The Comebacks (2007)

A comedy that spoofs the inspirational sports movies, The Comebacks tells the story of an out-of-luck coach, Lambeau Fields, who takes a rag-tag bunch of college misfits and drives them towards the football championships. In the process, this life-long loser discovers that he is a winner after all by redeeming himself, saving his relationship with his family and friends, and finding that there is... See full summary »

Director:

Tom Brady

Writers:

Ed Yeager (screenplay), Joey Gutierrez (screenplay),

Stars:

David Koechner, Carl Weathers, Melora Hardin

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Koechner	...	Lambeau "Coach" Fields
Carl Weathers	...	Freddie Wiseman
Melora Hardin	...	Barb Fields
Matthew Lawrence	...	Lance Truman
Brooke Nevin	...	Michelle Fields
Nick Searcy	...	Mr. Truman
George Back	...	Buddy Boy
Noureen DeWulf	...	Jizminder Featherfoot
Jesse Garcia	...	Jorge Juanson
Jackie Long	...	Trotter
Robert Ri'chard	...	Aseel Tare
Martin Spanjers	...	Randy Randinger
Jermaine Williams	...	IPod
Finesse Mitchell	...	Titans Coach
Will Arnett	...	Mailman

Storyline

Lambeau Fields lives a middle-class lifestyle in America along with his wife, Barb, and a gorgeous daughter, Michelle, who he has brought up as a son. Lambeau is a failure and has virtually given up on his career as a football coach. Then his friend, Freddie Wiseman, encourages him to re-enter this field, and he does so by re-locating to Plainfolk in Texas and joins the Heartland State University. It is here he will meet some of the most pathetic players, and quite disillusioned he goes about to find new-comers. He finds a kicker in Jasminder Featherfoot, provided of course, he keeps her involvement secret from the rest of her family. Then he finds Lance Truman, whose drag queen dad has brought him up more like a tom-girl. With these additions and others Lambeau sets forth to include his team in the next Super...Er...Toilet Bowl 2 series, and it is here that he will find that Lance fumbles a lot; Barb is not quite faithful as she seems; he will soon be in jail for Indecent Exposure; ...

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Plot Keywords:

coach | football | championship | failure | college | 

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Taglines:

Keep your eye on the ball.

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Genres:

Comedy | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 on appeal for crude and sexual content throughout and some drug material

Details

Official Sites:

The Fox [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 October 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sports Movie

Filming Locations:

California State University - 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$5,554,594 (USA) (19 October 2007)

Gross:

$13,349,251 (USA) (21 December 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fox Atomic, Tapestry Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min 107 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Not screened for critics.

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Quotes

Michelle Fields: I was out catching some waves.
Lance Truman: In the middle of Texas?
Michelle Fields: I told you I'm hardcore.

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Connections

References 1986 World Series (1986)

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Soundtracks

"Can't Keep a Legend in the Shadows for Long"
Written by David Koechner, Andy Paley and Christopher Lennertz
Performed by David Koechner & Andy Paley
Produced by Christopher Lennertz

User Reviews

Another black eye for the spoof genre

The spoof genre, which has lacked creativity and humor for some time already, gets spat upon yet again by hacks with no talent. No point, no fun, no originality; just a few cheap bucks for the film makers.

It takes more than just referencing some recent movies and giving characters double-meaning names to be satire; to make people laugh. Any clod can pick up a cam-corder, and have some bad-acting buddies in cheap costumes imitate somebody. Since the genre being targeted this time is inspirational sports movies, there are a few lame references thrown out to movies of that type: the jokes are so weak the characters actually have to emphasize the references in various ways, to get you to laugh hysterically. It doesn't work.

That's not comedy. However, the same old worn out sophomoric "jokes" ripped off from a middle school washroom (done even more blandly than usual) are all here. If that's not enough, there's a running "gag" of a bus running somebody over. So funny, right? Also, one pathetically poor scene does more product placement than Michael Bay; again with the same unfunny results. A musical bit flops miserably. Pity Carl Weathers, once Apollo Creed in the Rocky series, now stuck with roles in swill like this.

Lousy beyond words. Watching a snail run the marathon would be less tedious than watching this film is. Probably a lot funnier, too.