80 For Brady (2023)

[Mike Blakesley]

Well, this is one of those movies you know is going to be bad just from the title. If that doesn't convince you, looking at the poster should. I mean...Tom Brady is the producer. Need I say more?

All kidding aside, this movie isn't too good. It's kind of a throwback to one of those "sweet" movies of the '80s where you had a bunch of lovable characters who got into a bunch of improbable mishaps and of course all comes out well in the end, all wrapped up with a couple of the obligatory "emotional" scenes.

In fact, they should have put the word "obligatory" somewhere in the title, because this movie just about checks all the boxes. The only thing that doesn't happen is, the main characters never get into a big fight and then make up, which usually happens in this kind of movie. But all the other tropes are there, especially when you add on the fact that the movie stars four senior citizens:

- There is at least one who doesn't "act her age" (Jane Fonda, who's been doing that for decades, I guess)
- There will be multiple scenes of characters trying to be cool but failing miserably (such as Sally Field repeatedly calling a fanny pack a "strap-on")
- The characters will do a "dance scene" at some point
- At least one of the characters will get really drunk or high (Rita Moreno)
- There will be at least one celebrity who turns up repeatedly in the most unlikely places (in this case, Guy Fieri)
- The characters will get into a place they never would have gone to in real life (in this case, a high-stakes poker match; and the Super Bowl, oops, I mean "Big Game")
- There will be an emotional scene where someone's relationship falls apart or experiences some kind of reckoning (Sally Field and Lily Tomlin)
- If there are pro athletes involved, at least one of them will "get involved" with at least one of the main characters
- The movie will feature at least one giant party
- As in nearly all sports movies, the team we're rooting for will win

Of the four principals, the best was Sally Field. I've always been a fan of hers anyway since all those movies she did with Burt Reynolds, and she was the least disappointing in this flick. Lily Tomlin seems to have lost her comic timing and a lot of her vocal range, sadly, and Jane Fonda seemed to be very plasticky. Too much work, Jane. Rita Moreno was OK but she didn't seem to have as much to do as the others, and she doesn't make a very convincing stoner either.

The supporting characters were all completely forgettable to the point I have forgotten all of them.

It was a nice little time killer, but it was really silly and kinda beneath these four great comedic actresses. At least it didn't have any politics in it, so that's good. The best thing about it is really the Dolly Parton song that plays over the credits. Hey, there's an idea... instead of this movie, they should have gotten Dolly to be in it and done a "9 to 5" sequel instead. Maybe the ladies find Mr. Hart in an old folks home and scheme to take his retirement money or something. Tom Brady could play Mr. Hart's grandson.

1 out of 5 stars from me, and I wouldn't even give it that many if not for the aforementioned song.

[Jon Dent]

Movies like this are critic proof to the target audience. It did well enough for us, but we do have a lot of old ladies that travel in packs in our area.

[Mike Blakesley]

I have to say it's growing on me a little. We're definitely getting the gray-hair crowd, some of whom are a little difficult to accommodate, but it's done respectable business.

We have a regular customer, an older lady who comes to a lot of movies with her son. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME they arrive late after the lights are already down, and then they want us to flashlight them to their seats. They always like to sit in the back so it's no big deal, but c'mon, just show up 15 minutes earlier ferpetesake.

[Darin Steffl]

I thought it was funny enough that I enjoyed it. I won't watch it a second time but I don't feel my time was wasted by seeing it. I laughed and so did most other people in the theater. Lots of older people there that wouldn't have gone to a movie that week beside this one.

Not every movie needs to be a 5/5 rating to go see. Studios need to try to cater to everyone with a variety of movies. I bet 90% of the people that saw this movie wouldn't go to Avatar or Marvel movies unless they were taking grandkids. So this did well enough and brought in revenue that wouldn't otherwise exist.

[Mike Blakesley]

Studios need to try to cater to everyone with a variety of movies.

Sure, but "catering to everyone" doesn't mean they have to make bad movies. They should make GOOD movies...for everyone.

That said, I wound up liking this movie more by the time we ended it than I did upon first viewing. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood the first time or something -- plus having a good crowd (which we have had every night) helps, especially if they're laughing.

We had a bunch of drunk ladies here last night who were laughing a little TOO loudly, but they had a good time.

[Mark Lane]

We will never show a movie with Jane Fonda in it. We will never hang one of her posters.
We have a park a few blocks from the theater that is named after a young solider who lost his life in the Vietnam. I feel putting Hanoi Jane's name in lights while their son's name is on a memorial wall would be disrespectful to his service, his family and all our vets.
After a few people asked for this movie, I posted why we will not be showing it... wow, that blew up. So many people have strong feelings against what she did. Many vets got a hold of us thanking us for not showing the film..
She has two other movies coming out this year... we will not be showing those either.

[Mike Blakesley]

I purposely left her name off of the marquee (I put Sally Field on one side and Lily Tomlin on the other) for that reason, although no one here made any comments to me about her being in the movie or said they wouldn't come because of her, etc. We did quite well with it overall, better than I expected.

The industry has probably lost a lot of business over the years already because "Hollywood" gets such a bad rap in today's political atmosphere as it is, especially in conservative areas like the one I'm in.... so I do my best to keep any and all politics out of what we show or don't show. We do tend to shy away from movies that are overtly political in nature, but they are hardly ever "mainstream hits" anyway.

As far as respecting vets, I feel like we play plenty of movies that pay honor to vets and/or the armed services in general. "Top Gun Maverick" being a recent example. At the end of the day though, my one and only major concern is if it will put butts in the seats or not. If the answer is yes, then we'll probably want to play it. I don't think it's disrespectful of vets to play a movie that some controversial person is in, because the majority of people don't care about what happened all those decades ago. If they want to skip the movie, they can skip it, but if there are a lot of people who want to see it, who are we to decide not to play it? We can't base our booking choices on the political views of the stars -- here on the "red" side of Montana we wouldn't have much left to play if we did.