Grumpy coach Harrelson trains a team of teens with learning disabilities in this remake of the Spanish film Campeones
This 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 ***** problem who gets busted for ***** 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.
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