The Best- and Worst-Cast Roles in 15 Great Sports Movies
A movie is less a thing than a formula. The best movies never lack for one of the fundamental elements of a good film: a strong script, smart director and great cast. Without one, the other two simply cannot work, and this is especially true when it comes to the choice of an actor for each role in a film. A perfectly cast part can make a decent script seem groundbreaking and the director's job seem easy.
A great cast (with chemistry on set) can be the difference between an OK movie and a great one; and a badly cast movie can render a potentially great movie just OK.
This holds true for sports movies, which have even less margin for error when it comes to casting choices, because nothing can undermine a movie about a sport more than an authenticity problem. So when the studio hits a home run with who it casts as the most important characters in a sports flick, we almost take it for granted, because a good movie feels like the sum of its parts. But, when an actor is miscast, it can be painfully obvious—by no means a deal-breaker, but it can be a difference-maker.
These are the best- and worst-cast roles in 15 great sports movies.
Worst: Vincent Larusso, 'D2: The Mighty Ducks'
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Considering the “cake eater,” Adam Banks, was a pretty prominent character in all three Mighty Ducks movies, it’s a shame they found someone as bland as Vincent Larusso to play him. He was the acting equivalent of stale saltines.
It worked better in the first film in trying not to hate him, but, despite being the team’s superstar, he just disappeared into the background in the sequel.
Best: Carsten Norgaard, 'D2: The Mighty Ducks'
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Emilio Estevez was serviceable, if not entirely enthusiastic, as the Ducks coach Gordon Bombay, but it was evil Iceland coach Wolf “The Dentist” Stansson who stole the show in D2: The Mighty Ducks.
Danish actor Carsten Norgaard’s team may have let him down in the end, but he stole every scene he was in. Stansson also schooled Coach Bombay on the ice during a one-on-one faceoff for ice time.
Worst: Sylvester Stallone, 'Rocky' Series
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Sorry if this one is controversial, but there’s a reason Sylvester Stallone was getting roles like “Subway Thug #1” in Bananas (a movie, I swear) prior to his breakout role as Rocky Balboa in 1976’s Rocky. There’s no chance marble-mouthed Sly would’ve landed a leading role like that had someone else written the script.
Having written the film himself, obviously someone was nice enough to let him star in it, but there’s no question the entire Rocky series would’ve been better with a more qualified actor in the role. And mercifully, there wouldn’t be six of them—with a seventh, Creed, in post-production.
Honestly, the first one was more than enough, but Stallone probably wouldn’t have made this list had he stopped at two.
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Best: Dolph Lundgren, 'Rocky IV'
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After you get beyond the first two Rocky movies, the rest of them are 30 percent fight scenes, 40 percent musical montages, 10 percent weirdly dramatic pauses and then 20 percent dialogue—at most. Having seen all of these movies, in descending order no less, that is verified fact.
Although there is something to be said about the awesomeness of the communist backstory in Rocky IV—it’s pro-America propaganda almost on a Top Gun level, which is basically the highest level—the script couldn’t have been but 30 pages. However, Soviet supervillain Ivan Drago, played to perfection by Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren, nails the few lines he’s given.
“If he dies, he dies,” Drago uttered menacingly about opponent Apollo Creed—and guess what! He totally died. Of course, Rocky ends up beating Drago in the end, scoring a metaphorical defeat against communism in the process, but Drago is the only compelling character in the entire movie.
Worst: Talia Shire, 'Rocky' Series
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Talia Shire has been a working actress since the late '60s, which is a testament to her talent and staying power in the industry. That being said, as Rocky Balboa’s love interest, Adrian Pennino, in the Rocky series, the two have all the sexual chemistry of a basket of dirty laundry and a recycling box.
There’s just nothing believable about her portrayal of Adrian—and her attraction to an increasingly deranged (as the series goes on) Rocky. In fact, the coupling brings to mind another odd couple that many didn’t find especially compelling—Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
It’s like they were existing, not just in two different movies, but two entirely different planes of existence.
Best: Carl Weathers, 'Rocky' Series
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Apollo Creed was the heart and soul of the first three Rocky films, even though it’s a stretch to say any of them had heart or soul. Either way, Carl Weathers brought a dramatic flair to the role, which was desperately needed, given Stallone’s...Stalloneness. The movie needed a star, and its star was Apollo Creed.
Not only was Creed the star of every scene he was in, Weathers actually took it pretty hard when he was literally beaten to death by Soviet savage Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. In a 2007 interview with MTV, the interviewer noted the nation mourned the passing of Creed, and Weathers said he was right there with them.
Worst: Robert Redford, the Natural
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This might not be entirely fair to the great Robert Redford, who is unquestionably one of the most impactful actors of a generation, but he was way too old to play Roy Hobbs in 1984’s The Natural. Inspired by true events based on the novel of the same name, in the film, Hobbs is a 19-year-old pitching phenom whose career is ended before it begins after a bizarre incident in which he’s shot by a stalker.
He makes an unlikely comeback for one season at the age of 35, leading the New York Knights to success and one of the more dramatic penultimate scenes in sports movie history.
The issue with Redford was that in 1984 he was 48 years old, which made him a stretch for the 35-year-old who made the comeback, let alone the teenager who fought his way back into baseball. Can you even imagine a nearly 50-year-old woman being cast to play a teenager? It's a great story, but the casting of Redford is weirdly distracting.
Best: Keanu Reeves, 'Point Break'
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Surely there will be plenty of people ready and willing to argue Point Break isn’t a “sports movie,” but it’s 50 percent bank robbing and 50 percent surfing, which is more than enough to qualify it as such. It was a great movie for its era, with both Patrick Swayze and Gary Busey delivering top-notch performances.
Though it would be expected out of Swayze, and, believe it or not, Busey wasn’t always the goofy nut job he is today, actor Keanu Reeves, of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure fame, was actually pretty perfect in the role of Johnny Utah—an FBI agent who successfully infiltrates a gang of bank-robbing surfers, blurring the line between friend and foe!
Worst: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, 'Bend It Like Beckham'
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Bend It Like Beckham was a largely enjoyable movie and in 2002, it became one of the first soccer movies to make a splash in the U.S. The friendship of Jess and Juliette blossoms over footy and burns out (temporarily) over their mutual attraction to their coach, Joe, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
The clash of traditional Indian culture with English in modern London really carries the story, as well as great performances by Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley. But the creepy presence of Meyers, who seems too old for both of them, especially with his trademark crazy eyes, almost ruins the whole movie with his romantic interlude.
Best: William Zabka, 'The Karate Kid'
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The quintessential '80s villain, William Zabka's turn as Johnny Lawrence in 1984’s The Karate Kid was what launched him into a path of unlikability that would become so severe that it would eventually completely stall his acting career. In addition to his role in the sequel, Zabka also knocked it out of the park as the unlikable bully, bordering on sociopath, in European Vacation and Just One of the Guys.
Johnny may not have been the nicest guy at Cobra Kai, but he also wasn’t the meanest—he possessed 100 percent of their charisma and was the best-looking by a mile. Sure he has a few scuffles with protagonist Daniel LaRusso throughout the film, but when David beats Goliath at the end, Johnny is one of the first people there to congratulate him.
That's some serious sportsmanship, considering the only rule of the match was no kicks to the head and Daniel defeated Johnny with a kick to the head. He took the kick to the head like a champ, though, more than making up for that ugly skirmish on the beach.
Worst: Gary Busey, 'Rookie of the Year'
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Another '90s kids classic, Rookie of the Year tells the hilariously impossible tale of 12-year-old Henry Rowengartner, a substandard little leaguer who is transformed into a major league pitcher for the Cubs after a broken arm results in some mysteriously magical tightened tendons.
Everyone in the movie really fit their parts well, except Chet “Rocket” Steadman, an aging pitcher/hero/mentor/potential love interest to Henry’s mom played by…you guessed it…Gary Busey. The only part Busey really nails is the aging part.
Honestly, it’s hard to imagine the movie with anyone but Busey in the role because he really made it his own. But that doesn’t mean it was top-notch casting or that the movie wouldn’t have been a little bit better with someone more appropriate in the role. Consider the value Daniel Stern adds as wacky pitching coach Brickma in a much smaller role.
Best: Scott Caan, 'Varsity Blues'
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In an entire movie stacked with surprise standouts, including a surprisingly believable James Van Der Beek in the lead role, it was Scott Caan as Charlie Tweeder that really stole the show in Varsity Blues—in scenes that don’t include whipped cream bikinis.
Tweeter is the most unrepentant troublemaker on a West Canaan football team that has no shortage of them. His successful efforts to humiliate the pathetic past players still coming to high school parties was only topped by his nude joyride in a local police cruiser, accompanied by three equally nude young ladies.
Best: Jon Voight, 'Varsity Blues'
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Scott Caan’s Charlie Tweeder brings the party with him everywhere he goes in Varsity Blues, easily making him one of the movie’s more likable characters. Bud Kilmer, the legendary coach of the West Canaan Coyotes, is the exact opposite.
Coach Kilmer rides his players way too hard on the field but lets them run wild off the field, often to the dismay of local law enforcement. Tough on his best days and downright sadistic on his worst, his maniacal behavior borders on cartoonish.
With a lesser actor in the role, that’s exactly how it may have come across. But Voight is able to walk the line perfectly throughout the film, pulling back just a little each time his performance feels like it’s about to go over the top.
Worst: Tom Cruise, 'Days of Thunder'
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Tom Cruise was just coming into his own as a Hollywood superstar in the making when the big-budget NASCAR clunker Days of Thunder hit theaters in 1990. The movie made over $80 million domestically, not because it was good, but because Cruise was coming off a series of hits, such as Risky Business, Top Gun, Cocktail and Rain Man.
Not only was the plot of the movie thin at best—although Cruise, who plays the lead, Cole Trickle, did meet his future wife Nicole Kidman on the set—the guy just wasn’t believable as a race car driver. Maybe it’s because they didn’t make smaller cars to make him look bigger, but something about his victory at the end felt cheap and hollow—essentially the film in a nutshell.
Best: Sandra Bullock, 'The Blind Side'
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Although there were plenty of people out there who thought The Blind Side was overrated, including NFL offensive tackle Michael Oher, on whose life the movie was based, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t one of the biggest films of 2009.
Overly dramatized and romanticized as the story may have been, it was still among the Best Picture nominees at the Academy Awards that year. And the forever sassy Sandra Bullock, who has long been an audience favorite, earned a well-deserved Oscar for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy.
Worst: Al Pacino, 'Any Given Sunday'
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Oliver Stone’s 1999 film Any Given Sunday is polarizing. On one hand, it’s a movie about football, so everyone wants it to be good and to legitimately like it. On the other hand, it’s not a great movie, with weird casting, and the fact that the NFL wouldn’t allow the use of team names or stadiums really hurt it.
In a movie that is largely mediocre, it’s Al Pacino’s portrayal of coach Tony D’Amato that really stands out as the sore spot—even worse than a horribly miscast Dennis Quaid as Cap Rooney. Though Pacino’s speech at the end of the film often makes “best of” lists, the fact that he’s been doing a passable impression of Al Pacino in every movie he’s been in since about 1990 cannot be ignored.
Worst: Luke Edwards, 'Little Big League'
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Though he’s been working sporadically since his big break as Billy Heywood, the character in Little Big League, Luke Edwards was largely uncharismatic and generally unlikable as the tween-turned-Twins owner-turned manager. Ridiculous plot aside, the movie is well loved by those of us who came of age on '90s sports movies.
It’s not to say that Edwards is atrocious in the role, but he was easily overshadowed by better actors, like Timothy Busfield and Jonathan Silverman, playing much smaller parts. And even though he wants to bring “fun” back to baseball for the players when he appoints himself as manager, there’s just nothing fun about the guy.
Best: Cast of 'Jerry Maguire'
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Tom Cruise has starred in so many blockbuster movies throughout the course of his career, but it wasn’t until 1996’s Jerry Maguire that he really hit a home run with a sports movie—unless you count the volleyball scene in Top Gun as a sports movie in and of itself, which would be fair.
That being said, unlike so many of his films, Tom Cruise didn’t carry this one on his own—not by a long shot. Cuba Gooding Jr. as Rod Tidwell, Renée Zellweger as Dorothy Boyd, Jay Mohr as villainous super agent Bob Sugar and Jonathan Lipnicki as the impossibly adorable Ray Boyd are just a few of those who shouldered the load.
Jerry Maguire was perfection personified in terms of casting—Gooding Jr. won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Cruise was nominated in the Leading Role category and screenwriter Cameron Crowe was nominated for Best Screenplay, in addition to the film being nominated in the Best Picture category.
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