“Bend It Like Beckham”
For those who lack an appreciation for low-scoring field sports, “Bend It Like Beckham” offers a sweet girl-power tale that doesn’t require so much as a passing interest in the film’s namesake soccer star or the sport itself. Sure, the flick’s credited with inspiring loads of teens and tweens to get to the grass and give knee-high tube socks a try, but the real on-screen action revolves around soccer ingénue Jess Bhamra’s (played by “ER’s” Parminder Nagra) struggle to find her identity and independence despite the expectations of her family, her culture and her best friend. It’s more about coming of age than scoring the goal.
“Slap Shot”
Hockey fans looking for a glimpse into minor league action can find lots to love about 1977’s “Slap Shot,” but there’s still plenty of laughs and groans for non-sports buffs. While the story of a ragtag team struggling to make its way on the ice may sound like a snoozer for those who don’t know their stick checks from their body checks, the film’s universal charm and hilarity make it all worthwhile. Besides, hockey hardly matters by the time the Charlestown Chiefs, led by Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman), step into the rink with the Syracuse Bulldogs for a final, violent battle of the wiseacres.
“Horse Feathers”
Enjoying “Horse Feathers” has more to do with one’s tolerance for the Marx Brothers than the collegiate sport the story revolves around. If watching a little over an hour of innuendo-filled Marx mayhem tests your patience more than any amount of background football, take Groucho’s advice (“I've got to stay here, but there's no reason why you folks shouldn’t go out into the lobby until this thing blows over”) and just skip this one. But for those who count the equally zany “Duck Soup” as one of the finest comedies ever caught on film (high five!), this campy musical set against a “big game” backdrop is must see.
“Caddyshack”
For fun and mostly mindless entertainment, it doesn’t get much better than “Caddyshack.” Forget about golf, there’s no expectation to take it seriously anyway in this 1980 classic. It’s all about the ensemble cast of funnymen dishing up big portions of lowbrow humor. Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight and a show-stealing Bill Murray, in the role of gopher-killing groundskeeper Carl Spackler, trade off quotable one-liners that rarely rely on the game (“In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, ‘Au revoir, gopher.’”).
“A League of Their Own”
A movie about baseball starring Madonna? Yes, “A League of Their Own” starts off with two strikes (and one cheesy pun) against it, but it’s still worth a watch. While strong characters and a focus on female friendships are enough to hold viewers’ interest, even the game has an appeal for sports-phobes. Well, not the running-around-the-bases part, but rather its place in history. The plot spotlights baseball’s early ’40s slump, when Major League men were sent off to war and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League offered hope for America’s favorite pastime.