I enjoyed watching "Leatherheads" as it contained good acting by all cast members, wonderful costuming, great cinematography, witty dialogue and good storyline/screenplay.

The only downside was that it was a slowing moving movie overall. Otherwise a very well down movie. I enjoyed the fact that you didn't have to be a football fan to enjoy watching "Leatherheads".

I like all of the actors in this movie and loved the old-time look of it. But. It. Was. Awful. The best parts are the football games. The middle of the movie was dreary, dull and honestly, Zellweger was badly miscast. She came off mean and simpering. I could hardly finish this. Not even a diehard Clooney fan (and I am) could love this movie.

LEATHERHEADS is set back in 1925, during the early stages of American professional football. Except that pro football, back then, was considered the ugly cousin of college football, a sport which gloriously reigned supreme. However, once graduated from college, one is supposed to go and get a real grown-up job. For pro footballer Dodge Connelly (Clooney) and his rowdy ragtag bunch of Duluth Bulldogs, it's a life of irrelevance and being made much fun of. The Bulldogs once even had to forfeit a game when they, as the home team, couldn't provide a backup football. Oh, the shame...

But when Dodge learns that his team is about to go bust, he concocts a scheme to popularize the Bulldogs and, along the way, legitimize pro football. His big move is to recruit to Duluth celebrated American war hero turned college football star, Carter "the Bullet" Rutherford. And, sure 'nuff, this draws in the big crowds. And, because this is that kind of movie, into the picture sashays the sassy, fast-talking newspaper journalist dame. She's out to nab the dirty scoop on Rutherford, pro football's sudden golden goose. Shades of HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO! (see Preston Sturges - The Filmmaker Collection (Sullivan's Travels/The Lady Eve/The Palm Beach Story/Hail the Conquering Hero/The Great McGinty/Christmas in July/The Great Moment)). Apparently, there's some doubt as to Rutherford's heroism in the war.

Reportedly, the script to this film had been floating around for decades, until George Clooney snatched it and reworked it and filmed it. But someone dropped the ball somewhere, and it could've been Clooney himself who did the oopsey. This is his third directing gig, which only proves that the third time is not necessarily the charm. Good actor that he is, witty and charming that he is, George Clooney has been in plenty of terrific flicks. But LEATHERHEADS has to be tossed onto his miniscule pile of clunkers. Clooney can hold his own in a drama or a thriller. And, certainly, he's starred in several comedies (One Fine Day, Intolerable Cruelty (Widescreen Edition), and the pretty great O Brother, Where Art Thou?). So why isn't LEATHERHEADS much better?

Don't play, I love screwball comedies. When it's done proper, screwball films are howlingly funny and even cathartic. LEATHERHEADS tries to angle for a screwball tone. George Clooney is engaging and funny as the lead. Renee Zellweger also brings it, even if I struggle to get past that weird, gone puffy face, and even if she and Clooney don't really register much of a chemistry. There's even someone relegated to that also-ran Ralph Bellamy role. But mostly LEATHERHEADS fails to get it right. It collapses under the weak jokes and gags and the repartee comprising of tired, hand-me-down stuff.

- Stuffy guy: "I didn't come over here to be insulted."
- Sassy girl reporter: "No? Where do you usually go?"

Snappy banter? Maybe many decades ago. And I got caught cringing when, in a painfully unfunny scene, George and Renee try to pass themselves off as cops to escape a bar raid. In indulging in so much poorly executed slapstick, the film loses its grounding; what should've have been a memorable sports backdrop loses much of its resonance. Clooney has claimed that Carter "the Bullet" Rutherford is loosely based on hall-of-famer Harold "Red" Grange, who not only was possibly American football's first superstar but who also touted one of my favorite nicknames, the Galloping Ghost. I was very curious to see how this rough-and-tumble gridiron sport, which featured men playing under harsh, rigorous conditions and gigged out only in flimsy padding and puny leather helmets, made the transition into something credible. So, going into LEATHERHEADS, I was raring to be bowled over and be wowwed. But, no.

Naturally, it all culminates in the Big Game, which provides possibly my favorite moment in the film. The only thing I'll say about it is that it involves the Sergeant York ploy. It's one of the few times I laughed.

There are echoes of Bull Durham (20th Anniversary Edition), what with the wily veteran giving way to the young star and, of course, the romantic triangle, two thirds of which are our two main athletes. But, in terms of quality, in richness and resonance and wit and dialogue, LEATHERHEADS is nowhere close to BULL DURHAM. LEATHERHEADS is fluff.

I'm no fan of football, and believe me, it's not for lack of trying. I want to be that guy who has the team football jersey, can rattle off the names of various players of numerous teams, have a fantasy football habit, and be able to toss the ol' pigskin in my backyard with friends. I've made myself sit down and watch it, and while I understand the game mechanics, I just can't seem to get into the game itself. Ironically, and for reasons I will never be able to understand or adequately explain, I really enjoy football movies though. Necessary Roughness, The Replacements, and Rudy are all great movies (among many others not listed here) and I really enjoy watching them.

That said "Leatherheads" is not your typical football movie. The film (which I'm assuming is a heavily fictionalized, if not outright made up, version of historical accounts) covers the creation of professional football in 1920's America. George Clooney is an aging football player who's having trouble holding his pro-team together as it seems to make no money. He comes up with the bright idea of hiring a college football star/war hero, played by John Krasinski of "The Office" fame, to generate interest in pro-football and bring in the big bucks. There's a subplot wherein Renee Zellweger's character, a newspaper reporter, wants to investigate Krasinski's war record and see if he really is the war hero he claims to be.

First off, if you're thinking this is going to be a movie about team building and working together to overcome adversity, look elsewhere. The actual game of football inhabits only a small fraction of the total film. In fact I think the audience gets to spend more time riding trains than anything else, but I digress. Clooney's character is witty and funny but beyond that he sort of meanders from scene to scene with no real objective than to hook up with Renee Zellweger's character. Successfully getting pro football started is more or less just a side benefit. I couldn't help but like Krasinski's character in the movie, who comes across as pretty likeable despite his being portrayed as an attention grabbing, big-shot celebrity. In fact the only thing I found a little disconcerting was his attraction to Zellweger's character, who is clearly *much* older than his own.

And then there's Renee Zellweger's character. I know that the movie producers wanted her to be the well liked heroine of the movie, but for me the effort failed pretty badly. I didn't like the fact that her character was singularly devoted to the destruction of a person with no real benefit to anyone. Why do it at all? Krasinski's character didn't steal the glory from someone else, nor did his actions end up harming anyone (in fact they saved a great deal of people's lives on both sides, even if it was an accident) so why destroy him? And that her character did all of this with a clear conscience bothered me that much more.

None of the other characters really gets enough face time to warrant mention, which is rather sad because this kind of movie really begs for it. There's no teamwork here at all...players gather on the field and play, and then they disperse at the end, and then predictably get on another train (lots of trains in this movie).

If I have to give points to Leatherheads it's for the excellent cinematography. The producers really spared no expense in convincing the audience that this film is set in the 1920's and really pulled it off. Between the art-deco and myriad Model-T's the movie was beautifully styled and had me pretty well convinced that that's what the 1920's looked like. This did not cross as well into the comedic aspects of the film, which I think were supposed to draw from Keystone Kops type slapstick of the era. The timing was right for the pratfalls and what not, but it just wasn't that funny. And sometimes I think they put extra scenes into the movie just to introduce another unfunny slapstick moment, such as the superfluous speakeasy chase in which Clooney and Zellweger meet for some adult beverages at an underground bar. The bar is busted up by the police and our heroes end up knocking out two police with a well-timed door slam, stealing their uniforms, and then end up getting pursued throughout the city for the better part of what felt like 20 minutes. It added nothing to the movie. In fact my wife and I were both somewhat surprised at the tenacity of the continued pursuit, given that it wasn't as if the heroes had robbed a bank or murdered anyone. But maybe that's just me.

The plot is very convoluted and I found myself wondering why characters were doing what they were doing since there was no real direction for the plot. Everyone meanders about the screen, and I'm no expert on filmmaking, but I have a hunch that this may have been *intentional*. Sigh. Overall I view Leatherheads as a movie that all but screams the word "mediocrity", and largely a symptom of the endless stream of average movies that Hollywood pumps out each year. C'mon Hollywood...there must be a better way.

Funny movie about football before rules. 1920s America is a fascinating period and I wish there were more films exploring that time. Clooney and my Texas homegirl Zellweger both do a good job, as usual. The story also touches on our need for heroes in a very humorous way.