Top 10 Sports Movies

10. Friday Night Lights (2004)

In a far off distance land, football is life. No - we aren't talking about "the beautiful game", nor rugby or AFL, we are talking about pads, helmets and cheerleaders. Based on H.G. Bissinger's tell-all novel - which I read after watching the film - Friday Night Lights lowers the boom on small town football culture. The film is set in Odessa, Texas, where oil, wealth and football were once plentiful. The oil and wealth may be gone by the time we reach Odessa, but football remains.

Who would've thought a film about a high school football team would be such harrowing experience?

While David Cohen and Peter Berg's screenplay may beef up some of the facts surrounding this true story, the script doesn't blow smoke over the important questions we are left with. The acting is convincing and unforgiving - with Tim McGraw particularly memorable as the ‘old man’ stuck in his glory days.

9. Seabiscuit (2003)

Overly sentimental films don't work on this cynical bastard – sorry, Blind Side. However, for a few on this list I can make an exception. Enter: Seabiscuit. 

It's a powerful film, directed by The Hunger Games' guru Gary Ross, which tells the age old story of how one down-and-out horse lifted a weary nation. No points for spotting the metaphor in this one.

The cast, which includes the likes of Jeff Bridges, Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks and Chris Cooper, lifts its game for the sake of telling a story about hope and endurance. 

The production team weren’t overly stylistic in how they recreated Depression America and its horse racing culture, but they didn’t need to be. And it's by far Tobey Maguire’s best role to date; he even rattles off Shakespeare with flair!  

8. Remember The Titans (2000)

I remember seeing Libby Trickett - yes, the Aussie Olympian - earlier this year on The Footy Show. She went on, as a guest, to be quizzed about her husband. During the segment she mentioned that her favourite movie is Remember The Titans. What would our Aussie swimming champion know about American football, or the oppressive times of school integration in 1970s Virginia? 

The truth is that it doesn't matter what your interest in the sport is because Remember The Titans is about the timeless themes of brotherhood, overcoming obstacles and change. It also comes with a first place soundtrack! 

7. Moneyball (2011)

You wouldn’t think a film about baseball AND statistical analysis would get many bums in seats. But when you throw in director Bennett Miller, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and actor Brad Pitt, what you get is a sports flick that dares to go where no sports film has gone before. 

Give this one a try, because while it may not sound like a home run (I couldn't resist!), it truly is. I've had people who have never watched an inning of baseball tell me that this is a very interesting movie. So, as Billy Beane would say: "Adapt or die." 

6. Rocky (1976)

Sure, we can't understand half of what Stallone says - so what? It's not like we don't see where this love story is going. And it is a love story at heart, right? 

Can you believe it took this long for a sports film to win Best Picture at the Oscars? And we couldn't even understand what the protagonist was saying! Rocky was also the beginning of a franchise, due to it becoming the highest grossing film of 1976. … And to think that filming finished in just 28 days! 

You need to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy this slobber-knocker. What frame of mind are we talking about? Well, you need to be feeling up against it. You also need to feel the desire to break out an old-school track suit. And finally, you need to feel like you are about ready to punch a dangling carcass! 

5. Hoosiers (1986)

This is a story about comebacks. In fact, Hoosiers has more comebacks than Seabiscuit... 

There's the comeback of America's basketball heartland (Indiana), the comeback of a mysterious coach (Gene Hackman), the comeback of a town drunk (Dennis Hopper), and the comeback of decent sports movies. 

Hackman will hook you in, as he always does, through his charisma and complexity, while the run of this one-horse town basketball team will have you hoping and praying. 

4. Cool Runnings (1993)

Cool Runnings is one of those films I watched over and over and over and over and over and over again as a young lad. And why not? It’s got the comedic factor (John Candy was a comedic king), charm, suspense/intrigue (how many Jamaican sprinters do you know that have tried their hand at Olympic bobsledding?) and an important message about courage and accepting change. 

Cool Runnings also possesses one of my all-time favourite lines: I'm freezing my royal Rastafarian nay-nays off!

3. Chariots of Fire (1981)

The greatest sporting films tend to speak about more than just what happens on a field, in an arena, or even on a track. The greatest speak about larger social issues and human nature. Chariots of Fire can consume your heart, if you allow it to, whether you are British or not. 

These days it seems a race between two devout men, one Christian and the other Jewish, wouldn't be marketable. They'd either be 'too boring' or 'too 'preachy'. And yet what Hugh Hudson and co made in 1981 was a thoughtful film... and an instant classic.

2. Raging Bull (1980)

Scorsese doesn't look like a sports buff. Then again, this is more a biopic of a broken soul than a cliché sports story. Apparently, Robert De Niro approached Scorsese and Schrader (Scorsese and Schrader had directed/written Taxi Driver) with this project, and it looks like De Niro really led the way throughout. 

It's raw and bloody. The camera work in the ring is incredible, tracking the ferocious style of La Motta with flair. You won't forget the Raging Bull.

1. Rudy (1993)

I said I wasn't one for sentimentality... I lied. It had to be a particularly special movie to knock Raging Bull from the top spot. Rudy is that special. And when it's all said and done - when you see that scrawny kid run on the field, after years of following his dream, you know it was worth the wait.

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*Honourable Mentions: Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Million Dollar Baby, Caddyshack, Any Given Sunday, He Got Game, Space Jam, The Mighty Ducks, The Wrestler, Miracle, The World's Fastest Indian, Jerry Maguire, Bill Durham.