At the NFL Draft, General Manager Sonny Weaver has the opportunity to rebuild his team when he trades for the number one pick. He must decide what he's willing to sacrifice on a life-changin... Read allAt the NFL Draft, General Manager Sonny Weaver has the opportunity to rebuild his team when he trades for the number one pick. He must decide what he's willing to sacrifice on a life-changing day for a few hundred young men with NFL dreams.At the NFL Draft, General Manager Sonny Weaver has the opportunity to rebuild his team when he trades for the number one pick. He must decide what he's willing to sacrifice on a life-changing day for a few hundred young men with NFL dreams.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
- Tony Rizzo
- (as Tony Rizzo)
- Vontae's Nephew
- (as Zachary Littleton)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe trick used by the Washington Redskins of taping a $100 bill to the back of the playbook seemed to be inspired by an anecdote of JaMarcus Russell. His coaches in Oakland did not believe he was watching the game film and once purposely sent him home with blank DVDs to watch. He returned claiming he watched the video and liked the game plan, obviously lying. There was a similar story in the 1980s with Randall Cunningham.
- GoofsMolina couldn't have made it back from New York City to Cleveland in the time it took from the second pick to the sixth pick. There was only 10 minutes tops for each pick, provided each team used it all before picking. It would've taken 45 minutes to an hour to get back to Cleveland by air, not to mention the time it took him to get from Radio City Music Hall to his jet, and to get from his jet to the training facility.
- Quotes
Sonny Weaver Jr.: Come on, Tom. Say it with me, you pancake-eating motherfucker.
- SoundtracksNFL on Fox - Theme
Written by Phil Garrod, Reed Hays and Scott Schreer
Costner plays the fictional Sonny Wheeler, Jr., son of the equally fictitious Sonny Wheeler, Sr., who has recently died and in whose shadow Sonny perpetually toils. You see, Wheeler, Sr. was a legend at the Cleveland Browns franchise, and, in his two years as general manager for the team, his son seems to be having a little trouble living up to the old man's reputation. To further complicate Sonny's life, his "down low" girlfriend, Ali (Jennifer Garner), who works as the lawyer responsible for making sure the team doesn't bust through the salary cap, has just announced that she is pregnant with the commitment-phobic Sonny's child. Amid all this personal turmoil, Sonny launches into full negotiator mode, making deals and forming alliances with other general managers in the league while working to assuage the concerns of the team's owner (Frank Langella), its coach (Dennis Leary), an assortment of high strung and disgruntled players (Tom Welling, Chadwick Boseman, Arian Foster) and even his own mother (Ellen Burstyn) who has views of her own that need to be taken into consideration before he can arrive at his final decision.
Although it probably helps to have some familiarity with how the draft pick works in order to fully appreciate some of the finer points of the narrative, writers Rajiv Joseph and Scott Rothman do a good job clarifying the big picture even for the less sports-oriented members of the audience. The movie proceeds at a breakneck pace as the clock ticks down to the moment of truth for Sonny. Will he accept the Seattle Seahawks' offer of the #1 draft pick, Bo Callahan (Josh Pence), in exchange for the Browns' #1 first-round draft picks for the next three years, or will he reject the offer in favor of some less stellar but still promising players? "Draft Day" is at its best when it's exploring the various and often contradictory interests - of players, coaches and owners, not to mention the millions at stake in salaries and corporate sponsorships - that those in Sonny's position must consider before rendering their final verdicts. Talk about pressure! The filmmakers establish a nice balance between the sports aspects of the tale and the personal moments between Sonny and Ali and Sonny and his mom, never allowing the latter to detract from the former. As a result, we care about the characters without losing our focus on the real reason we've come to this movie.
Reitman has come up with an interesting split-screen technique that helps to weave together a story that takes place over a wide range of geographical locales simultaneously. What might have been a mere gimmick in less capable hands becomes an indispensable narrative device here.
A few weeks back, while writing about "3 Days to Kill," I lamented that Costner desperately needed to find some quality material worthy of his talents to work with, and he seems to have found just that in "Draft Day." Costner has a core of quiet stillness that lends a genuine gravitas to his performances. Because he can appear both confident and insecure in the same moment, he makes us want to root for the character he's playing. He's also blessed with a super supporting cast that includes, in addition to all the aforementioned, Terry Crews, Rosanna Arquette, Sam Elliot, and Sean Combs.
"Draft Day" proves that not all the competitiveness and excitement of professional football takes place on the field.
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Ngày Tuyển Chọn
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $25,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $28,842,237
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $9,783,603
- Apr 13, 2014
- Gross worldwide
- $29,824,199
- Runtime1 hour 50 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1