The Comebacks (2007)

Director:

Tom Brady

Writers (WGA):

Ed Yeager (screenplay) &
Joey Gutierrez (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

19 October 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sport

Tagline:

Keep your eye on the ball.

Plot:

A comedy that spoofs the inspirational sports movies, The Comebacks tells the story of an out-of-luck coach, Lambeau Fields, who takes a rag-tag bunch of college misfits and drives them towards the football championships. In the process, this life-long loser discovers that he is a winner after all by redeeming himself, saving his relationship with his family and friends, and finding that there is indeed, no "I" in "team"!

Plot Keywords:

Girlfriend | American Football | Man In Woman's Underwear | Interracial Relationship | Championship

Cast

David Koechner	...	Lambeau "Coach" Fields
Carl Weathers	...	Freddie Wiseman
Melora Hardin	...	Barb Fields
Matthew Lawrence	...	Lance Truman
Brooke Nevin	...	Michelle Fields
Nick Searcy	...	Mr. Truman
George Back	...	Buddy Boy
Noureen DeWulf	...	Jasminder Featherfoot
Jesse Garcia	...	Jorge Juanson
Jackie Long	...	Trotter
Robert Ri'chard	...	Aseel Tare
Martin Spanjers	...	Randy Randinger
Jermaine Williams	...	IPod
Finesse Mitchell	...	Titans Coach
Will Arnett	...	Mailman

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 on appeal for crude and sexual content throughout and some drug material

Runtime:

107 min (unrated version) | USA:84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (re-rating on appeal) | USA:R (original rating) | Singapore:NC-16 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

California State University - 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton, California, USA

Company:

Fox Atomic

Trivia:

Not screened for critics.

Quotes:

Vince: Hey coach. Name is Vince. I'm just a bartender from Philly whose only dream is to play ball. It's all I got left after I lost my job teaching, and my wife left me. Like my alcoholic father used to say before he passed on, "A man can only take so much failure!" I'll give you everything I got. What do you say coach?
Lambeau "Coach" Fields: I say you can add "Did not make the football team" to your list of woes.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Field of Dreams (1989)

The Worst Film I've Seen in a Decade

We arrived at the theater too late to see Rendition, which was our intention, and 'The Comebacks' was the only film that hadn't already started. I had an inkling of how bad a film it was after reading the short blurb at the ticket counter. The theater was empty when we arrived and only two other people entered before the film started.

The screenwriters and director threw every imaginable sports cliché at the audience without creating a single laugh, not one during the entire movie. Think of all the football movies that have been made and the millions of dollars schools and fans spend each year on football and you realize how ripe it is to be parodied or lampooned. If you add Texas to the mix,you ought to come up with the sports version of 'Little Miss Sunshine', not a big yawn.

The first film that came to mind as we exited the theater was 'Can't Stop the Music' By comparison, this was 'Can't stop the Music' without Bruce Jenner, Valerie Perrine, or the Village People.

If the film had a single grace note, it was seeing Matthew Lawrence grown up.