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“If I can’t say the R-word, what do I call them?” asks Marcus ( Woody Harrelson ), a disgraced minor-league basketball coach sentenced to 90 days of community service coaching the Friends, a team whose players have intellectual disabilities. “Their names,” the judge replies. 

Based on the 2018 Spanish film “Campeones,” Bobby Farrelly ’s “Champions” follows the basic plot of every other inspirational sports movie about a hangdog coach in need of redemption. But it has the added cringiness of using its team of Disabled basketball players solely as a method towards this redemption while completely failing to see their humanity. 

At the film's beginning, Harrelson’s Marcus is arrogant, combative, and every other cliche you’d expect for this kind of character. In 2023, it’s hard to see why we should want to spend two hours watching this guy, even with the signature charm Harrelson brings to every role he plays. His one-night-stand-turned-love-interest Alex ( Kaitlin Olson ) doesn’t fare much better with characterization, uttering abysmal lines like “I’m a woman over 40. I have needs.” But thankfully, Olson finds a few more layers within her performance than the character is granted on the page. 

“I’m sorry, I’m new to this,” Marcus says to Alex after making a major gaffe asking how her brother Johnny ( Kevin Iannucci ) got his intellectual disability. To which she has to explain he was born with Down Syndrome, you don’t catch it. That’s the main presumption of the film: that everyone watching it is new to knowing anything about intellectual disabilities, and therefore it’s continually explaining their existence rather than allowing them to exist. 

In an earlier scene, the rec center manager Julio ( Cheech Marin ) tells Marcus about the personal lives of the team. As his speech plays out over voiceover, we see little vignettes of their jobs and homes. However, the filmmakers never actually bother to spend any time with these characters as they live their lives. Instead, they show the audience their lives from an almost anthropological distance. The filmmakers see them solely as teaching tools for Marcus and the audience, not complex human beings worth spending real time with.

Yet, the script gives the burgeoning relationship between Marcus and Alex plenty of screentime. We watch it blossom from straight sex to dinner in restaurants to Marcus watching Alex perform Shakespeare at her job to Marcus eventually coming over to her and Johnny’s home for their mother’s cheesy meatloaf Monday. 

This lack of respect for the humanity of these characters also comes at the expense of the dynamic cast playing the Friends— Madison Tevlin , Joshua Felder , Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning , Matthew Von Der Ahe , Tom Sinclair , James Day Keith , Casey Metcalfe , and Bradley Edens —whose star power, charisma, and comic timing is wasted in pithy one-liners and dated jokes. 

While each character is given an arc, they are mostly in relation to their goal of making it to the Special Olympics North American Regional Championship. By the time the credits roll, it’s not surprising that none of the actors in the Friends are listed along with the non-disabled stars of the film before the title treatment, given the film’s lack of respect for them throughout. 

Once the team does qualify for the championship in Winnipeg, they, of course, are behind leading up to halftime, with Marcus giving the requisite inspirational locker room speech. The result is perhaps the most cringe-worthy part of the entire film, as Marcus lets them know they’re already champions because of all the “stuff they put up with from ignorant people every day,” further othering this scrappy crew into tokens, despite the film’s good intentions. 

At the beginning of “Champions,” when Marcus is fired from his assistant coaching position, lead coach Phil ( Ernie Hudson ) tells him he needs to know the players on a personal level, not just as ballplayers. The same can be said for the filmmakers, who need to offer the same grace to the Friends and see their whole humanity. 

"Champions" will be available only in theaters on March 10th. 

Marya E. Gates

Marya E. Gates is a freelance film and culture writer based in Los Angeles and Chicago. She studied Comparative Literature at U.C. Berkeley, and also has an overpriced and underused MFA in Film Production. Other bylines include Moviefone, The Playlist, Crooked Marquee, Nerdist, and Vulture. 

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Champions (2023)

Rated PG-13 for strong language and crude/sexual reference.

124 minutes

Woody Harrelson as Marcus

Kaitlin Olson as Alex

Cheech Marin as Julio

Matt Cook as Sonny

Ernie Hudson as Coach Phil Peretti

Madison Tevlin as Cosentino

Joshua Felder as Darius

Kevin Iannucci as Johnny

Ashton Gunning as Cody

Matthew Von Der Ahe as Craig

James Day Keith as Benny

Alex Hintz as Arthur

Casey Metcalfe as Marlon

Bradley Edens as Showtime

Alicia Johnston as Coach Maya

Tom Sinclair as Blair

Mike Smith as Attorney McGurk

• Bobby Farrelly

Writer (based on the Spanish film 'Campeones' by)

• Javier Fesser
• David Marqués

Cinematographer

• C. Kim Miles
• Julie Garcés
• Michael Franti

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‘Champions’ Review: Following the Playbook

This film directed by Bobby Farrelly has elements that recall “Kingpin” and “There’s Something About Mary.” But the ratio of tastelessness to sentimentality has been reversed.

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By Ben Kenigsberg

As “Dumb and Dumber” (1994) nears its 30th anniversary, its directors, Peter and Bobby Farrelly, have settled into what might regrettably be called a “mature phase.”

The sibling filmmakers, once the go-to guys for raunchy-sweet comedy in Hollywood, have been making movies separately of late. Peter Farrelly directed “Green Book” (2018), whose best picture Oscar ensured that it will live forever as an exemplar of the academy’s retrogressive taste. Now Bobby Farrelly has turned out his first solo feature, “Champions,” in which an ill-tempered basketball coach is court-ordered to supervise a team of intellectually disabled athletes.

It sounds, in outline, like material the Farrellys would have once treated with blithe irreverence. In “There’s Something About Mary” (1998), Matt Dillon’s character tried to impress Cameron Diaz’s by lying about exactly that kind of community service . And it stars Woody Harrelson, of the brothers’ “Kingpin” (1996). But this time, the ratio of tastelessness to sentimentality has been reversed.

Harrelson plays Marcus, an assistant basketball coach in Des Moines. Marcus’s problem, as the head coach he’s worked for (Ernie Hudson) explains, is that he never gets to know his players as people. (“Are we living in ‘Hoosiers’ now?” Marcus asks him, in a lame acknowledgment of the kinds of clichés the movie knows it’s repeating.)

The protagonist’s drunken collision with a parked police car lands him in hot water with a judge (Alex Castillo) nicknamed Hanging Mary, who will let him avoid prison if he coaches the Friends, a Special Olympics team at a recreation center. Marcus initially thumbs his nose at the players, who all have trademark habits. Never showering. Always shooting backward from half-court. Knowing exactly what time a flight from Portland, Ore., to Chicago should be flying overhead.

But while the Farrellys of three decades ago gleefully cut against the grain of political correctness, Bobby this time seems to have embraced it, making a celebration of sensitivity and empowerment that is kindhearted without ever risking touching a comic third rail. The dispiriting experience of watching “Champions” is slowly realizing that, notwithstanding an off-color line here or there (a player with Down syndrome introduces himself as “your homie with an extra chromie”), it’s exactly the sort of formulaic crowd-pleaser that just about anybody might have directed.

In fact, someone has: This is a remake of “Campeones,” a generally dire 2018 movie from Spain that won the top prize at the country’s Goya Awards but went unreleased theatrically here. The new screenplay, by Mark Rizzo, sticks closely to the original, though most of the changes (amping up the Marcus character’s mercenary careerism, revising a subplot about his love life) are improvements. The new version is certainly better-made and doesn’t gawk as cruelly at the Friends.

The best case for “Champions” is made by the actors who play them, especially Madison Tevlin as the brassy Cosentino, the team’s sole female player, and Kevin Iannucci as Johnny, the shower resister. Conveniently, Johnny turns out to be the brother of an actress (Kaitlin Olson) whom Harrelson, before getting his assignment, had previously hooked up with on Tinder.

If the romance thread gets the job done, Farrelly can’t do much with the sports movie tropes. Endless montages and near-random, what-decade-is-this? song choices (“Hey Ya!,” “Unbelievable”) chart the team’s progress. Marcus delivers a big-game locker room speech in which he tells the players that, win or lose, they are already champions, because of what they put up with every day. Depressingly, it’s not a joke.

Champions Rated PG-13. Drunken driving, sexual innuendo. Running time: 2 hours 3 minutes. In theaters.

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Review: The inspiring if formulaic ‘Champions’ translates into a winner

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The Farrelly brothers reigned supreme over comedies of questionable taste in the 1990s and 2000s (“Dumb and Dumber,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “Shallow Hal,” “Stuck on You”), but while Peter has gone on to the industry’s highest success, picking up original screenplay and best picture Oscars for his film “Green Book,” Bobby hasn’t directed a film in awhile . He makes his comeback with his “Kingpin” star Woody Harrelson in the sports comedy “Champions,” an English-language remake of the 2018 Spanish smash hit, the Goya Award-winning “Campeones.”

Harrelson plays Marcus, a minor-league basketball coach who is sentenced to community service after a drunk-driving accident and finds himself coaching a team of intellectually disabled adults at a local community center in Des Moines, Iowa. Given the Farrelly track record of dabbling in more outre or offensive comedy, one might be bracing for what “Champions” may potentially deliver, but after an initial fake-out, Farrelly, Harrelson and writer Mark Rizzo deftly thread the needle on “Champions.” For the most part, it is warmly amusing without diving too far into the realm of the maudlin or treacly; and it side-steps anything insensitive while still enjoying some bawdy humor.

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You might also be thinking, “Isn’t this ‘The Mighty Ducks’ ?” — the 1992 kids sports comedy with Emilio Estevez as an attorney who gets sentenced to community service after a drunk-driving accident and has to coach a Minneapolis pee-wee hockey team — and yes, it’s basically the same story. The grumpy coach who has a hard time connecting with people finds himself opening up with his unlikely charges and learning to love the game again, because of the players, not in spite of them. The story does not deviate from the traditional sports movie formula we know so well.

What helps enliven “Champions” is what enlivens Coach Marcus himself — the team, called the Friends, which is cast entirely of actors with similar disabilities to their characters. Some are veteran actors, some were cast from their experience as Special Olympics athletes, and others make their screen debut in the film. One of the standouts, Kevin Iannucci, plays Johnny, whose older sister, Alex ( “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star Kaitlin Olson) becomes Marcus’ love interest. The pair grow from Tinder one-night stand to reluctant allies to friends with benefits when Marcus takes over the team, but Alex’s spiky, self-protective humor and Marcus’ ambition to flee Iowa for an NBA job throws up the appropriate hurdles to their romance.

The plot also cribs heavily from traditional romance tropes, with Marcus as a stern striver finding himself charmed (and thawed) by the quirky residents of a small town, a surprisingly steamy attraction and, of course, the players he coaches. It’s not innovative storytelling, but it is effective — there’s a reason why these tropes exist.

“Champions” doesn’t break any molds, narratively or aesthetically, and it’s too long, but what sets it apart are the Friends, who offer warm and nuanced performances, and excellent representation for the disabled community, which has either been largely ignored on film or relegated to inappropriate punchlines or condescending stereotypes. Farrelly and Rizzo, working with the original material of “Campeones,” and the actors, offer a depiction of these characters and their lives as full with responsibilities, relationships, and joy. When Coach Marcus comes along, he’s just the icing on the cake. They were champs before he showed up, and the film is his journey to realizing that.

Katie Walsh is Tribune News Service film critic.

'Champions'

Rated: PG-13, for strong language and crude/sexual references Running time: 2 hours, 3 minutes Playing: Starts March 10 in general release

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• Review: <i>Champions</i> Is a Gentle Comedy That Puts the Spotlight on Disabled Actors

Review: Champions Is a Gentle Comedy That Puts the Spotlight on Disabled Actors

T here are some good reasons to be nostalgic for the late 1990s to early 2000s, and the movies made by the Farrelly Brothers constitute one of them. Though they’re best known for the gross-out jokes in movies like Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary, the real trademark of the films made by Peter and Bobby Farrelly is their sweetness, and their eagerness— sometimes misguided but never mean-spirited—to make sure every character is treated as a multidimensional human being. Some—like the cartoonishly grouchy guy, in There’s Something About Mary, whose wheelchair bears the bumper sticker “How’s my driving? Call 1-800-eat-shit”—are more irritable than virtuous, but that’s precisely the point: a disability isn’t the same as a personality. And as far as the much-maligned Shallow Hal goes, most people seem to have forgotten about the character of Walt, written by the Farrellys for a man they met in a New England bar, Rene Kirby, who was born with spina bifida. Walt is a rich, handsome, charming software mogul, and as Kirby plays him, he’s one of the most captivating characters in the movie.

With Champions, director Bobby Farrelly returns us to the late 1990s, a time when there were fewer sorely needed guidelines, but also fewer gatekeepers just waiting to catch well-meaning people who happen to trip up. Champions is a reworked version of the 2018 Spanish film Campeones , which itself was inspired by the true story of a hotshot basketball team from Valencia, made up of intellectually disabled individuals. (The Champions script is by Mark Rizzo, riffing on the original by Javier Fesser and David Marqués.) Woody Harrelson stars as Marcus, a shallow and deeply unlikable assistant basketball coach, employed by an Iowa minor-league team. After getting caught driving while drunk, he’s sentenced to 90 days of community service—specifically, coaching a crew of disabled basketball players known as the Friends. It’s the last thing he’d ever do if left to his own devices.

Predictably, Marcus is at first appalled by the team’s playing capabilities, or lack thereof: There’s Showtime (Bradley Edens), who’s got all the right victory-dance moves even though has no idea what to do with the ball; Craig (Matthew Von Der Ahe), who’s preoccupied with bragging about his multiple girlfriends; and Johnny (Kevin Iannucci), who might be a decent player, but whose fears get the better of him—in particular, he’s terrified of water, which means he refuses to shower after practice, or, for that matter, ever. But this 10-player team isn’t particularly impressed with Marcus, either. They eye him with suspicion, or simply refuse to cooperate. The player who’s hailed by the others as the best on the team, Darius (Joshua Felder), stalks off the court shortly after Marcus shows up, refusing to play for him—his reasons are revealed later in the movie.

Marcus goes through the motions of making the best of the situation, only to realize he truly likes these guys. Champions heads pretty much exactly where you think it’s going to go—it does follow the classic underdog-champion template after all—and it also includes the requisite romance: Kaitlin Olson plays Alex, Johnny’s older and very protective sister, a straight-talking wisecracker who reluctantly takes up with Marcus, only to realize she’s falling for him (and the feeling is mutual). As appealing as Olson is, the romance is Champions’ weakest element. And if you miss the trademark Farrelly gross-outs, there is an instance of projectile vomiting to look forward to.

But it’s much more fun just to spend time with the players, and to watch Marcus riff with them. All of the Friends are played by disabled performers, many of whom have never acted before. Yet they’re all naturals—they know how to get laughs, and they relish it. The team’s savior, a firecracker of a player named Cosentino (Madison Tevlin), struts into the movie like she owns it. The other players are overjoyed at seeing her, calling out her name, but with a withering glance she sets Marcus straight right away: “It’s Ms. Cosentino to you.” Her timing is as sharp as Harrelson’s—maybe sharper.

All of that said, Champions is a movie that’s out of step with where we’re at these days, at least in terms of mainstream comedy (whatever that is anymore). It’s tempting to look at a comedy like Champions and roll our eyes, figuring that by now everyone knows that disabled people are individuals with distinct personalities. Of course—but then, why don’t we see more of them in the movies, as characters and as actors? In that sense, Champions is a forward-thinking film masquerading as a deeply conventional one. We can say we’ve seen it all before—but when, and where? We’re so busy being progressive—and pointing our fingers at people who, we’ve decided, are not—that we’re stuck in a rut, having lost sight of the fact that to progress means to move forward. Champions, at least, is trying to do just that, keeping the ball moving every minute. That’s harder than it looks—and a lot harder than calling the shots from the sidelines.

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‘Champions’ Review: Woody Harrelson Stars in What Probably Could’ve Been the Feel-Good Film of 1993

'There's Something About Mary' co-director Bobby Farrelly surrounds the 'White Men Can't Jump' star with a predominantly disabled cast in this retrograde but well-intentioned remake of 'Campeones.'

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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While Peter Farrelly was off winning Oscars for “Green Book,” younger brother Bobby has been largely absent from feature directing. It’s been nearly a decade since the siblings shared credit — the last time being 2014’s “Dumb and Dumber To.” Now, rather than competing with Peter at the respectability game, Bobby sticks to what he knows with “ Champions ,” in which Woody Harrelson plays a minor-league basketball coach court-ordered to assist a Special Olympics team for 90 days — just long enough to take the team from bumbling incompetents to national finalists.

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Marlon (Casey Metcalfe) wears a padded helmet and thick glasses, speaks several languages and quotes obscure trivia on command. Showtime (Bradley Edens) knows just one shot, which involves lobbing the ball high over his head, but he rarely comes within 10 feet of the basket. Johnny (Kevin Iannucci) has Down syndrome and a resistance to showering; he also has a hot older sister, Alex (Kaitlin Olson), whom Marcus hooks up with in the opening scene. With the exception of wild-gal Cosentino (Madison Tevlin), they’re all dudes.

When Marcus takes the job, the players can hardly dribble, cringing anytime a ball’s thrown at them. By the end of the season, they play like the Harlem Globetrotters. But as gym manager Julio (Cheech Marin) explains, the Friends have been let down before, coached and abandoned by someone who wasn’t genuinely committed to the task.

As punishment for crashing into a cop car while drunk, Marcus has been ordered to do community service, but he doesn’t have any intention of volunteering a day more than the obligatory 90. No prizes for predicting how his attitude changes over those three months. At first, Marcus sees the team as hopeless, and who can blame him, given all the slapstick shtick Farrelly puts them through? But then the games start, and the Friends start winning.

Next thing we know, the team has been invited to the Special Olympics championship in Winnipeg, Marcus has been invited over for meatloaf dinner at Johnny and Alex’s house, and the NBA has invited Marcus to take a professional coaching gig that would tear him away from the Friends. It all plays out quite predictably, with one possible exception, depending on what you make of the “Hoosiers” reference early on.

Had it come out three decades earlier, “Champions” would have almost certainly been the feel-good film of 1993. Today, it’s an oddly dated opportunity for disabled actors with real-world hoop skills to play silly caricatures of themselves — which is where the Farrelly oeuvre and certain other films, like “How’s Your News?,” have innovated before, reminding audiences that differences can be funny, and it’s OK to laugh. Here, the performances come with certain limitations (the line readings sound memorized, never spontaneous), but as a whole, the movie makes memorable, three-dimensional characters of its players, and that’s a start.

Reviewed at Crescent Theater, Los Angeles, Feb. 21, 2023. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 123 MIN.

• Production: A Focus Features release of a Focus Features, Gold Circle Entertainment presentation of a Gold Circle Entertainment production. Producers: Paul Brooks, Scott Niemeyer, Jeremy Plager. Executive producers: Brad Kessell, Woody Harrelson, Alexander Jooss, Luis Manso, Álvaro Longoria, Javier Fesser.
• Crew: Director: Bobby Farrelly. Screenplay: Mark Rizzo, based on the film “Campeones” by Javier Fesser, written by David Marques, Javier Fesser; story: David Marques. Camera: C. Kim Miles. Editor: Julie Garcés. Music: Michael Franti.
• With: Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Matt Cook, Ernie Hudson, Cheech Marin, Madison Tevlin, Joshua Felder, Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning, Matthew Von Der Ahe, Tom Sinclair, James Day Keith, Alex Hintz, Casey Metcalfe, Bradley Edens.

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Champions Reviews

Champions manages to last for more than two hours without ever even stumbling into a visually interesting composition.

Full Review | May 16, 2024

Fans of the genre will probably enjoy this, but if you're looking for something new, you'd be better off looking elsewhere.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Apr 23, 2024

For anyone looking for something subtle or nuanced, look elsewhere, it’s still a Farrelly film. However, Champions takes a small story, in a small world and leans into the heart.

Full Review | Apr 22, 2024

While Farrelly isn't uncomfortable in foreign territory, there is no doubt he's playing away from home, with marked cards and within pre-established parameters, when his environment has always been freedom and tone overtures. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 18, 2023

A handful of funny moments can't rescue diet Woody Harrelson and a recycled sports story. Watch it when there's laundry to be folded.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 26, 2023

The exact movie you expect from the trailer & a straight definition of heartwarming fun

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Once you push past all the sentimentality, Champions struggles to stand out from the typical sports movie tropes and feels, dare I say, hollow in its representation.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 23, 2023

This is a pretty powerful film that explores the serious themes of friendship and what it is like living in the modern world with a disability. This is a heart-warming film that delivers just the right amount of laughs as well.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 22, 2023

If Farrelly held back on extolling his magnanimity and took a more objective approach to the story and main character, the end result would’ve been as brave as the kids it portrays.

Full Review | May 29, 2023

There may be more smiles than big laughs in this comedy from half the team that knows how to deliver them. But the smiles work well enough as does the relationship between Harrelson and Olson.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 22, 2023

Champions is just fine, yet there’s the nagging feeling that a more thoughtful and compelling story could emerge from an alternate version of the screenplay.

Full Review | May 2, 2023

Champions may have you wanting to bounce a basketball in your driveway.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 27, 2023

There’s something noble in what director Bobby Farrelly is trying to do in his new movie, “Champions.” … But nobility is about intentions, not the results.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 23, 2023

Some critics are saying the film is patronizing and making a mockery of the disabled community, but that’s not the case. The cast brings out the best in each other and all are true champions.

Full Review | Apr 10, 2023

A film that follows formula pretty shamelessly, but should satisfy audiences looking for an easygoing crowd-pleaser with a sports theme and an inspirational message.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Apr 5, 2023

Wholesome and commendable. These fresh screen faces ooze charisma and have wonderful comic timing.

Full Review | Apr 4, 2023

It’s difficult to get past just how mediocre the film is overall. This has nothing to do with the players on the team; instead, it’s the C-level writing and ham-handed directing that brings the movie down.

Full Review | Apr 1, 2023

Pretty much every beat of this three-screenwriter adaptation of a Spanish comedy of a few years back feels pre-ordained — from the Big Obstacles to the Big Secret revealed to The Big Game and even who and what provides the Big Moment in the Big Game.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 30, 2023

Predictability aside, everything about this movie makes it a feel-good winner except for the runtime and that really did impact the enjoyment.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 24, 2023

I truly don’t think it’s Farrelly’s intention to offend. I think he genuinely wants to undercut the notion that those suffering from this condition are capable of experiencing a life as full as those who are not similarly afflicted.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 24, 2023

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Champions review – Woody Harrelson goes for slam dunk in likable basketball drama

Grumpy coach Harrelson trains a team of teens with learning disabilities in this remake of the Spanish film Campeones

T his big-hearted underdog sports comedy runs on rails, with no great surprises, but it’s likable. It’s the story of Marcus (Woody Harrelson), a washed-up, grumpy basketball coach with a booze problem who gets busted for drunk driving: the judge sentences him to 90 days’ community service coaching a basketball team of teens with learning disabilities.

It’s a remake of a Spanish film called Campeones and inspired by a true story from Spain, but the fact that this film is directed by the broad comedy maestro Bobby Farrelly might remind you of The Ringer , the Johnny Knoxville comedy from 2005 that Farrelly produced with his brother Peter. The Ringer had Knoxville pretending to have a mental disability to compete in the Special Olympics. That film toyed with some grossout bad taste before the inevitable segue to sentimental maturity. Champions doesn’t go anywhere near that kind of laugh-at irony, despite a few initial gags in which Marcus is unsure of what to say instead of the R-word.

Marcus’s own conversion to decency happens when he has a relationship with Alex (Kaitlin Olson), the sister of Johnny (Kevin Iannucci) who is one of the players with Down’s – and she steers Marcus away from his bad attitudes. Alex herself is an actor and has a day job touring middle schools with Shakespeare; she makes witty and unexpected use of The Winter’s Tale to help Marcus coach the side.

Inevitably, the team and Marcus get to know and love and each other and Marcus, just as inevitably, has to make some serious life choices. I was a little disappointed in the final implication that coaching a team like this is not, in fact, what a real alpha-guy actually does, but it’s sweet-natured enough.

• Drama films
• Romance films
• Woody Harrelson

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‘Champions’ Review: Woody Harrelson and Bobby Farrelly Team Up for Shaggy Underdog Story With Heart

Bobby Farrelly's first solo film plays to his strengths in an endearing comedy also starring Kaitlin Olson and Ernie Hudson.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a decade since we’ve seen an actual Farrelly brothers movie. After 2014’s Dumb and Dumber To , Peter Farrelly went off on his own, won the Best Picture Oscar for Green Book , and released last year’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever . Yet in all this time, we haven’t seen a solo project from Bobby Farrelly . While he has directed a few episodes of the Trailer Park Boys , and reunited with his brother for the Quibi show, The Now , we have yet to see what differentiates a Bobby Farrelly movie from a Peter Farrelly movie.

Champions , Bobby Farrelly’s first solo film, is a glimpse into a more mature Farrelly, not skimping on the comedy, but telling a more thoughtful story than, say, Movie 43 or The Three Stooges . It reunites him with his Kingpin star Woody Harrelson , who plays Marcus, a minor league basketball coach who gets fired from his job for pushing the team’s head coach ( Ernie Hudson ) when he didn’t like the play that was being called. This is just the latest outburst that has left Marcus unemployed, and later that night, he goes drinking and driving, which ends with him crashing into a cop car and spending the night in jail. The judge sentences Marcus to 90 days of community service teaching a group with intellectual disabilities to play basketball. The team is known as The Friends and they are aiming to make it to the Special Olympics.

Maybe one of the most remarkable things about the Farrelly brothers as filmmakers has been the inclusion within their films as they have been casting people with disabilities for decades. They’ve stated that when trying to tell stories about the real world, “it’s not real unless you include everyone,” and they’ve certainly grown over the years in how they utilize representation in their films. As a solo debut for Bobby, Champions is kind of a perfect project, working with an actor he already has a history with, in a comedy (written by Gravity Falls ’ story editor Mark Rizzo , based on the 2018 Spanish film of the same name) that feels like the type of film he and his brother would’ve written, and in a story that allows him to cast a brilliant group of actors with intellectual disabilities.

RELATED: Woody Harrelson's 'Triangle of Sadness' Performance Shows the Duality of Liberalism

Champions very much fits into the mold of your typical underdog sports film, where an unlikely coach warms up to a team that “unexpectedly” gets better through his care, but it’s the heart within this story that makes it slightly better than your standard dark horse sports film. It takes its time to let us get to know each of these individual players, instead of just lumping them together as one team. Marcus had a problem on his old team seeing the players as people instead of as stats, and Champions gives us the opportunity to see what makes each of these players an excellent contribution to this team—as well as present their lives off the court.

This is best seen through Johnny ( Kevin Iannucci ), a player who quickly takes a liking to their new coach, and whose sister Alex ( Kaitlin Olson ) recently had a one-night stand with Marcus. Through Marcus and Alex’s relationship, we see the difficulties that one might not expect with a story like this. Johnny is extremely independent and wants to move into a group home with his friends on the team—a move that Johnny’s mother also approves of—but there’s the worry that in doing so, Johnny will disappoint his protective sister.

Champions is also largely a story about dealing with disappointment and realizing that good can come even when dreams don’t work out the way you expected. Alex is still living at home, performing Shakespeare in a van for kids that have no interest in the Bard of Avon, but her love for her brother never makes this a problem. Marcus has dreamed of the big leagues, but his passion for the sport has always gotten the better of him. The players themselves have also had to manage their expectations going forward in the world and find the joy in where their lives have taken them.

But Champions is also quite funny at times and works because of its massive amount of heart. This is a film that handles this story with great care, and while at first, Marcus might be ignorant—as we see when he’s sentenced in court—it’s always because of an uncertainty of what the right phrase or action might be instead of out of trying to make a joke. Rizzo’s script always ensures that these players are never the joke, but rather, Marcus is often the butt of them. It’s a smart move since the cast are all comedically gifted. Madison Tevlin , who plays Constantino, the only girl on the team, is a scene-stealer that barrels over Marcus at every opportunity she gets. Iannucci is also particularly funny when he’s at odds with Marcus, and Darius ( Joshua Felder ), a player who refuses to play for Marcus, can make just saying “nope” funny every time.

Still, Champions is often quite clunky at times, and at over two hours, there’s plenty that could’ve been left on the cutting room floor. It takes far too long to get to the actual basketball team, and the setup for the meat of this story is scene after scene of wooden explanations that drag with jokes that don’t land. Harrelson on his own flounders through the opening, but once the film gets to Marcus and the team, it begins to find its groove. Even though it occasionally falls back into that clunkiness, the heart within Champions makes it more bearable.

It’s that heart that makes Champions better than expected, a shaggy underdog story that might be a bit overlong and a bit awkward in places, but with charming characters that help smooth out these rough edges. In doing so, Bobby Farrelly sticks to his comedic sensibilities, creating an endearing comedy that doesn’t need to break from the formula of similar films that have come before.

Champions comes to theaters on March 10.

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Champions review: woody harrelson leads a predictable but feel-good sports movie.

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Based on the 2018 Spanish film of the same name, the American version of Champions is less powerful because it doesn’t take its cues from the real-life team that inspired the original film. Still, Champions manages to have just enough feel-good moments and good character dynamics to be enjoyable. Directed by Bobby Farrelly from a screenplay by Mark Rizzo, the film gets off to a slow start but picks up steam at the halfway point, landing at a sweet and heartwarming end. Champions is fairly predictable, and though there’s little tension, the cast is charming together, and the story has a lot of heart and warmth.

Marcus ( Woody Harrelson ) is a G-league assistant basketball coach with dreams to work with the NBA, but whose bad temper and past actions have tarnished his reputation. After a drunk-driving accident lands him in legal trouble, Marcus is given court-ordered community service coaching a basketball team with intellectual disabilities. Marcus doesn’t take it seriously at first, but he finds himself warming to the idea as he gets to know the individuals on the basketball team, lovingly called “The Friends,” as he trains them to compete in the Special Olympics.

Related: Champions Trailer Showcases Woody Harrelson's Basketball Comeback

Champions has a simple premise, and it works because it knows precisely what kind of film it is trying to be. It’s a feel-good sports movie about coming together. The NBA might be Marcus’ dream, but Champions is a reminder of the good one can do in one’s own community. It’s important work and the bonds that are created in this particular space are unique and heartwarming. Marcus working with The Friends provides the kind of fulfillment he would have never had in the NBA, despite being high-profile. Sometimes smaller is better, and Champions understands that, and Rizzo’s script is imbued with plenty of heart in response.

The film is elevated by the ensemble cast. Harrelson’s sour, disgruntled disposition as Marcus is juxtaposed nicely with The Friends’ more upbeat and optimistic outlook on life. Of The Friends, Kevin Iannucci as Johnny and Madison Tevlin as Consentino, who is a force to be reckoned with, are standouts. Champions shines brighter because of their presence alongside the rest of the team. Marcus might learn a thing or two from The Friends, but their individual stories aren’t entirely neglected in favor of centering Marcus, who wouldn’t be anything without them really.

Champions does take a while to get going, and at a little over two hours long, it could have been edited down a bit to tighten the script. Setting up Marcus’ story at the start could have been swapped to give more screen time to The Friends and their backstories. This would have added more depth to the rest of the characters, helping to flesh them and the various dynamics they have with each other out some more. That said, the slow start doesn’t entirely derail Champions . Once it gets moving, it maintains its momentum and allows its exuberant energy to carry it through to the end. The humor doesn’t always land, but there is enough charisma despite the occasionally flat comedic timing.

The cast’s chemistry uplifts this film and makes certain moments all the more enjoyable. Everyone is clearly having a great time, and it shows in every scene. While the film probably won’t be remembered after audiences leave the theater, Champions is a lighthearted, feel-good sports movie that does exactly what it sets out to accomplish. It doesn’t do anything out of the norm, but it is a solid effort from Farrelly and Rizzo that will certainly boost one’s mood after watching.

More: Return To Seoul Review: Davy Chou Crafts Staggeringly Beautiful Character Study

Champions releases in nationwide theaters on March 10. The film is 123 minutes long and rated PG-13 for strong language and crude/sexual reference.

Our Rating:

• 3 star movies

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Feel-good but predictable comedy has cursing, racy moments.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Positive messages about the value of supportive fr

Characters change over the course of the movie: Ma

Two main characters of color; most of the cast and

Violence is infrequent, but in one dramatic scene,

Marcus and Alex meet on Tinder and have a one-nigh

Cursing includes spare use of "f---ing," plus "s--

Marcus drinks and drives at the beginning of this

Parents need to know that Champions is director Bobby Farrelly's comedy about a basketball coach named Marcus (Woody Harrelson) who is court-ordered to coach a team of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (including Down syndrome and autism) after he's arrested for a DUI. The team members…

Positive Messages

Positive messages about the value of supportive friendships and family relationships, the importance of being kind and emotionally open to others, the courage it can take both to compete athletically and to live your life authentically. Teamwork and perseverance are also themes.

Positive Role Models

Characters change over the course of the movie: Marcus becomes more emotionally connected to others and learns about the give and take of relationships, Alex learns how to give others more freedom to be themselves, Johnny and Benny each learn to confront the people in their lives whose low expectations limit them.

Diverse Representations

Two main characters of color; most of the cast and significant characters are White. Ten actors with intellectual and developmental disabilities (including Down syndrome and autism) are authentically cast as Marcus' team. While their role in the story is to support the journey of a character who isn't disabled, they're depicted as unique individuals. Some jokes are based in their personal quirks, but laughs aren't at the actors' expense.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Violence is infrequent, but in one dramatic scene, Marcus pushes his boss to the ground. In another, he drinks and collides with the back of a police car while driving. When a stranger insults his team and calls them a slur, Marcus punches the person in the stomach; the film seems to view this as a victory.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Marcus and Alex meet on Tinder and have a one-night stand, followed by an affair both insist is "just sex." They kiss, sometimes passionately, and fall into bed together, then wake up wrapped in sheets. In one scene, Alex retrieves her underwear from under Marcus' pillow. Team member Craig seems preoccupied with sex; many jokes are about him telling his teammates about his girlfriend, who's into "nasty stuff," and about his sex life (he mentions a "three way"), though he doesn't go into frank detail.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Cursing includes spare use of "f---ing," plus "s--t," "a--hole," "son of a bitch," "damn," and "hell." In one scene, a character shows double middle fingers to someone she's angry at. Two instance of characters being called "retards"; in both cases, the people who use the slur are are swiftly reprimanded.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Marcus drinks and drives at the beginning of this movie and is arrested for a DUI. He doesn't drive for the rest of the movie, and a character who suffered a traumatic brain injury due to being hit by a drunken driver explains briefly how dramatically his life was affected by drinking and driving.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Champions is director Bobby Farrelly 's comedy about a basketball coach named Marcus ( Woody Harrelson ) who is court-ordered to coach a team of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (including Down syndrome and autism) after he's arrested for a DUI. The team members are all authentically cast, and while their role as a group is primarily to support the story of a character who isn't disabled, they're all presented as individuals and treated with respect. There are some jokes based in their personal quirks, but those laughs aren't at the actors' expense. Violence includes a few brief physical scuffles, including a scene in which Marcus punches someone for calling his team "retards." Characters kiss passionately, fall into bed, and then wake up wrapped in sheets. One of the team members also often makes revelations about his sex life; he mentions having a "three way" and says that his girlfriend is into "nasty stuff." Language includes "f---ing," "s--t," "a--h--e," "damn," "hell," and "son of a bitch," plus two instances of characters using a slur for those with developmental disabilities. Themes include teamwork and perseverance, and there are positive messages about the value of supportive friendships and family relationships. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (5)
• Kids say (3)

Based on 5 parent reviews

Wonderful family movie for older kids

Blown opportunity, what's the story.

Based on the Spanish-language movie of the same name, CHAMPIONS begins as Marcus ( Woody Harrelson ) is fired from his professional basketball coaching job and arrested for a DUI. He avoids jail time with community service and is ordered to spend 90 days coaching The Friends, a team of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Marcus gets to know and love them all over a season of coaching -- particularly Johnny (Kevin Iannucci). Meanwhile, Johnny's sister, Alex ( Kaitlin Olson ), emerges as Marcus' reluctant love interest as the two pair up with a common goal: getting The Friends to the annual Special Olympics champion basketball game.

Is It Any Good?

This sports comedy could have gone terribly wrong, yet it manages to avoid condescending to its disabled actors. Champions isn't cruel, nor does it punch down: Each member of The Friends team is given time to show their personality and individuality. Still, that doesn't mean that their role isn't to support the journey of a nondisabled character (because it is) or that the movie isn't wholly predictable (because it follows the exact beats of both a sports drama and a hero's journey). We know from the first moment we see him that Marcus is a gruff-yet-lovable guy who's destined to be emotionally softened up by his experiences during the movie and that the whole thing will end in laughter and hugs.

Yet despite Champions ' lack of surprises, it does have its charms, chief among them The Friends teammates, who all play to their strengths. Johnny gets the most screen time and the most distinctive arc as he gathers the courage to break free from his overprotective family. But other teammates have their own minor arcs, including Benny (James Day Keith), who confronts an abusive boss, and Darius (Joshua Felder), who begins to resolve his lingering anger at the drunk driver who unwittingly changed the course of his life. These powerful moments are summed up when Marcus explains to his team that it doesn't matter whether they win or lose on the basketball court because they've already won by confronting and rising above the ignorant judgment of people who write them off. OK, so that speech was predictable, too. But Marcus still has a point, and Champions will put a smile on many viewers' faces -- especially those who are OK with a movie that has no surprises but plenty of heart.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about whether Champions follows the formula of many other sports movies, in which new coaches administer tough love and help losing teams overcome weaknesses. Based on that formula, did you know who would win the Big Game at the end? Would you have gone with a different ending?

Marcus becomes kinder over the course of the movie. Does the movie want you to change your mind about him? Do you think people can change their ways?

Talk about sports movies. What's appealing about them? Do you ever doubt their outcome? What kinds of feelings do they stir up? How does this one compare to other sports films you've seen?

Why is it notable -- and significant -- that the Friends team members were cast authentically, with actors who have disabilities? Why is representation important?

Movie Details

• In theaters : March 10, 2023
• On DVD or streaming : March 28, 2023
• Cast : Woody Harrelson , Kaitlin Olson , Ernie Hudson
• Director : Bobby Farrelly
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : Focus Features
• Genre : Comedy
• Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 123 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : strong language and crude/sexual references
• Last updated : December 25, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Producers united: some of hollywood’s most prolific producers are taking a stand to protect future generations: “we’re talking about basic american rights here”, film review: woody harrelson in bobby farrelly’s ‘champions’.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

Film Critic & Columnist

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Mark Rizzo’s script is based on the 2018 Spanish comedy Campeones , directed by Javier Fesser and inspired by a real team. The new film is set securely in the American Midwest, though many of its biggest fans might end up being Canadians (the film was shot in Canada). From the outset, it’s easy to see that Harrelson’s middle-aged Marcus Markovich hasn’t outgrown his temper-tantrum-dominated youth; by way of introduction, Marcus is seen angrily shoving the coach of his J-League team.

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Unsurprisingly, the man’s bad behavior lowers his employment opportunities from minimal to nil as he even abuses the athletes who are temporarily entrusted to his care on the court of a local gym. They’re a motley bunch, to be sure, a mixed bag of maladroit, earnest and not especially coordinated players who don’t exactly inspire thoughts of athletic prowess. They certainly deserve credit for being game and trying their hands at sports, but you’d never imagine that trophies would lie in any of these athletes’ future.

When reckless Marcus chalks up a DUI, the local hanging judge sentences the good old boy to 90 days of community service, which in this case means coaching the motley crew of young misfits in their quest for hoops and glory. Given the absence of anything resembling athletic excellence among the would-be athletes, some of whom bear clear signs of mental as well as physical limitations, one initially thinks this is a program essentially dedicated to getting them some exercise rather than achieving anything resembling sports prowess; in the earlier scenes, some of them can’t make a shot at all.

This doesn’t mean that Champions suddenly switches gears from the comic to the dramatic; director Bobby Farrelly can’t help but to make use of any opportunity for hilarity that comes his way, to the point that the funny stuff almost always prevails when the opportunity presents itself. The film both wins and loses in its desire to be something of a real romantic comedy rather than just a laugh-fest, and it’s odd indeed that the far more athletic big guys are seen making most of their shots and even manage some slam dunks while the scrappy little guys and gals are mostly far smaller but win games on their way to vanquishing the bigger brutes.

Harrelson entirely and entertainingly convinces as a naughty boy finally brought to heel in a good way; the actor is in his wheelhouse here and delivers. Olson is highly appealing, albeit a bit of a fantasy, as the woman who finally inspires this guy to shape up well after his sell-by date.

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Champions Review

Once best known as purveyors of puerility, the Farrelly brothers are these days exploring a modicum of maturity. Peter Farrelly scaled Oscar glory back in 2018 with  Green Book ; now younger brother Bobby returns with this comedy-drama about disability and difference that’s more mature than, say,  Dumb & Dumber . Based on the Spanish film of the same name, it tells the story of Marcus ( Woody Harrelson ), a grumpy, hard-drinking basketball coach whose career is on the rocks after he finds himself fired from his minor league team and arrested for a DUI.

This is ultimately a warm-hearted celebration of the uplifting power of sports.

His punishment comes in the form of community service, managing a Special Olympics basketball team, as they look to ascend the regional leagues and actually cohere as a team. Nothing about what follows will be of any surprise to anyone who has ever seen a movie about sports or disability: yes, Marcus’s coldly ambitious heart soon thaws to the charms of his young players, and yes, this plucky team against all odds make their way to the final, where they ultimately learn that the real victory was the friends they made along the way, etc.

You know the drill by now. What keeps it eminently watchable are some charming performances and Mark Rizzo’s frequently witty, warm script. Harrelson’s Texan drawl plays nicely low-key and naturalistically in areas that can often feel unnaturally formulaic; he’s always exceptional value for money. The young cast that make up his team are great company too, all cast from authentic backgrounds, and the film takes unusual care in showing that it is entirely possible to have a rich, fulfilled life while living with disability. Farrelly — who has previously employed disabled actors in films like  Shallow Hal  and  There’s Something About Mary , earning both criticism and praise for his depictions — largely celebrates his young cast here, rather than making them the butt of jokes.

Farrelly’s direction is often fairly blunt and first-base — there are some egregious needle-drops on the soundtrack, including Chumbawamba’s ‘Tubthumping’ — and it teeters on the edges of bad taste and condescension, without ever totally crossing the line. This is ultimately a warm-hearted celebration of the uplifting power of sports. Not quite a slam dunk, but a decent play.

clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

‘Champions’: This comedy’s supporting cast outshines its stars

Woody Harrelson headlines a lowbrow, laugh-free sports comedy about a man sentenced to community service coaching of intellectually disabled athletes

In “Champions,” a group of actors with intellectual disabilities do their best playing a team of basketball players with intellectual disabilities who are also doing their best. Unfortunately, most of the other people involved in the making of this forgettable movie perform at something less than the top of their game.

The central figure is Marcus (Woody Harrelson), a basketball coach stuck in the minor leagues — specifically, Des Moines — because he’s self-centered and hot-tempered. Marcus is fired after he assaults his boss (Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson) during a midgame tussle over which play to call next. So he gets drunk and accidentally slams his car into a police cruiser. His sentence is a community-service gig coaching a team called the Friends at a facility run by Julio (Cheech Marin).

Concerned just with himself, Marcus befriends aspiring coach Sonny (Matt Cook) purely in hopes of advancing his own career, and spends time with local Shakespearean actress Alex (Kaitlin Olson) only because she’ll have sex with him. (In a stab at gender parity, Alex is portrayed as just as relationship-averse as Marcus.)

But Alex is also the sister of Johnny (Kevin Iannucci), a man with Down syndrome who’s a Friends player, so Marcus’s feelings are likely to get more complicated. It appears possible — okay, inevitable — that Marcus will end up becoming a nicer guy.

“Champions” is billed as a comedy, and while it is amiable, it doesn’t even take a shot at being hilarious. Adapted from a 2018 Spanish film, the movie is the first to be directed solo by Bobby Farrelly, who made such hits as “ Dumb and Dumber ” and “ There’s Something About Mary ” with his brother Peter. As viewers of those farces might expect, “Champions” attempts to elicit laughs with vomit, flatulence and body odor. These lowbrow gags seem perfunctory, though, and tangential to the overall story.

Without seeing the Spanish film, it’s impossible to know whether Mark Rizzo’s screenplay is better or worse than the original. But the script is barely functional, and several key developments are remarkably feeble. When the Friends find they lack the money for a trip to a Special Olympics championship — in Winnipeg, where the movie was actually shot — Marcus and Alex’s solution is both ethically objectionable and narratively inept. Farrelly more or less acknowledges this by rushing through the sequence.

Mostly staged like a conventional sports movie, “Champions” is almost entirely lacking in style and generally short on energy. Farrelly tries to compensate for the torpor by inserting snippets of dozens of pop tunes, notably Chumbawamba’s left-field 1997 hit, “Tubthumping,” which the movie employs as something of a Friends theme song.

Harrelson is in nearly every scene and doesn’t deviate at all from his usual routine. Marin and Hudson are likable yet barely register in their minor roles. Blessed with the most complex part, Olson gets to display more verve and emotional range than the other veterans. Yet the liveliest moments belong to the actors who play the Friends, including Joshua Felder as an unusually skilled shooter who won’t accept Marcus as the new coach, and Madison Tevlin as a woman who’s rather too short to succeed at basketball but who excels at motivating her teammates. Their featured scenes may be brief, but they’re the most winning thing about “Champions.”

PG-13. At area theaters. Contains strong language and crude sexual references. 123 minutes.

Review: 'Champions' has the makings of a winner, but can't execute

Woody harrelson coaches a squad of intellectually disabled basketball players in this comedy from one half of the "there's something about mary" team..

A simple, feel good sports story with a gooey center, "Champions" should be easy lay up on an open court. Instead it's like successfully executing a 2-3 zone defense against a team of deadeye longball shooters.

Lost? Well, "Champions" is a bit lost, too. It's shaggy around the edges and never quite takes full advantage of the formula it's co-opting. It's the kind of movie you want to root for more than you end up actually rooting for it.

Woody Harrelson plays Marcus Markovich, a down-on-his-luck basketball coach in the backwater of professional basketball's developmental system, coaching a J-League squad in Des Moines, Iowa. (There is no J-League, there is a G-League, but "Champions" has a markedly odd relationship with the NBA and reality.)

After getting popped on a DUI charge, Marcus is sentenced to community service, where he is asked to coach a team of intellectually disabled ball players on their way to the Special Olympics. The warm hugs are practically baked into the script.

But those hugs have to be earned. Marcus is at first dubious of his assignment, off-handedly using the R-word to describe his players. This comes with the territory. But beat by predictable beat, the group grows on him, and ostensibly on the audience as well.

That group includes "Showtime" (Bradley Edens), who insists on shooting the ball backwards and has never even come close to making a basket; Marlon (Casey Metcalfe), a trivia savant and multi-linguist who wears a padded helmet on his hand and thick glasses over his eyes; and firecracker Consentino (scene stealer Madison Tevlin), who does and says whatever's on her mind and isn't afraid to put Coach in his place.

Johnny (Kevin Iannucci), who has Down syndrome (he introduces himself as "your homie with an extra chromie") and works at a local animal shelter, gets the most screen time, but that's mainly because he has a sister ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's" Kaitlin Olson) whom Marcus hooks up with in the film's opening scene. Olson, for her part, owns her sharp comic timing and runs laps around Harrelson, who is lackadaisical even by his own standards.

Plot-wise, "Champions" is a straight shot down the cliché highway with no unexpected detours along the way. (It's adapted from the 2018 Spanish film "Campeones.") You know right where this thing is headed, drawing as it does from misfit sports movies like "The Bad News Bears" and "A League of Their Own," and outsider mentor movies like "School of Rock." But it never quite lands or delivers the big feels you might expect.

Director Bobby Farrelly, he of the Farrelly Brothers (big brother Peter won the Oscar for "Green Book") has a history of casting differently abled actors in his films and creating inclusive environments, and "Champions" is his biggest achievement yet in that arena.

Yet his gross-out instincts get the best of him — a vomit gag is particularly unnecessary and lands all wrong — as he fumbles with finding the right tone. Or even the right focus: Harrelson's redemption arc, however unearned, is the center of the story, even though the team and its dynamics make for more interesting subject matter.

The film does make good use of its snowy, desolate locale — that's Winnipeg playing the role of Des Moines, and later itself — which makes it feel like even more of an underdog story, even if this underdog underwhelms. "Champions" has its heart in the right place but never quite finds its sweet spot on the court.

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'Champions'

Rated PG-13: for strong language and crude/sexual references

Running time: 123 minutes

In theaters

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• DVD & Streaming
• Comedy , Drama , Sports

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In Theaters

• March 10, 2023
• Woody Harrelson as Marcus; Kaitlin Olson as Alex; Matt Cook as Sonny; Ernie Hudson as Coach Phil Perretti; Cheech Marin as Julio; Madison Tevlin as Cosentino; Joshua Felder as Darius; Kevin Iannucci as Johnny; Ashton Gunning as Cody; Matthew Von Der Ahe as Craig; Tom Sinclair as Blair; James Day Keith as Benny; Alex Hintz as Arthur; Casey Metcalfe as Marlon; Bardley Edens as Showtime; Barbara Pollard as Dot; Alexandra Castillo as Judge Mary Menendez; Mike Smith as Attorney McGurk

Home Release Date

• March 28, 2023
• Bobby Farrelly

Distributor

• Focus Features

Movie Review

That’s all it took to ruin Marcus’ chance of becoming become an NBA coach.

Flashback: Marcus was an assistant coach for the minor-league Iowa Stallions when, in a moment of anger, he shoved the head coach to the ground. Why did he shove him? Well, because he was going to call the wrong play.

Thatincident got him removed from the basketball court. The ensuing drunk-driving charge landed him in a legal court. The verdict? Most definitely guilty. The punishment? Ninety days of community service coaching a team of adults with intellectual disabilities.

Marcus wasn’t prepared for how different his coaching tactics would need to be in order to effectively coach his new team, the Friends. In fact, Marcus calls the job “impossible.”

“You don’t have to turn them into the Lakers,” a program manager says. “They just need to feel like a team .”

With his eyes still set on reaching the top, Marcus finds it hard not to be thinking about what it might be like to coach the Lakers.

But as Marcus’ mandated community-service clock starts to tick down, and as he begins to build relationships with the players on the team, he starts to wonder if “the top” is really where he wants to be.

Positive Elements

Champions confronts the stereotype that adults with intellectual disabilities are incapable of living without assistance. When Marcus expresses surprise that one of the players is able to ride his motor scooter home, another man tells him, “These guys are a lot more capable than you think.” He tells Marcus that some of the players work jobs: one in a fancy restaurant, another as a welder. Some of them live alone, while others live together. And besides, he says, that player on the motor scooter has never crashed—unlike Marcus.

As for Marcus’ growth, he begins to realize that he’s been using his players as means to an end rather than cultivating relationships with them. For instance, on his previous team, Marcus was frustrated by one player’s absence; he later learns that the player wasn’t in the game because he was visiting his grandma in the hospital—something Marcus would have known had he bothered to ask. It takes a few different people to point this out, but eventually, Marcus recognizes his self-focused orientation and works to fix it.

One player on the Friends team, Darius, initially refuses to play on Marcus’ team. We eventually learn that it’s because Darius suffered a traumatic brain injury from being hit by a drunk driver. Because of that, Darius “hates drunk drivers,” including Marcus, who was charged with a DUI. When Marcus learns of this, he goes to Darius’ home to apologize and to tell Darius how he regrets his actions.

Spiritual Elements

Darius tells Marcus that his mother is a Christian. “She wants me to forgive the lady who hit me,” Darius says. And though he doesn’t think he can forgive her , he wonders if he might be able to move toward that goal by forgiving Marcus.

Marcus believes visualizing certain outcomes can bring them into existence. Accordingly, he has the team visualize winning the championship game in an attempt to influence the future.

Sexual Content

Sexual jokes pervade the film, and the story largely promotes a culture of sexual promiscuity.

Marcus and Alex, the sister of one of the players, meet on the dating app Tinder and have a one-night stand. We see Alex in lingerie, and she puts on her underwear beneath a skirt. The two later agree to have sex but not commit to a relationship, and we see a few scenes of the two passionately kissing before cutting away (and in one, we briefly see Alex in her bra). We see them in bed, covered by clever sheet placement and obviously unclothed.

They’re sleeping together because, as Alex puts it, “Sometimes, I hop on Tinder because a woman’s got needs,” and Marcus “gets the job done.” She later justifies their relationship, such as it is, by saying that it’s “just sex, OK?” Of course, the two inevitably do admit feelings for one another. But one of the team’s players  comments on Marcus and Alex’s relationship, stating that “[Alex] can have sex with whoever she wants.”

Later, Alex’s mother pries into the couple’s relationship, and she confronts Alex about having sex with Marcus—not condemning that choice but just wanting to confirm that’s what’s happening between the two. When Marcus visits later, Alex’s mother asks if he’s come over for an “afternoon quickie.” Alex wears outfits that reveal cleavage.

Another player on the team, Craig, seemingly exists solely to make sexual remarks about his girlfriend. He claims to have two girlfriends, and one is said to “get around.” Marcus tells the players that he’s going to teach them a “ball-handling exercise,” and Craig makes a crude joke about it, also referencing having sex. Later, as part of a motivational speech, Craig tells his teammates that “I was scared when I had my first threesome, but it was good!”

Marcus uses crude anatomical slang to describe how much he likes a certain basketball play. Multiple references to that coarse euphemism turn up later in the film.

The team’s lone female player, a young woman with Down syndrome named Cosentino, calls a players-only meeting in the locker room, forcing Marcus out by threatening to “MeToo” him if he enters.

Male characters are seen shirtless. The men on the team shower, and we see them in towels. Marcus hugs a player who’s taking a shower (though the player in question is afraid of showering and still has his pants on). One player enjoys doing popular NBA celebration dances after he shoots. In particular, he most enjoys one called the “Big Balls” celebration. When a player hears about a hotel where they’ll be staying, he exclaims that they’ll be “living like pimps!”

We also hear various verbal references and crass exhortations involving male genitalia. And speaking of that …

Violent Content

… Marcus references testicular torsion. A player’s finger gets snapped to the side, and he snaps it back in place to the sound of grinding bones. Marcus gets hit in the face with a basketball. Marcus pushes someone to the ground, and he later punches a man in the stomach. Marcus drives while under the influence, and he crashes into a police car. A bus driver is hit in the head with an object.

Crude or Profane Language

The f-word is used once. The s-word is heard six times. “A–” is used over 15 times, and “h—” is used 10 times. We also hear many instances of “b–ch,” “d-ck” and “d–n.” “P-ss,” “b–tard” and “prick” are all used once. God’s name is abused 12 times. We see a crude hand gesture. People with intellectual disabilities are called “retards” twice.

Drug and Alcohol Content

We see Marcus taking a shot of alcohol before hopping into his car. Later, Marcus’ lawyer asks if he is intoxicated while they’re at court together. Marcus says no, which prompts his lawyer to say, “Good, because I’ve had several.” As mentioned above, Marcus is ordered by a court to complete community service as a result of his DUI.

Elsewhere, another character sings about piña coladas.

Other Negative Elements

Someone vomits on another person. A player passes gas on a man while stretching. Marcus says refs are “meant to be yelled at.” We learn that a player’s father left after his boy was born.

Marcus impersonates a police officer to extort a restaurant for money. A restaurant owner makes disparaging comments about other ethnicities and someone with Down syndrome.

This Woody Harrelson film, based on the Spanish dramedy   Campeones , challenges audiences to think about how many people in society disregard and preemptively judge those with mental disabilities. Champions also gives us the story of a man who gradually learns how to value others instead of just using them for his own agenda.

Those nicer parts of the film, however, are simply buried beneath a plethora of other issues, the biggest of which is the movie’s promotion of sexual promiscuity. Jokes about casual sex fly constantly through the film.

While the movie never condemns this anything-goes sexual ethic, it does show how two adults who agree to a no-strings-attached sexual relationship eventually hurt each other when they start to develop feelings for each other (which they both promised wouldn’t happen).

That said, most of the time sex is just treated as a means to a cheap laugh. Toss in frequent profanity (including an f-word), and what we’re left with is a jarring disconnect between this movie’s clearly aspirational themes and content that’s anything but.

Let’s put it this way: If Champions was a player on your basketball team, the movie might get a couple of points on the board. But it’s definitely going to foul out before you even make it to halftime.

Kennedy Unthank

Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”

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Champions Parent Guide

Heartwarming and inclusive, this otherwise fine film is marred by excessive crude language and sexual discussion..

Theaters: A former basketball coach is sentenced to community service for a drunk driving offence and is assigned to coach a team for people with intellectual disabilities.

Release date March 10, 2023

Run Time: 123 minutes

Get Content Details

The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kirsten hawkes.

In one night, Marcus Marakovich (Woody Harrelson) makes three catastrophically bad discussions. First, he has a forceful disagreement with the head coach of the junior league basketball team for which he is the assistant coach – in the middle of the game. Second, he loses his temper and shoves the coach to the floor – as the cameras roll. Third, he drowns his sorrows in the local bar – and crashes into the back of a parked police car while driving under the influence. Almost immediately, Marcus is unemployed and facing criminal charges.

When Marcus finally gets his day in court, the judge gives him a choice: eighteen months in jail or ninety days coaching a basketball team for intellectually challenged young people. Marcus might be arrogant and self-absorbed, but he isn’t stupid. He signs up for the volunteer coaching gig.

Trying to review Champions has me smashing my head into the keyboard in frustration. This movie has a great story and appealing characters, but it contains too much negative content for me to recommend it to the family audiences that would otherwise love it. The script contains multiple slang terms for male genitals and male sexual arousal and there are frequent moments of crude sexual innuendo, including brief mention of a “threesome”. Marcus is also involved in a sexual relationship that begins as a bad Tinder date and later reignites as a “no-strings” deal. Whenever he tries to raise the issue of a deeper emotional connection, Alex (Kaitlin Olson) shuts him down, determined to limit their activities to sex. I’m guessing that most parents will not consider a transactional sexual relationship to be something they want to watch with their teens, even without explicit activity or nudity. Parents will also not approve of a scene where two adults pretend to be police officers and extort money out of a bigoted adult: he might be a jerk but this behavior is criminal and shouldn’t be justified on screen.

The negative content is particularly annoying because the rest of the film is heartwarming without becoming saccharine. Yes, it follows the predictable beats of an underdog sports flick, but it does so with heart and has the courage to depart from the formula to keep things real. Marcus has a convincing redemption story: as he begins to walk in other people’s shoes and understand their challenges, he’s able to look beyond his narrow view of success and see a more diverse, vibrant world. His wannabe athletes live rich, complicated lives that don’t fall into the sentimental “Tiny Tim” stereotype that so often diminishes disabled characters on screen. In fact, this film does much more than just provide visible diversity or representation. It brings to life people with intellectual challenges and neurodivergence and shows their differences not as disabilities but as contributions; as unique perspectives that can change the way we see ourselves and each other and how we measure success. It’s a great message: if only the film didn’t foul out so often on its way to the net.

About author

Kirsten hawkes, watch the trailer for champions.

Champions Rating & Content Info

Why is Champions rated PG-13? Champions is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for strong language and crude/sexual reference.

Violence: A man shoves another to the ground in a disagreement. A man punches someone for making a bigoted comment. There is mention of a brain injury caused by a drunk driver. A man crashes into a police car while driving under the influence. Sexual Content: There are frequent, undetailed conversations about sex. A person mentions a threesome. There is frequent reference to male genitalia and male sexual arousal. A man and woman kiss passionately and are shown kissing in bed and embracing under bedsheets: sex is discussed and the activity is strongly implied but there is no explicit content. A man and woman discuss a sexual relationship free of commitment or emotional entanglements. Profanity: There are just under three dozen profanities in the script, including two sexual expletives (and a character making a sexual hand gesture with both hands), eleven anatomical swear words, eight minor swear words, seven terms of deity, and five scatological curses. There is also frequent use of crude terms for male genitals and sexual activity. A developmental slur is used on a few occasions. Alcohol / Drug Use: A man gets drunk and then causes a car accident. People drink alcohol with meals.

Page last updated December 27, 2023

Champions Parents' Guide

What does Marcus learn from the players on the basketball team? How does his work with them change his perspective on his own life and priorities?

In his pep talk, Marcus tells his players that they are already champions because they are brave. What kind of bravery do they demonstrate in their lives? Do you know other people whose courage is unacknowledged but is worth emulating?

Related home video titles:

If you’re interested in stories about disabled athletes, you can watch Soul Surfer . This film tells the true story of Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm to a shark attack in Hawaii. The young woman was determined to recover and surf again. Also based on a true story is Rudy , the story of Rudy Ruettiger, an intellectually challenged young man who lived his dream of playing football for Notre Dame.

A lacrosse team from the Canadian territory of Nunavut fight the challenges of addiction, family dysfunction, and a suicide epidemic as they aim for success in The Grizzlies .

Basketball movies are easy to find. Gene Hackman stars as the new coach of a losing team in small town Indiana in Hoosiers . Another struggling coach is at the helm of another struggling team in The Way Back. Glory Road is set in the 1960s, a time of fiercely defended racial segregation. When coach Don Haskins signs up some African Americans to play on his college team, he stirs up a storm and changes history.

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‘Champions’ Review: Low on Laughs, Big On Good Feels

Director bobby farrelly upholds the sports-movie formula as woody harrelson coaches a team on its way to the special olympics. but if you're in the mood for something heart warming, it works..

There’s an expected formula for a sports movie, especially one about a team of underdogs. Champions , Bobby Farrelly ’s first outing as a solo director, doesn’t do much to break out of that formula, but does embrace the genre’s penchant for heartwarming, uplifting stories. Written by Mark Rizzo and based on a 2018 Spanish film called Campeones (which is itself based on a true story), Champions is one of those movies that doesn’t swing for the fences or try to change the game. Instead, it wins with good sportsmanship and positivity. 

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Woody Harrelson plays Marcus, a minor league NBA basketball coach who has some issues. After he drunkenly crashes a car, Marcus accepts a sentence of community service to coach a team of players with intellectual disabilities. The team, The Friends, are not as hapless as Marcus expects; in fact, many of them are pretty good players. Their star, Darius (Joshua Felder), refuses to play for him, but Marcus manages to coach The Friends to victory on their way to the Special Olympics. In the meantime, he becomes romantically involved with Alex ( Kaitlin Olson ), the sister of his player Johnny (Kevin Iannucci). 

Like in any good sports movie, basketball isn’t the ultimate point of Champions . There’s some gameplay shown onscreen, but it’s what happens off the court that’s of interest to Farrelly. Darius has his reasons for disliking Marcus, and Johnny, who still lives at home, wants to move into supported living with his pals against Alex’s wishes. The team’s lone female player Consentino (a charming Madison Tevlin) may be a better coach than their actual coach. And, of course, Marcus has to discover that The Friends mean more to him than ticking off a list of community service hours. 

The ending, which centers on a championship game, has a cute twist and a kind-hearted message. Victory can mean many things, depending on what you need, and in Champions everyone gets what they need. Farrelly is careful to depict The Friends’ players without stereotype—all of them are played by actors with real intellectual disabilities. Marcus, who is basically Woody Harrelson doing his best Woody Harrelson, comes in with certain prejudices that he has to learn his way out of, which is effective. The rest of the cast, which includes Ernie Hudson , Matt Cook and Cheech Marin , fill in world with empathy, often nudging Marcus on the right path. 

Although Champions is billed as a comedy, it’s lukewarm when it comes to jokes and gags. Some of the best one-liners come from the players, who give Harrelson ample opportunity to react to their antics. Olson, a great comedic actress, doesn’t have the opportunities to milk the camera for laughs. But maybe that doesn’t matter. The movie is entertaining and heartwarming, so there’s not necessarily an expectation for it to match the humor of past Farrelly Brothers efforts. Sometimes you just want to watch something feel-good, which is where Champions scores.

Observer Reviews are regular assessments of new and noteworthy cinema.

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Streaming on Max: The 21 Absolute Best Movies to Watch

Here are some highly rated films to check out, plus a look at what's new in May.

Turtles All the Way Down adapts the 2017 novel by John Green.

Wondering what you should watch on the Max streaming service ?

Max  replaced HBO Max last year and streams a variety of titles, including Warner Bros. movies like Dune and HBO originals like Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off. Below, you'll find a batch of can't-miss films on the streamer, plus a look at new releases for this month. (If you're still trying to figure out if Max is for you, skim  our review of the Warner Bros. Discovery streaming service ).

New releases for May

Note:  These descriptions are taken from Max press releases and lightly edited for style.

• Turtles All the Way Down  (2024):  Romantic drama. The film tackles anxiety through its 17-year-old protagonist, Aza Holmes. 
• Stop Making Sense (2023 rerelease):  It's the 1984 Talking Heads concert film directed by renowned filmmaker Jonathan Demme, newly restored in 4K to coincide with its 40th anniversary.
• The Iron Claw (2024):  Sports drama. The film tells the true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s.
• Nikki Glaser: Someday You'll Die  (2023):  Comedy special. Glaser dives into a wide range of topics, including why she doesn't want kids, the harsh realities of aging, her sexual fantasies, and plans for her own death.
• MoviePass, MovieCrash (2010):  Documentary. The film is about MoviePass, which in a span of eight years went from being the fastest growing subscription service since Spotify to total bankruptcy.

Read more:   Best TV Shows to Watch on Max

The best movies to watch

The films below consist of notable new releases and blockbusters, HBO and Max originals and Warner Bros. films made exclusively for Max . All score around 65 or higher on Metacritic.

Turtles All the Way Down (2024)

Don't usually dabble in the young adult genre? You shouldn't let that keep you from taking in Turtles All the Way Down, based on a 2017 novel of the same name by John Green. The film stars Isabela Merced (Madame Web, upcoming sci-fier Alien: Romulus) as a teen who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety. With elements of romance and a captivating performance from Merced, this straight-to-streaming movie deserves more attention.

Priscilla (2023)

Sofia Coppola's Priscilla, about the relationship between Priscilla and Elvis Presley, is streaming on Max along with other recent films from entertainment company A24. Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi star in the stylish flick, which tells things from Priscilla's point of view. If you like new A24 flicks, Max's stash also includes The Iron Claw, The Zone of Interest and Dream Scenario (Love Lies Bleeding and Civil War will hit the streamer eventually).

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Avatar: The Way of Water reintroduced audiences to James Cameron's film franchise after 13 years and won an Oscar for best visual effects. The sequel centers on the Sully family -- Jake, Neytiri and their kids -- and is brimming with adventure and heart. It'll be  at least a couple of years  until Avatar 3 arrives, but you can pass the time by rewatching this on Max.

The Fallout (2022)

After a shooting occurs at her high school, 16-year-old Vada Cavell must navigate friendships, school and her relationship with her family. The Fallout skillfully approaches serious subject matter with realistic dialogue and compassion for its characters. With strong performances from stars Jenna Ortega, as Vada, and Maddie Ziegler, as her new friend Mia Reed, the feature will keep you glued to the screen for the entirety of its 90-minute runtime.

Dune (2021)

Remember 2021, when Warner Bros. movies hit HBO Max on the same day they premiered in theaters? That exciting period may be over, but at least we'll always have the memory of watching Denis Villeneuve's stunning sci-fi epic Dune at home. If you've never seen the film or need to brush up on what "the spice" is before Part Two, stream Dune now.

King Richard (2021)

King Richard is a feel-good biopic about the father of tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams. The film winds back the clock to before the sisters became household names, giving us a glimpse of their upbringing in Compton and time spent practicing on run-down courts with their father, Richard Williams (Will Smith). Convinced his daughters are going to be successful, Richard works tirelessly to get their star potential noticed by professional coaches. A complicated man with a tremendous personality, Richard is fascinating to get to know, and his unwavering belief in Venus and Serena is inspiring. 

Son of Monarchs (2020)

A rare (nowadays) 90-minute film, American Mexican drama Son of Monarchs will stay with you long after the end credits roll. This deep character study follows two brothers who are changed in markedly different ways by the trauma they suffered in childhood. This story, folding in magical realism, follows how they move forward in life -- the butterfly metaphors are strong, with biologist Mendel returning to his hometown surrounded by majestic monarch butterfly forests.

Bad Education (2019)

Based on a magazine article by journalist Robert Kolker, this tale about a public school embezzlement scandal and the student journalists who broke the news is captivating from start to finish. Allison Janney and Hugh Jackman are great in their roles as the school officials who took part in the scheme. The drama also won the 2020 Emmy award for Outstanding Television Movie. 

Wonka (2023)

Dune's Timothée Chalamet stars in this prequel to Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and it's a total treat. With new and familiar tunes, a committed cast and oodles and oodles of whimsy, the film allows audiences to get to know a young Willy Wonka with giraffe-sized ambition and undeniable chocolate-making skill. It's a quirky, comforting flick from Paddington director Paul King that you'll absolutely want on your plate.

Barbie (2023)

Unless you've been living in Barbie Land (or another place that isn't the real world), chances are you're very familiar with this pink-coated comedy already. The flick -- Warner Bros.' highest-grossing global release of all time -- brings a long list of stars together for a hilarious and heartfelt adventure. Greta Gerwig directs, Margot Robbie plays the titular role, and Ryan Gosling belts out an incredible power ballad as Ken.

Father of the Bride (2022)

Max's Father of the Bride introduces a Cuban American family that includes patriarch Billy, a traditional guy who struggles to digest surprising news from his eldest daughter: She's met a guy, and she wants to marry and move away with him. The third film adaptation of a 1949 novel of the same name by Edward Streeter, the movie is an enjoyable iteration that includes stars like Andy Garcia and singer Gloria Estefan.

Let Them All Talk (2020)

Meryl Streep playing an eccentric author in a Steven Soderbergh comedy. What more do you need to know? If you do want to know more: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Hughes (Streep) is struggling to finish her next book, chased by her literary agent (Gemma Chan). She boards a cruise ship with old friends, who inspired her best-known work. Tensions are strong. It looks great -- Soderbergh uses crisp, natural light -- and most of the dialogue is improvised. See how Dianne Wiest, Candice Bergen, Lucas Hedges and the rest of the impeccable cast have fun with that.

Kimi (2022)

Steven Soderbergh directs this engaging tech thriller set during the COVID-19 pandemic. Angela, a Seattle tech worker played by a neon blue-haired Zoë Kravitz, has agoraphobia, a fear that prevents her from making it past the front door of her apartment. But when she uncovers an unsettling recording while doing her job, she's pushed to make the leap. Kimi is a stylish thriller complete with eye-catching cinematography, a solid score and a protagonist you'll be rooting for.

No Sudden Move (2021)

A movie from Steven Soderbergh, the great director behind Erin Brockovich, Ocean's Eleven and, more recently, Logan Lucky? Twists, thrills and desperate characters populate this crime thriller set in 1950s Detroit. When a seemingly simple job gets out of hand, a group of criminals must work together to uncover what's really going on. Take in the incredible cast: Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm and Amy Seimetz. While the plot can be a little convoluted and some won't be able to get past the fish-eye lens cinematography, Soderbergh's sense of humor and immersive direction make this crime caper an entertaining night in.

Documentary

All That Breathes (2022)

This captivating documentary is filled with images that will stick with you. It centers on two brothers in New Delhi who run a bird hospital dedicated to black kites -- birds of prey that are a staple of the sky. It was a contender for best documentary feature at the 2023 Oscars.

Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off (2022)

Tune into this HBO doc for the gravity-defying skateboard stunts, a time capsule of the '80s skateboarding scene, and a version of Hawk you've probably never seen. We get to know the renowned athlete as a lanky, stubborn but determined kid who adopted his own skateboarding style. Hawk's persistence is something to marvel at, along with all the stunning skateboard moves this film packs in. Hang on for a memorable ride.

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021)

This film about beloved author, chef and globe-traveling TV host Anthony Bourdain comes from documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville, who also directed 2018's Won't You Be My Neighbor? and the Oscar-winning film Twenty Feet from Stardom. In interviews with people who knew Bourdain, like his friends, former partners and longtime colleagues, the doc tracks his career path, relationships and personal struggles. Bourdain fans and those less acquainted with the star will likely appreciate this two-hour look at his life.

The Color Purple (2023)

This movie musical version of The Color Purple is adapted from Alice Walker's 1982 novel and the Broadway play. Set in the early 1900s, the film tells the story of Celie, a Black woman living in the South who faces multiple hardships but is able to find strength in the bonds in her life. The cast includes Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Colman Domingo, Halle Bailey and Danielle Brooks, who received a 2023 Oscar nomination for her role as Celie's daughter-in-law, Sofia.

In the Heights (2021)

In the Heights  stars Anthony Ramos (whom you might recognize as John Laurens in Hamilton) playing Usnavi, a bodega owner struggling to keep his business afloat while a heatwave strikes Washington Heights. Secretly in love with his neighbor Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), who dreams of getting out of the salon and out of the neighborhood, Usnavi serves the people of Washington Heights with a whole lot of love, lottery tickets and cafe con leche. Between the choreographed twirls and fireworks, In the Heights is an examination of wealth disparity, immigration, classism and the importance of culture.

The Batman (2022)

Robert Pattinson steps out as Batman in this moody superhero flick directed by Matt Reeves. The movie takes place in a perpetually gray and rain-soaked Gotham City, where Bruce Wayne starts to seek out a murderer with an affinity for riddles. Along the way, he meets Catwoman, played by a swaggering Zoë Kravitz. A satisfying dark mystery with great scene-setting and storytelling, The Batman is also getting a Max spinoff series, The Penguin, in 2024.

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Over-the-top violence abounds in this DC film about supervillains who agree to help the US government in exchange for some time off their prison sentences. Their mission is to destroy something alluded to as Project Starfish, harbored in the fictional island country of Corto Maltese. With a notable cast that includes Margot Robbie, Idris Elba and John Cena, 2021's The Suicide Squad is a wickedly entertaining, darkly funny bloodbath that differs from what you usually see in superhero movies. (Peacemaker, a spinoff TV series, is also available on Max.)

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