Passable little comedy/drama about small town losers wanting another shot at winning the high school football game they lost so many years before. Robin Williams plays the running back who dropped what would have been the winning touchdown and Kurt Russell plays the star quarterback. Many years removed from high school, the two find their marriages and finances on the rocks. Williams then convinces everyone to recreate the big game between rival towns in some vain hope that it will change everything in his life for the better. The script is by Ron Shelton, who'd later go on to write some memorable sports movies ("Bull Durham," "White Men Can't Jump," "Cobb," "Blue Chips," etc.) and would direct Kurt Russell in one of his best leading roles ("Dark Blue"), but this film is nowhere as memorable and hardly one of Russell's best roles. Williams' uptight banker character is just annoying, completely unlikable, and surprisingly unfunny. If it were not for the likability of Russell, I think this film would have been a complete dud.
Review of The Best of Times
The Best of Times
(1986)
Russell makes dull dramedy about small town losers watchable
29 October 2017