SHE MADE ME WATCH THIS! Women's Sports Movies

 "She's the man" starring Amanda Bynes, she pretends to be her twin brother so she can play soccer, because the girls team she used to play for got canned.

 Not the best film ever but kinda funny.

This is a tv movie but I really thought that it captured the mother/daughter relationship perfectly. It is called 'Little girls in pretty boxes' and tells the story of a family who relocates so the daughter can become a gymnast pro. However as she is pushed to the top she has to deal with lots of pressure, I.E being the right weight, and her need to reach the top pushes her away from her parents who believe that this isn't good for her. It's a beautiful film.

Also, like how you can see Lori's favorite color is black! (she's got black in the banner and in most vids) :)

Edge of America (2003) with James McDaniel. The team lost the championship game, but won the respect of the town.

wimbledon was a tennis movie, right? except it was mostly about the guy, wasn't it? i never got through the whole thing.

omg, inbd

Trust me, Norwegians are _not_ talkative (unless drunk). speaking of metronomes

American Anthem with Mitch Gaylord and Janet Jones from 1986.  I think I was too young to watch it due to the sex scenes but I remember it nonetheless. 

LOVE Bend it Like Beckam!   

 

The only one I can think of is Wimbledon with Kirsten Dunst, but that wasn't really about her. It was more the story of the guy (typical), but its the only movie about tennis I could think of...

 

yea...I actually really liked that film. It was funny.

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Cloverfield? 1-18-08-underground.com...

I don't know the movie title either Sarah,but I know what movie u are talking about.  I looked up I think it is called Counting Coup:A true Story  of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn.

There really aren't a lot of movies about Womyn Surfing,Wrestling,Baseball/Softball, Basketball,Fencing,Bowling, Martial Arts,Track,etc.  I have watched a lot of the movies mentioned except for Personal Best,Bend it Like Beckham(I will watch that soon) or Stick it. A League of Their Own,I like watched that a 100 times b/c I was fascinated with history behind womyn's first baseball players. I also watched Love and Basketball a gazillion times too. I agree with you Sarah they did a really nice job comparing andportraying the male/female treatment of ball players in Love and Basketball . I just wish they inlcuded the lesbophobia in womyn's basketball more in the movie though.

Good job though!

As 'Mori' said, Norwegians may not be talkative, but I do beleive we talk fast- well, at least I do (they say :-)

Stick it has an Asian american character in it. Wei Wei Yong, the one who did the break dance on the beam, was played by Nikki SooHoo.

Great review as always!

Too bad you missed out on a great quote from Love & Basketball:

Camille Wright: I sometimes wish you'd grow out of this tomboy phase
Monica: [Sarcastically] I won't. I'm a lesbian.
Camille Wright: That ain't funny.
Monica: That's what you think, isn't it? That I'd rather wear a jersey than an apron?

It's such a reflection of society for Monica's mother to assume that she's a lesbian, just because she plays basketball and 'rather wear a jersey than an apron', when really she's just a strong and independent woman.

I don't really care for watching sports, regardless of whether it's real or in movies.

I did really like A league of their own though. Oh and Girlfight.

Michelle Rodriguez might not be able to spell, and has a lot of other bad qualities, but I do think she is great in this. Not to mention very hot. It is kinda hard to believe her character is supposed to be straight.  

Love the new graphics! 

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-Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

Who doesn't blog these days?

 

Sports Movies, whether they are featuring women or not, are for me a kind of a 'meh--' (am with Lori on this one- definitely more an action-flick-aficionado).
Still- thanks for some interesting tips. (I confess, not having seen to this very day a second of Bend It Like Beckham... :O blasphemy much?)

And how come there are no movies with women doing martial arts? O_o
Kill Bill...? ...oh ...ahh ...sports movies... my bad...
hmmm
But no volleyball movies as well you say? Geez... first thing that comes to mind is that I'd actually pay to see a volleyball movie with Cathy DeBuono in it (and this is coming from a person who feels very misanthropically about cinemas).
But seriously, who else would you cast?

All in all, thanks for another splendid SMMWT! ^^

 

i like the female supporting characters usually in sport films. I loved Cameron Diez in Any Given Sunday. She was made to be the bitch, but it was understandable why she was mean. She was a woman in a traditionally male field. If she had been sweet and soft, I imagine no one would have taken her seriously. I also liked Tyra Banks in Higher Learning. She was in school on a track scholarship. A lot of black characters in film go to college on an athletic scholarship. Not saying thats good or bad, that just seems to be the case in movies.

Also... Native Time is hilarious. It sounds very similar to CP Time. Or as my grandmother calls it, 'colored people time'. That's how old that term is. Native time might be cooler, they roll in when they want to. Black people are just usually an hour late.

Sorry, I just had to say that. I'm a big fan of them.

I have to admit that when you mentioned Sanaa Lathan I went off into dreamland for just a while, then you flashed that picture of her in the basketball jersey. heh. I LOVED Bend it Like Beckham, I saw it about 8 times in the cinema. Keira Knightley and her abs, Parminder Nagra with that gorgeous hair and the lesbian-like Jonathan Rhys Meyers, an amazing soundtrack, with loads of Indian music, dancing and culture? still one of my favourite movies. Blue Crush, however, was not worth it despite my love for Michelle Rodriguez - sure, girls in bikinis, but Kate Bosworth's character was a total idiot, and I don't really like Kate Bosworth anyway. Not a fan of the whole "let's get the main character deserting her friends and running off with her new stinky boyfriend that she just met two minutes ago" schtick.

match point..another tennis movie (never saw it though)  and then there was the tennis movie about the Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs showdown with Holly Hunter.

the other girl in Blue Crush was Asian (Sanoe Lake), and one of the cheerleaders in Bring it On (Nicole Bilderback).

She's the Man with Amanda Bynes was AWESOME...good looking out BECCA20.

Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants wasn't technically not a sports movie but did showcase soccer prodominantly.

and then i know of a few racing movies...2 from the disney channel, "motorcrossed" and "right on Track".  1 that will be on abc family soon with Michelle Trachtenberg (The circuit) and then Herbie fully loaded with Lindsay Lohan.

okay that's all i can think of off the top of my head, and i've embarassed myself enough with this knowledge.

I'm not a fan of sports movies either so you guys metioned all the movies i like. Love and Basketball, Bend it like Beckham( the only movie i like Kiera Knightley in) and Bring it On ( Don't you just love USA for airing that movie all the time)... I thought Girlfight was okay and Stick It starts out good but falls apart somewhere in the middle.

But i do love Wimbeldon. I think it's a pretty good tennis movie because the girl is much more talented than the guy and i think in the end he raises the kids and she goes on to win championships or something like that.

I haven't seen matchpoint- tennis movie but it seems to be about an affair.

They are always just a bit too corny for me - but I've seen Bend It Like Beckham various times because I'm convinced there is a law compelling every school bus to own a copy and play it on trips.

I know you missed it out on purpose but I love love love Million Dollar Baby. But very depressing.

If you included dancing as a sport, you could have a whole lot more films to trawl through - my friends forced me to watch this cheesy ballet film called Centre Stage (unbelievably predictable, I worked out the end at the start) and there are all those street dance ones (which I can't stand) like Step Up

I'll just wait around until they bring out a rugby movie (heh..yeh right) it's just not glamourous enough...

"Hatred is blind, as well as love." - Oscar Wilde 

does ladybugs count? and little giants!

Do you count racing movies? Because there are two movie based on the lives of women in drag racing. They are both based on true stories. The first was in 1983 "Heart like a wheel" about the life of Shirley Muldowny. The second was a disney movie in 2003 "Right on Track" about Erica and Courtney Enders.

Million Dollar Baby with Hillary Swank is another good sports movie. Sarah would delight in knowing that the plot does not involve Swank's character and a love interest, although it does focus partly on her coach (Clint Eastwood).

Also, there is this movie called "Gracie" that came out last year. I haven't seen it yet but it’s supposed to be based on a true story about a teenage girl fighting to play soccer on a boys varsity team.

When Billie Beat Bobby is one of the best sports movies I have ever seen. It's based on a true story and I really love this movie. From IMDb: The historic 1973 tennis match between middle-aged champion Bobby Riggs and young feminist Billie Jean King.

I became a Billie Jean fan after watching this movie since my tennis idols growing up were Steffi Graff and players from that generation.

I think this might have been a movie made for TV but I was really impressed by it, plus Holly Hunter plays Billie Jean, which is a huge plus!

I also love Bend it Like Beckham, that just reminded me I should re-watch it.

Great vlog as always, love to see you guys!

I'm surprised it took you a while to watch Stick It. It had the same writer as Bring It On, Jessica Bendinger, and was directed by her as well.

I liked the fact that those movies successfully brought a moral message across without being preachy.

 

"Bad jokes are us, ur me."

was actually in Karate Kid IV, not Karate Kid III.

Bend It Like Beckham is one of my favorite movies, but the football(soccer) scenes are really bad. They trained up Nagra and Knightley quite well, but the rest of the actresses sucked big time. I've seen players in the third or forth German league play better than they did. That was one of the major issues I had with this movie, because it reenforced some of the most notorious prejudices about women's football. The other major issue was that the whole 'everybody's in love with coach Joe thing' didn't make any sense to me since he had absolutely no chemistry with either girl (of course when Nisha Ganatra made that comment about the movies original plot things made a lot more sense).

The funny thing about 'Blue Crush' is that Michelle Rodriguez said in the audio commentary she thought it was important that her Eden encourages Anne-Marie's relationship with football-heroe-guy, so she doesn't come across like a jealous dyke. Personally, I think that didn't work quite that well, as Eden still comes across as extremely jealous, very butch, very much in love with Anne-Marie *and* a bit of a doofus for letting the girl get away without a fight. For my liking they could have cut the whole love story and instead given Sanoe Lake (how hot is *she*?!) some more screen time and definately more surf scenes - after all she is a professional surfer.

first of all sarah, you look so pretty with your hair pulled back! :)

the only movie dealing with boxing or martial arts i can think of besides the next karaoke kid is million dollar baby with hillary swank.

and another movie that kept popping in my head was little giants! remember ice box! she was the girl who was the all star on the boys football team. haha it was a cute movie!

i think the other basketball movie is called believe in me.  I haven't seen it, but i've heard of it. its based on a true story about a girls b-ball team from the 60's. it could be good.

but i do agree...being a girl who grew up on the court...in love and basketball is one of my all time favorite movies!

It's a Bollywood movie with a male lead but it's my favourite movie of all time. It's about women's field hockey and the story is very much the average-sports genre but it's still real and funny and just so easily relatable. The movie can get a 10/10 just for the girls.

Best part was that the movie was a huge box-office hit even though sports movies don't do very well in B'wood. I mean there wasn't a single girl I know who hadn't seen the movie multiple times!

Does The Gymnast count as a sports movie. It also has an Asian woman who is not a martial artist :)

What about Water Lilies? It's a French movie about girls in a swimming team

Here's the summary from imdb.com :  Summer in a new suburb outside Paris. Nothing to do but look at the ceiling. Marie, Anne and Floriane are 15. Their paths cross in the corridors at the local swimming pool, where love and desire make a sudden, dramatic appearance

I haven't watched it yet though, I don't know if it's good but it was nominated for a few awards

This is a kids movie made in the 90's but I enjoyed it.

Little Giants, its about football. The lead is a girl who wants to be on the town's football team, but is not allowed to because she is a girl. So she starts her own team of misfits, to go against them.

but Wimbledon is a great tennis/sports movie!

it's not just about a woman (kirsten dunst), infact it's mostly about the man (paul bettany) but kirsten dunst plays a really big part!

i always feel it's one of my favourtite sports movies, apart from bend it like beckam which is one of my altime favourite movies.

I think when it comes to sports movies us Brits just get it right, also it was before Keira kneightley became some diva and was a genuinly good actress!

Million Dollar Baby.

It was a good movie, but super sad. A teary movie. But i like it. And it didn't have a romance in it. Thank God!

Bend it like Beckham!

i f**kin love that movie!! i can never get bored of it! its awesome. great music, funny, exciting! just a good movie. And they even had a little lesbian confusion there too, which was really funny. lol.

League of Their Own. again i LOVE that movie. Partly because Tom Hanks is a freakin genius, and halarious. But i really love the cast, Rosie and Madonna are gold! so funny. And i loved Geena Davis in this as well.

 

wow, this blog made me realize that there aren't very many Sports movies with the main character being a girl. how sad.... :(

wimbledon is a movie about a tennis player( kristen  dunst).

 

WOoww i like it stick it a lot.

I loved your recap of the 'women in sports movies'!  My favorite part was the tennis discussion because I'm such a tennis nut!  I love when you both 'geek-out'...I do that all the time too! I've never seen 'Love & Basketball' or 'Bend it like Beckham', but now they're at the top of my 'must rent' list.

A lot of my friends from college were athletes (I played tennis & basketball) and once in awhile someone would start singing the "We are members of the all american league..." song from "League of their Own" and everybody would join in! :-)

Which is weird cause I don´t really like this genre. But I loved Bend it like Beckham and Bring it on.

I actually agree with not making the girls from BILB a couple, cause the movie wouldn´t have gone that far (which is really sad but..)

PS: Sarah with a ponytail = hot......... sorry I had to say it.

 

I'm not the best with sporty stuff, (probably because I'm so sucky in real life!) but I loved Stick it, Bring it On and Blue Crush. Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. I LOVE how that stupid text message spelling and bad grammar annoys you, I refuse to communicate with my little sister when she writes me messages like that!!! I swear, it physically HURTS when I see the word "dat" instead of that. What the hell is wrong with people?!? And as for the speed of your speech, do you have a little Irish in you? Its a little known fact that the reason we actually drink so much is purely for communication reasons. The rest of the world can not understand us unless we slow it down a little (seriously, when I get excited I make Lorelai Gilmore seem slow), and of course alcohol is great to slow you down and throw a little slurring in there! Either that or you're a reincarnation of Tupac or something. (Yeah, yeah, the dates are bad, but who says immortal souls live within the boundries of time? Exactly. Case in point, you are clearly Tupac.) Anyways, SMMWT is still my favourite vlog ever, so thank you very much for this weeks', and please start talking about Bones again soon!

What about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? It had two strong female characters.....although my friends equated it to a subtitled superhero movie because they basically flew in the air when they fought....I loved it.

I really enjoyed Stick It. Missy Peregrym in a baseball hat.....

i think the one with hillary swank was karate kid 4. EXACTLY ...

Bring it On surprised me too. Love eliza dushku and gabrielle union even more because of it. i never thought i would like a cheerleader movie, so it really exceeded my expectations.

bend it like beckham- really liked it for the gender and cross cultural themes. this was actually my favorite performance by kiera knightley. there was a minor lesbian story in it which was cute. and it was directed by an indian lady!! yay!

a league of her own- brilliant movie! the end credits scene with the real womens baseball team and the madonna song was a nice touch.

 

 

I thought Blue Crush was pretty crazy, but overall a good show case for women in pro surfing and big wave, towing in like the big boys and stuff. Keala Kennelly was the first woman to tow Teahupoo and it was really great to see her get some on screen props, I also think Michelle Rodriguez, again whatever you think of her, did a good job with the jet ski tows.

My largest issue is the mad use of Kate Bosworth's body double; Kate was almost nonexistent in this movie, I am quite sure there are NO shots of her actually standing on a board because they are hardly any of her even laying on one. It would have been nice they could have considered casting someone a tip more capable.

On a personal note, the north shore is great and all, but if they decide to have a sequel, they should just bypass da hui and film in the Caribbean. :D

I'm terrible at playing Trivia Pursuit and usually am one that has nothing to contribute to the team, but I remember the first answer (and probably only) I got right... Who was the first gymnast to receive a perfect 10. Let's just say I was at a friend's house for Thanksgiving and all the other players were answering questions like there was no tommorrow until the silence hit for this one.  I of course said "Nadia Comaneci" - in 1976.  Why did I know this???? Because I saw the movie Nadia that was made in 1984. 

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Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

New graphics are awesome.  Kayla is very talented!

Enjoyed the vlog as always.  I like sport-themed movies as well, but sadly, I think your list is pretty comprehensive.  Too many female sports movies end up with the love story being the focal point - sports-themed or not!

Motocrossed is a great movie with a great female lead. You have to check it out.