Draft Day

The film earns some big laughs, but it never sacrifices character for a punchline.

Entertaining and suspenseful, the movie shows the politicking and strategies that go into this annual ritual, and Costner is at his beleaguered best.

The final 20 minutes at the Radio City Music Hall extravaganza are fairly tense, in highly improbable ways designed to rouse send-off cheers.

While Draft Day is a very agreeable and predictable movie, it is also very timely.

All of these interesting performers can't save a dull script. To work, Draft Day needs the kind of witty dialogue and snappy energy that Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin brought to “Moneyball” but the screenwriters mistake constant activity for actual screenwriting.

Costner works hard, and it shows. That's even more true of Leary. Garner's stuck in a thankless role. Only Langella seems to be having unencumbered fun.

Haven’t Cleveland fans suffered enough? Not only have they never won a Super Bowl, but now the Browns serve as the center of Ivan Reitman’s painfully creaky sports drama.

If you like sports movies, football, and Kevin Costner's style of acting/movie making, you will love this movie. I'm rather shocked by the poor ratings the film received as it delivers just what you'd expect.

lubię ten film... lubię filmy zwiazane ze sportem, o sporcie.. ten również mi odpowiada.... a po za tym mamy tutaj Costnera jednego z moich uilubionych aktorów

"Draft Day" 10 Scale Rating: 6.0 (Decent) ... The Good: Costner was fantastic. Despite playing an NFL executive, he makes the character easy to relate to and human. He might have a high powered job, but at his core he's a regular guy. Entertaining and dramatic at times, the movie keeps your interest and contains a chuckle or two. Denis Leary, Frank Langella, Chadwick Boseman, Terry Crews, and Jennifer Garner all shine in support roles. Fans of the NFL will enjoy the film with it's jargon and scenarios that they can completely understand. The Bad: But that's also the downside. Casual fans will be lost and at times bored with the material. Hardcore fans will be disappointed in the lack of true realism and pie in the sky ideals. A touch of Hollywood is to be expected, but far too many things happen that simply would NEVER happen in the actual NFL Draft. Lastly, some of the dramatic elements were dry and didn't add to the film. Costner's family drama and romantic life were sort of crammed into the movie to prevent it from solely being a sports film.

If we assume the money printers behind the NFL saw Moneyball and thought "hey, we should totally do that too," this is almost precisely how I'd picture the end result. Polished and slick, loaded with team insignias and familiar Sunday morning fringe-dwellers, and superficially authentic at best. Behind the glamour is a hollow pantomime, stuffed with eyeball-rolling character moments and bland dialogue, that completely misses the points that made the MLB effort click. Draft Day does manage to get some things right - the frequent nods at league history are interesting, and the production values are dazzlingly first-rate - but it all feels so pre-approved and chest-puffing that I had a hard time buying it as more than just a long-form bit of promo fluffer. Kevin Costner, at his most washed-up and wooden, doesn't do anything to move the bar, and the climax may as well have flashed the words "dynasty" over the Cleveland skyline. Subtlety is not its forte. Weak, run-of-the-mill, pandering, brand-friendly fodder.

I'm a football fan, and the film fell absolutely flat for me. The story is only believable if you can accept that every single character in the film is an utter moron. All of the trades are absurd and most of the GMs are caricatures of stupidity.