To write this headline like my special guest, with whom I talk movies

One, two, three, and-to-the-four, Wild ARS and Joshlos is at the door…

Sorry, I always wanted to do that, and I thought that a co-blog where I traded lines with someone, like a Snoop and Dre song back in the day, might be the best opportunity. Or the dumbest. Whatever.

In any case, the hilarious Andy over at Wild ARS Chase invited me to step up to the plate for one of his famous co-blogs. I gave him the universal head nod of agreement, so we got together and lifted some weights, fixed a car or two, did some running chest bumps, and crushed beer cans on our foreheads. After we regained consciousness and iced down our foreheads, we assembled the Top 10 (Plus 2) Sports Movies of Our Generation — our generation being that of 20-something dudes, so don’t get mad that Bull Durham and Field of Dreams didn’t make the cut.

We freely acknowledge that most of our readers are women, so we hope you ladies have seen at least a few of these. And if you’re a dude reading this, feel free to chim in and disagree with our picks. Afterall, disagreement = controversy, and that makes us seem edgy. And edgy gets the ladies, right ladies? Wait… what do you mean, “Not necessarily?”

Anyway, if you haven’t already, click over to check out the five selections Andy posted earlier for this here ‘Wild Bloggy Blog’, as well as his bonus wildcard selection. And Merry Christmas!

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How did a Cuban, voodoo-worshiping former baseball player get elected to office?

Major League: Joshlos: You know how people know all the words to certain movies? And you know how those movies are usually things like “The Princess Bride?” Well, not me. This is one of two movies I can pretty much quote along from start to finish with the actors while watching it. The other? Die Hard. But that’s a holiday movie. Anyway, from the cast (Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, Corbin Bernsen, Rene Russo, Tom Beringer, Bob Uecker, and Dennis Haysbert) to the story, to the comedy — heck, even the baseball action on field wasn’t bad — this is actually one of my all-time favorite movies.
ARS: Juuuuust a bit outside… Yeah, quality pick here. Wild Thing coming in for the big save at the end after banging Corbin Bersen’s wife. Just so good. Few people realize that Dennis Haysbert was sacrificing chickens long before he touted car insurance and was a U.S. President.

Above the Rim: ARS: Forget “Dear Mama.” This is Tupac’s finest accomplishment. A story of a high school basketball player from the hood, torn between the gang life and the college life. The games at the end are ridiculous, the quintessential “No blood, no foul” action, with more pushing and shoving than a Black Friday sale at Wal-mart. Plus, the guy from Cool Runnings is in it.
Joshlos: As a very hardcore 2Pac fan (see how hardcore I am? I refuse to spell his name out and only use the version with the No. 2 in it, a la the stage name spelling he used when he was still alive), it’s sorta surprising to me that I wasn’t the one coming up with this choice. But it’s all good. And so’s this movie. Aside from this being among 2Pac’s best movies (second behind “Juice” is the highest I’ll go), the three other things I enjoy most about this movie are that [1] the zaniest of the Wayans brothers, Marlon, does the “comedic relief in a a serious movie” well without having to live up to his reputation as the youngest and looniest Wayans brother, [2] the scene where the Cool Runnings guy is angrily practicing his dribbling… WITHOUT A BASKETBALL. It was so insane and intense it was unintentionally hilarious. And [3] the soundtrack, which included a few awesome 2Pac tracks as well as, of course, “Regulate” by Warren G & Nate Dogg, is one of my favorite soundtracks of all time.
ARS: Just hit the east side of the L B C, on a mission trying to find Mr. Warren G. Quick story: My freshman roommate in college, randomly assigned to me, was a potsmoking drunk who failed most of his classes. We had nothing in common. Nothing. Except we freaking loved this song. And, given that I had a subwoofer that made all the other subwoofers on our floor shut up, we blasted this song over and over again. Warren G helped keep the peace.

He Got Game: ARS: The main character’s name is Jesus Shuttlesworth. Can the movie be anything less than stellar? And Denzel Washington gets to wear an afro and play hoops with real-life NBA star Ray Allen, who inexplicably is chosen to star in a Spike Lee movie. I love Spike Lee movies, so I’m biased. I also might be the only suburban white dude to love Spike Lee movies.
Joshlos: Inexplicably? Exactly. But at least Spike Lee didn’t cast Penny Hardaway for the Jesus Shuttlesworth role. Ray Allen wasn’t all bad, though; and he did even seem to show genuine emotion — happiness and excitement — during at least one point in the movie: the campus visit where Rick Fox sets him up with the two, umm… gifted campus co-eds. In any case, Denzel was brilliant in this movie, and your boy, Spike Lee, did a brilliant job of putting the movie together and telling the story.

The Waterboy: Joshlos: One of Adam Sandler’s classics, this movie’s jam-packed with hilarity. For me, though, it’s a more minor moment that makes me lose it the most. I nearly pee my pants every time I see the scene where SportsCenter shows the clip of another school trying to find their own Bobby Boucher. They show the school bring to the field its pint-size towel boy, who proceeds to immediately get laid the eff out.
ARS: If we’re going Adam Sandler, I’d also go “Happy Gilmore” here, perhaps because that was, more or less, the must-see movie as an adolescent boy. We quoted that thing all the time, even when it made no sense. I STILL quote that movie, even though people have no idea what I’m saying. Random person: “My fingers hurt.” Me: “Well, now you’re back’s going to hurt, because you just pulled landscaping duty. Does anyone else’s fingers hurt?” Random person: “Are you one of those special kids?” Me: “Umm…” Plus, Happy Gilmore has the hilarious part when the kid in the batting cage gets nailed with a ball. Love it. The Waterboy, however, does have “You can do it all night long.” So we’ll call this our “Adam Sandler movie entry.”

Rookie of the Year: ARS: This is how much I love this movie. When “American Pie” came out, the entire time Kevin Myers is on, I kept thinking, it’s that kid from Rookie of the Year! (That, and, “I wonder how much longer Tara Reid can make this acting career last”). This movie epitomized childhood dreams of many boys- magically gaining the ability to throw 100 mph fastballs and getting to play for a major league team. Not in every boy’s dream: Losing that ability before the final out of a big game and have your mom tell you to “float it” in, like you’re playing whiffle ball or something. What’s great about this movie is that several random big league players make an appearance, including Barry Bonds, if I remember correctly. He was much skinnier back then. No comment.
Joshlos: This was a much better movie than I like to give it credit for. As a White Sox fan, I always hold the fact that this is centered around the Cubs against it. As such, I was always more fond of Little Big League, which was centered around the Minnesota Twins (I justify that now by saying the Sox and Twins didn’t hate each other back then). That movie also had its own cameos, most notably by Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey Jr.
In the case of both movies, I always wondered how well real Major League Baseball players would accept a kid as a teammate, or as the team’s owner/manager. I think they had to tone it down to make the movies kid-friendly. The other things I enjoyed about Rookie of the Year were that it had the non-Joe Pesci burglar from Home Alone, and that after that movie came out, every kid in the neighborhood tried the robo-throw the kid from the movie used and claimed they threw faster as a result.
ARS: Also, he did Kevin Arnold’s voiceover on “The Wonder Years.” True story. Another true story: I tried to throw in that robo-style. Didn’t work. Almost threw my shoulder out.

Wildcard:
White Men Can’t Jump: Joshlos: I tried going to the hood to play basketball one time dressed like a chump just so I could surprise everyone with how good a basketball player I was and, of course, to hustle all the streetballers’ money in some games. True story. Okay, not really. But I did date Rosie Perez for a while. Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson were awesome complements to each other in this movie; I wish they’d have made more movies together not called Money Train. The basketball action was good, the Jeopardy angle was hilarious, and I think they bridged some racial gaps through stereotypes. Plus Dwayne Wayne from “A Different World” dances around singing “We goin’ Sizzler! We goin’ Sizzler!”

~ by joshlos on December 24, 2008.