Touches You

Expected more

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Texas State University has just won the National Championship, but they did so by cheating. The team has been expelled and the coaches have been fired, meaning the upcoming seasons will have to feature a has been coach and a team of walk-ons. The new team will include a 37 year old quarterback, a wide receiver who can't catch a cold, a science teacher at linebacker, and a female kicker. Sports comedies require a very delicate balance to avoid leaning one way or the other, and on both sides, Necessary Roughness fails to deliver. This film really isn't that funny and the team just sucks, making for a painfully predictable experience. While featuring one of the greatest motivational locker room speeches of all time, the film really doesn't have much else going for it. Scott Bakula stars and tries his best to make the story believable, but it just isn't, and when you add Sinbad and Katy Ireland to the mix, it just makes for a very uneven film. For something like this to work, it has be raunchy and way out there, hysterical with a completely unforeseen ending, similar to Major League. This film has none of it, as the jokes are all at a fifth grade level and the on-field action isn't at all believable. I love a good sports movie and Scott Bakula can be terrific in the right role, I wanted to like this movie, but it just seemed to never end, a sure sign that the film fails to entertain or inspire.

So why review a 21 year old movie? Easy. Good movies have no expiration date, and this is certainly one of them. At the time, the NCAA was going through all sorts of problems with player bribes, payoffs, faked grades, violations from steroids to hookers to cars for the players. This movie was brave enough to face these problems and gives an accurate picture of trying to build a football team from a bunch of wanna be's and never were's. Scott Bakula is perfect in the role, neither attempting to affect a fake Texas drawl nor over playing the role. Hector Elizondo and Robert Loggia, two veteran actors who could easily dominate the film, instead add their considerable talents to make the film believable. Several great touches are added, including Rob Schneider as the announcer for the games, and the appearance of a prison team arranged by Dean Elias (Larry Miller, the schmuck you love to hate) adds an extreme and interesting comic scene. Dick Butkus, Earl Campbell, Roger Craig, Ben Davidson, Tony Dorsett, Evander Holyfield, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Jim Kelly, Jerry Rice, Hershel Walker, and Randy White are the prison football players, and if you have to ask who they are, you need to head over to the NFL Hall of Fame (Except for Evander Holyfield, former Heavyweight Champion of the World). The film is cohesive, the language is minimal, and the violence is limited to the football field, practice, and a slight altercation between two teams at Billy Bob's. Collectible if you are a fan of good sports movies, and definitely a great film for the family on a Saturday night.

Paul (Scott Bakula) was a great high school quarterback in Texas, where he never lost a game. However, his father died after football season was over and Paul felt obligated to take over the family farm. Therefore, he turned down scholarships and never went to college. But, now Texas State wants him, wants him badly. The university has had a long history of NCAA violations and, consequently, is having trouble recruiting players. But, with a new, straight-arrow coach (Hector Elizondo), his assistant (Robert Loggia), and a dedicated college president, Texas State is trying to turn the tide. Paul, although he is now 34, agrees to join the team and the freshman class. Wouldn't you know it, though, he soon has a run-in with an attractive female professor (Harley Jane Kozak), who refuses to accept his growing interest in her. And, with a ragtag roster of only 17 players, playing both offense and defense, can they win any games? This is a fine football flick with some elements of romance thrown in, too, to please any viewer. The cast is very nice, with Bakula, Elizondo, Loggia, Sinbad, a tiny-bit- pretentious Kozak, a lovely Kathy Ireland, a very funny Rob Schneider, and a hilarious Larry Miller whooping it up all the way. The football scenes are quite fine as well, which should please any true gridiron fan. Yes, unfortunately, the film looks dated, with its out of fashion costumes and its mediocre camera work. The Texas setting, however, is rather welcome. All in all, if you love the game-with-a-pigskin, you must arrange to view this one. You will find it greatly entertaining. Fans of romcoms, too, who are running out of material, will be pleased with the efforts here as well.

This movie really shows how the college football teams get away with this. "Necessary Roughness" is like the sister movie to "Major League". Only it's dealing with college football. Times do change for sports. The old members of the teams are gone not because they have moved on to bigger projects. Scandal is the cause of the team's folly. A shady dean, two coaches who are trying to get the team back to their winning ways. There comes a 34 year-old farm hand , and former high school football hero named Paul Blake(Scott Bakula, aka Sam Beckett on "Quantum Leap") gives the college a hand. He does a mighty good throw, and along with the other misfits. The big guy Manumana is the most menacing character of the team. However, they bring in the kicker Lucy(Kathy Ireland) and Manumana is smitten. I liked it when Samorai(Michael Dolan) got really rough with one of the players and the ref was good at naming the moves he was doing. I liked the part where Lucy reduced that blow-hard player into a "little boy" when she gave him a three point kick to his "friends". HAHAHA! It all ended well when the dean got his "just desserts" and Manumana went down "hard and fast" when Lucy gave him a victory kiss. I would feel the same after I do some back-flips. It was funny and it was fast, see this movie, the fun always lasts. RATING 3 OUT OF 5 STARS!