Stephanie! Did it really happen?

Someone, anyone, sentimental George or anyone actually make a good football movie?

Are there others "Heaven Can Wait" came sort of close.

Sandler and Alda and Reagan and Fred McMurray all tried, didn't they? Not hard enough!There were no plays in Jerry Maguire-too much Cruise control and not enough breaking away for extra yardage in that close-call to greatness. Rene and the kid were adorable, 'though!

I think Harold Lloyd had a great one- but that was back in the silents- probably the very last good football flick.

Could we have a list of availables sometime?

Back in the day c1925 the game was clearly a different adventure- especially for the underdog Pro teams. I can see why Clooney picked the theme- long overdue.

All of the other sports have their great films- even Pool and Poker and Baschkaschi (The Horsemen)- why has our great game of Pro Gridiron never gotten the movie magic?

Gosh, geewillickers, Stephanie, I sure as heck hope this one turns out swell.

Without Clooney and the gal and the Cohens and very few others, Hollywood is a pretty creepy, unfun place!

I'm a football fan and I have a love for the history of the game. I've seen enough in the trailers of this silly nonsense to know that this will neither satisfy my love for the game nor its history.

I don't hold it against the film that it's not trying to be anything but a light-hearted trifle of a comedy, but otherwise I completely agree with the above. There are so many good stories from the early days of football that have yet to be committed to celluloid that one hardly knows where to start.

-You could make an entire movie about the careers of Don Hutson, Bronko Nagurski or Sammy Baugh, to name a few.

-Or how about a movie set in the 20's that featured the upheaval and uncertainty of the early league with teams and leagues dissolving and realigning every year as the game struggled to find its footing (and players play both ways and hold down "real" jobs) in the shadow of college football?

-Or better yet, a movie about the historic exhibition game in the 40's (I can't recall the year) where a pro team beat a heavily-favored Notre Dame squad?

That's just off the top of my head, and anyone further interested in the history of the league should track down a copy of "The NFL Century". I would have paid full price for the chapters on the 20's, 30's and 40's alone.

Someone must be paying this writer for this review. Zellweger cute? come on! maybe they are related or she's been told she looks like her if it's not about bribery. Sounds like a reconfigured 'Bull Durham' to me.

Oh brother where art thou wasn't a great movie either, but I enjoyed it. And BTW, there is no more Cary Grant, you only get one and ours is gone.

"A ton of football fans out there, many who have a love for the history of the game."

I'm a football fan and I have a love for the history of the game. I've seen enough in the trailers of this silly nonsense to know that this will neither satisfy my love for the game nor its history.

Why does Renée Zellweger glavanize people's opinions the way that it does? I'm so glad that Stephanie Zacharek gets her. I think Zellweger is a genius. I still think back fondly on the big speech she gives at the end of "Down With Love" which no other actress in her peer group could have matched in delivery and skill. The speech is preposterously long and reveals the multiple lies and disguises she's perpetrated throughout the movie. The miscast Ewan McGregor can't find an expression to match what's going on in front of him. Her wistful perfomance in "White Oleander" was heartbreaking with touches of Marilyn and Jean Seberg. Too bad these movies weren't as good as she was in them.

is all to resistibly cute, I think. She just does that ugly scrunch-faced thing, instead of act. Ick.

Wait, I thought Hugh Grant was the modern-day Cary Grant, while George Clooney was our Clark Gable... I swear to god Clooney was channeling Gable in Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?

Any way, it kinda sounds as though Stephanie enjoyed Leatherheads in spite of herself. I think I might, too.

It's hard to imagine who, if anyone, could care about such a subject.

Well, me for one. And there are a TON of football fans out there, many of whom also have a love of the history of the game.

He's going to use his old-fashioned good looks while he's still got them, but he's also unafraid to tackle goofy double takes, or to grin foolishly when it's required

There was another star like that back in the old days of Hollywood: Cary Grant. Perhaps you've heard of him? Clooney seems to have decided he wants to be a modern day Cary Grant: funny, classy, handsome, unexpected. I think he's doing a pretty good job of it too. He's the only star in Hollywood today that has even a remote shot at becoming the kind of actor and star Grant was.

I read through the entire thing without getting much sense of the story. Does the movie even tell a story? Is there a story worth telling? Is Clooney a character or just Clooney in period garb?

It sounds like Stephanie Zacharek is being charitable to the movie for what it tries and not so much for what it does.

Sorry, I love George Clooney, but this one just sounds b-a-a-a-a-a-d.