would have been the simple premise of a football team struggling to make it in the early years of professional football. Introduce us to some interesting and outrageous characters on the team. Bring in the suave Clooney as the seasoned veteran, the young rookie Krasinski, and have Zellwegger as the love interest of both guys. Show some humorous antics as the members of the team try to fit in off the field. How hard could that be? Seemed to work pretty well in Bull Durham and Slapshot to name two successful sport-themed films.

Apparently it was harder than one would think. We get no insight to anyone on the team other than Clooney and Krasinski, and even their characters are one-dimensional. There is very little actual football in the film, and the football scenes that are there are horribly choreographed and directed. The film gets bogged down in storylines that have nothing to do with football in 1925. In other words; the film has far too little to do with leatherheads!

There are storylines regarding Krazinski’s character being a war hero based on a story that has been exaggerated to the point of no longer being true, and Zellwegger’s character, a young reporter, trying to break the big story and expose Krasinski for a fraud. There are holes in the plots and neither storyline really goes anywhere.

There is absolutely no depth to any of the storylines or characters, no chemistry between any of the stars, and even the make-up is bad as they actually manage to make Zellwegger look bad in numerous scenes. The filmmakers finally try to resort to basic slapstick to get some laughs, but by then it is far too little too late. This is one hour and fifty-three minutes of pain.

The best scene in the movie consists of Stephen Root (Another underutilized comedic talent in this dud), who plays one of many poorly developed supporting characters in the film, discussing one of the football games and makes reference to it being boring. One cannot help but laugh at the ironic reference to the film itself.

Recommendation: NO! This will be one of the worst films of the year.