The 50 best sports movies of all time, ranked by griersonleitch
Photo: Vulture It is strange that sports movies are considered a genre since, all told, they really are just a setting. It’s like saying that “desert movies” are a genre, or “ocean movies” are. The best sports movies are independent of the sport they’re depicting, with universal stories that should appeal to anyone whether they love the sport or not. Though loving the sport does help.
49. Seabiscuit If people can have hokey, against-the-odds, win-the-big-game inspirational sports movies, why can’t horses? Director Gary Ross pulls out all the stops in this adaptation of the Laura Hillenbrand best seller, and while it’s manipulative and desperately plays to the audience’s tear ducts, it still mostly works because, hey, turns out it is viscerally exciting to watch a horse come back from last place and win the big race.
45. Bang the Drum Slowly .youtube[data-uri="www.vulture.com/_components/youtube/instances/cjrig7y1a00153g659ttp119a@published"].
41. The Longest Yard Not the Adam Sandler remake — though we’ll see the Sandman on this list a little later — this is the surprisingly gritty and dark Burt Reynolds movie about a team of inmates asserting their dignity in a violent football game with their prison guards.
37. Dodgeball Low-rent, sloppy, aggressively dumb … which is to say, surprisingly wonderful, right? Vince Vaughn is in full slob mode here as the leader of a ragtag group of misfits who have to win the big game. Dodgeball has one go-to joke that’s guaranteed to work every time you need it to: It is unquestionably funny to watch someone get bashed in the face with a big rubber ball. Ben Stiller has a grand time as White Goodman, and Jason Bateman is simply hilarious throughout.
33. The Karate Kid .youtube[data-uri="www.vulture.com/_components/youtube/instances/cjrigahhr001w3g65umparccm@published"].border-top:before { content: 'Watch'; } Eight years after Rocky, director John G. Avildsen delivered another underdog sports movie, telling the story of a New Jersey kid named Daniel who moves to Southern California, falls in love with Elisabeth Shue’s cheerleader character Ali, and trains with an immigrant handyman after some bullies beat him up.
29. The Color of Money .youtube[data-uri="www.vulture.com/_components/youtube/instances/cjrig9qkx001n3g65tvt5y0wt@published"].border-top:before { content: 'Watch'; } Martin Scorsese’s sequel to The Hustler brings back Paul Newman’s Fast Eddie Felson, this time using him as a mentor, and potential hustler of, yet another Tom Cruise Young Superstar Talent Who Has Some Lessons to Learn.
25. Rush .youtube[data-uri="www.vulture.com/_components/youtube/instances/cjrigb3uq00253g658hgg5rya@published"].border-top:before { content: 'Watch'; } One of the tenets of the sports movie is that you’re meant to root for somebody, whether it’s a team or an individual athlete.
21. Love and Basketball Criminally underappreciated at the time, writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s debut film stars Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps as neighbors in Los Angeles who pursue their basketball careers side by side while ultimately falling in love. But that simple explanation ignores the thought and depth of feeling Prince-Bythewood puts into her characters, giving them autonomy and sharp edges and a genuine sense of discovery.
17. Chariots of Fire .youtube[data-uri="www.vulture.com/_components/youtube/instances/cjrcymuwx000w3g6511r2eto6@published"].
13. Field of Dreams Yeah, we know, but it’s sappy in a really, really great way. Unapologetic in its moony devotion to the myth of baseball as a symbol for All That Is Good About America, Field of Dreams sets Kevin Costner’s Ray Kinsella on a whimsical journey to figure out what that damn voice in his head is trying to tell him.
9. A League of Their Own .youtube[data-uri="www.vulture.com/_components/youtube/instances/cjrigdi9800353g65v7wp57zk@published"].border-top:before { content: 'Watch'; } It is funny to think that when this movie was released, the main draw was Madonna.
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