Excellent but underrated film

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This, in the right hands, could have been a decent thriller about match-fixing and murder, but the final result we see here is flabby, poorly paced and self-indulgent.A pretty decent cast, wasted. The multiple story strands could do with pruning, but the slow, talky nature of the more central scenes would still make the rest of this movie a bore. Even the action scenes lack drama.I have also seen the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of this, but even Joel & the Bots struggle to inject much life into this poor effort.

Make no mistake about it, this is not a very good movie. I just about hit the eject button on the DVD player to put an end to the nonsensical movie called Superdome. I stuck it out to the very end because I really like David Janssen, Peter Haskell, Susan Howard, and Tom Selleck. And I absolutely love the beautiful and talented Donna Mills....she is gorgeous in any movie. But even her beauty could not save this turkey of a film. The plot was about what you would expect, but the subplots were laughable. What really made them ridiculous was terrible casting. Whoever cast these stars in their roles didn't have a clue as to what they were doing. For example, Donna Mills' character pursuing an intimate relationship with David Janssen? Not believable. Even worse was the aging and overweight Ken Howard cast as an all-pro cornerback was just plain ludicrous. The only one that really was a good fit was Tom Selleck as the starting quarterback for one of the teams. Selleck was in great shape in his pre-Magnum days and looked comfortable in his roll. When I bought this movie and saw all these fine actors were in this movie I thought it might not be too bad....can't win them all I guess. I would not recommend this movie unless you have absolutely nothing else to do.

The Super Bowl is a few days away. Veteran player Dave Wolecki (bland Ken Howard) has a bad knee and neglects his fed-up wife Nancy (shrill Susan Howard). Handsome quarterback McCauley (a pre-"Magnum P.I." Tom Selleck, who manages to make an amiable enough impression despite the weak material) is being courted by a management firm represented by desperate agent Chip Green (Van Johnson struggling with a thankless role). Meanwhile, a killer attempts to spoil the big game by bumping various folks off. Can gruff manager Mike Shelley (a grouchy David Janssen) catch the psycho in time? Sound exciting and compelling? Well, it just ain't because of Jerry Jameson's slack direction and a hopelessly talky'n'tedious script by Barry Oringer that gets bogged down in far too many dull and uninteresting soap opera-style subplots. Moreover, the meandering narrative unfolds at a plodding pace, thereby negating any tension or energy this made-for-TV outing needs in order to be remotely engrossing and entertaining. Worse yet, not only does all the behind the scenes drama and politics prove to be incredibly dry and boring, but also this clunker fails to adequately capitalize on the New Orleans setting or the rampant mania of the fans. Hell, it even punks out on showing the big game at the conclusion! This movie attempts to generate a few thrills towards the end, but it's much too little and too late to alleviate the overall numbing drabness. Only a neatly varied cast that includes such familiar character actors as M. Emmet Walsh and Michael Pataki and professional football players Bubba Smith and Dick Butkus keep this one slightly watchable. A total snorefest.

It's 1978, and yes obviously there are too many black players on the teams as well! Fans will be upset and certainly the 75,000 seats will be full, only less happy there are so many black players on the field! This made for TV Super Bowl movie is watchable. It's not much more, but it's really surprising the cast of talented actors that make an appearance (for the time), probably most notably Tom Selleck. Unfortunately any goodness Selleck brings to the screen, is quickly trumped by "actors" like Dick Butkus.It's a silly story about super bowl betting. PJ Jackson is charged by "New York" (read mafia) for ensuring the game ends for their favor, in this case a $10,000,000 bet. PJ is innocent enough, and seems to have a loose grasp by buying off a few people here and there. But things seem to fall apart for him. Another person, the unsuspected Lainie, takes charge. For a while, the mystery of murders isn't known for certain, but is revealed rather plainly at the final murder that Lainie is the new antagonist.It's a bad movie, but is watchable. The acting is decent, and the filming is OK. At least there weren't any silly typical 70s car chases (they have their place just not here). Just keep an open mind about past stereotyping and the cocaine era and you'll survive.2/10 (maybe a 2.5)