Woody Harrelson stars as a former pro basketball coach court-ordered to coach a Special Olympics team with intellectual disabilities, in director Bobby Farrelly’s CHAMPIONS. With such a premise, one might worry the film could go one of two ways: offensive or cloyingly sentimental. Bobby Farrelly brings enough signature Farrelly brothers humor to CHAMPIONS to make it a funny, if slightly raunchy, comedy and while it avoids the first issue, it does lean to the sentimental although it dodges the cloying part. The result is a more entertaining film than one might expect, largely due to the appealing cast of actors with disabilities, although it generally hits all the expected sports movie beats. It’s not THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY but this warm film is more enjoyable than the premise might suggest.
Coach Marcus Marakovich (Harrelson) is a jerk, in both his personal and professional life, We first meet him being rude to a woman the morning after a Tinder hook-up and he follows that clueless, arrogant behavior by challenging his boss, Coach Phil Perretti (Ernie Hudson) on the court where he is assistant coach. Marcus is a coach in the NBA but just barely – an assistant for a minor-league team in Des Moines, Iowa, having been demoted from the big teams as his once-promising career stalled due to his bad behavior. Phil is Marcus’s friend from way back but Marcus’ defiant attitude leaves him little choice. Fired from his job, Marcus arrogantly blusters and drinks heavily, getting behind the wheel of his car and colliding with a cop car. The crash brings him before a judge, who offers Marcus community service, coaching a Special Olympics basketball team made up of players with intellectual challenges.
A deadpan Cheech Marin plays Julio, the manager of the program to which Marcus is sentenced for 90 days. Marcus is his usual jerk self as he walks into the gym to meet his team but he is briefly hopeful when he spots a team mate, Darius (Joshua Felder),
with some real skills. But the young Black man takes one look at the new coach, says “nope” and leaves, which the team tells him means he won’t play for him (we learn why later).
The team members all have their signature quirks, like a player, Showtime (Bradley Edens), who only wants to try for baskets by throwing the ball with his back to the basket, throws he always misses. The actually disabled actors in the roles bring more personality, pointed humor, and fun to the sports films than one expects or usually sees, which gives the film a refreshing feel. A couple of standouts are Madison Tevlin as Cosentino, the sole female teammate, who sassily puts everyone in their place, and Kevin Iannucci as Johnny, an animal-loving, shower-avoiding teammate who is a kind of leader for the team as well as the brother of Alex (Kaitlin Olson), who plays the love interest role for coach.
Harrelson does a nice job but he is greatly aided by Olson, who brings a refreshing sharp humor to her love interest role. The two have great comic chemistry together and the romance works as well. There is a nicely played scene when Harrelson meets Johnny’s sister and is shocked to realize she is that earlier Tinder date. Cheech Marin’s cool, slightly wry demeanor as the program director is a nice balance to Harrelson’s loud self-importance, with Marin quietly taking Harrelson’s character down a notch every time.
The film is actually a remake of a Spanish one, Campeones, (and yes, it is a basketball team in the original, not a soccer team). While this version retains the original comedy’s table-turning by the teammates on the coach, it softens some humor that might seem to make fun of disabilities in that 2018 Spanish film, although both film have the same inclusion and understanding goal. Bobby Farrelly directed THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY and several others with his brother Peter Farrelly but the two have directed separate projects in recent years, Peter directing the Oscar-winning GREEN BOOK but also THE GREATEST BEER RUN, which was not the greatest film by any measure.
While this little sports comedy, with a positive message and image-positive portrayal of disabilities, this is no THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, it is likable, funny, and heart-warming without being overly sentimental. This sweet, funny film is something families with a member with intellectual disabilities might particularly enjoy, for the way the cast handle things and their confidence. It also would have been a good film for younger audiences, but bad language and too frank sexual situations undermines that.
CHAMPIONS opens Friday, Mar. 10, in theaters.
RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars
