Wow! Such a good movie.

Truly Dreadful Film

ridiculous rating

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

At first I just wanted to thumbs up the other 'bad' reviews to express my dislike. It baffles me that the majority of reviews with agreement from others are 'good'. The movie has an identity crisis. It has an odd desire to be a slapstick piece that lacks the timing or editing to get a laugh (from me). It also dragged, dragged, dragged, the unforgivable movie sin in my opinion. This happens when you do not create enough interesting moments in the plot, so you stretch out every scene to a tedious length. I'm not sure that the acting was so bad, just bad material mostly. No aspect of this movie is adequate enough for me to recommend. The sports scenes aren't very compelling because they are slapstick-esque and corny. The romance love triangle is not engaging, I could care less about all three of them. And it dragged! Did I mention that? Jeez! It's not a complete turd, but it does smell.

It's 1925. College football is wildly popular but pro football garner no interest at all. Dodge Connelly (George Clooney) is trying to keep his team and the league going. Carter 'the Bullet' Rutherford (John Krasinski) is a college star. When the team goes broke losing their sponsor, Dodge tries to revive it by attracting Carter to the pros. Lexie Littleton (Renée Zellweger) is a serious reporter who is told to write up the war hero Bullet and then double cross him with a expose with fellow soldier Mack Steiner's true story of the incident.Clooney is trying to bring the old fashion screwball comedy back. The movie works best with the fast talking chemistry between Clooney and Zellweger. There is good heat and Zellweger is great at feigning anger. The movie is good for most of it. However the deception doesn't work well for the story. It would be so much better if Bullet comes clean on his own. The movie is a bit long and the last half needs to be cut back. He just needs to make this movie about the romance and keep Krasinski as a side character.

I think, as they often do, The AV Club put my opinion of 'Leatherheads' more concisely than I ever could. They say the following about the film:"If amiability equaled greatness, Leatherheads would be destined to become a classic."Nevertheless, I am very surprised at the largely negative reputation this film has and believe it to be somewhat underrated. Clooney's directorial filmography reads like a list of films I've always meant to get round to seeing and although Leatherheads was probably a rather odd place to start, I'd be more than happy to watch it again. It is a fun, zippy comedy with a slightly misplaced romantic subplot that dulls the film when it takes center stage in the second act. In addition to this, John Krasinski's character was evidently a nightmare for the screenwriters, as he is required to be almost a villain while also being actively likable and sympathetic. Although Rick Reilly (the film's scriptwriter) somewhat pulls this off, it's one of the more difficult balancing acts I've seen in a lighthearted comedy.As I say, the film is at it's best when it's attention is away from Renee Zellwegger and the tired love triangle tropes. Obviously the high points of the film come during the interactions between Clooney and Krasinski and when the characters take to the field to actually play football. This may be somewhat unsurprising given my prior stated love of both screwball comedies and underdog sports movies, but I think I may be on the side of general consensus with that one. The AV Club's quote highlights the fact that this film is a lot of fun to watch and had me constantly smiling throughout, even if it was somewhat lacking in full- on gut laughs. There were a number of set pieces that just felt like a loving embracement of a kind of sweet wackiness at the film's core, and none more so than the film's final football match which is somewhat predictably the highlight.But alas, the sting in the tail of that initial quote is still present too. Whilst I had a lot of fun watching Leatherheads I'd struggle to recommend that it'd be anyone's favourite movie. While it does most of what it does well it lacks lofty ambitions and mostly plays it's humour where it knows it is close to the surface. I'm confident that if it dug a little deeper the edges could've perhaps been sharper and the characters could've maybe been deeper. Were that the case we may have been looking at an extra half-star but as it is Leatherheads is a respectable, enjoyable film that I'd thoroughly encourage anyone to check out if they like watching a film to feel like they're being hugged by a time period.

I became a fan of George Clooney watching him as Billy in The Perfect Storm. But I must say I watched this movie for its Renee factor much more than anything else.Leatherheadsis quite a conventional unconventional movie. It got no save the world plot, and yet has more than one plot intertwined within another series of plots. Just like ordinary life. The movie is quite subtle and has a plot of a suspected war hero, a failing football player, the birth of professional football and a teeny weenie romance as a side dish. Each scene seems honest and short. And sometimes shocking. There are no technicalities and the entire movie follows no particular rule of movie making or story telling. Just like the tagline says, this is a movie before the rules where there.Renee is a reporter sent to check the stories of an alleged war hero who now plays football but wants to study in Princeton. Clooney is struggling in football with a rough gritty team that's got all the usual comical characters. The forty year old man fights over the thirty old lady with the twenty year old boy. The villain is the new chief of professional football who brings in the rules to the game. There is one final football match that sets into concrete everyone's character. And the movie is over before you know it.Its a slapstick comedy in the 1920's. Its light and easily subject to too much criticism. Its worth a watch.