If you ever wanted to effectively demonstrate the value of direction in crafting a film, all you would have to do is show a double feature of Champions followed by the original telling of the same general sporting tale, the 2018 Spanish movie Campeones. While each is not without its flaws, it is like night and day in how they go about bringing a similar story to life. One feels more complex and authentic where the other rings hollow as it falls headfirst into superficial conventions. Though most of the cast do all they can to elevate the experience, it’s soon revealed to be a losing battle of banality. What alterations it introduces are contrived and clunky, proving to be more shallow than it is ever really engaging.
It all starts out with the self-centered minor-league assistant basketball coach Marcus. Played by Woody Harrelson, he is fed up with playing second fiddle and wants to make it to the big time of the NBA. This seems unlikely after he shoves his head coach, played briefly by Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters, during the final seconds of a game where they need a winning play and is subsequently roasted for doing so on SportsCenter. Marcus then goes out to drink away his sorrows and recklessly attempts to drive home. Unsurprisingly, this goes poorly, and he crashes into the back of a police car. Without a job and facing jail time, things aren’t looking good.
Marcus is then given a choice: Either do community service coaching adults with intellectual disabilities or be incarcerated. In addition to Campeones, this introduction will feel familiar to anyone who has seen 1992’s The Mighty Ducks starring Emilio Estevez. Where Champions strives to be different is how it challenges the preconceptions its coach has about the ragtag team. The players — Johnny (Kevin Iannucci), Cody (Ashton Gunning), Craig (Matthew Von Der Ahe), Benny (James Day Keith), Blair (Tom Sinclair), Arthur (Alex Hintz), Marlon (Casey Metcalfe), Showtime (Bradley Edens), Darius (Joshua Felder) and Cosentino (Madison Tevlin) — are all well-defined characters that are the film’s greatest strength. All are completely committed, hitting every comedic and dramatic note. Whenever the film steps away from making everything about Marcus to focus on them, it starts to feel like it really might be getting somewhere. Unfortunately, these moments become increasingly few and far between.
Though the humor of the film is mostly driven by the team and largely avoids making them the butt of the joke, there still is lingering feeling that this is all in service of making Marcus better as a person. Beyond the differences in how visually flat this film is compared to its predecessor, this thematic tension was handled far better before. Campeones more genuinely earned the bond that was formed and never seemed like it was patting itself on the back. Champions is not only far less subtle in its humor, dulling many of the sharp jokes from the original, but it keeps filtering everything through Marcus. While he obviously should have his own journey, updates about his career having a resurgence delivered by creaky exposition via more SportsCenter is forced, unfunny and misguided.
A redemption narrative was part of the original film, but it was more held back to keep the focus on the team. When placing the final scenes side-by-side, there remains a great deal more heart and self-awareness to that story that is missing here as the film gets lost in whether Marcus will make it to the NBA off of the backs of this team. Without tipping off too much, it culminates in a weird series of references to Seattle that feel like they are meant to be topical digs about the protests that took place there in the summer of 2020. However, they are so vague and out of place that each subsequent callback to this subplot drags down what should have been a triumphant conclusion. It all goes to show that, once again, making a sanded down American remake of an already fine film will often miss the mark. ♦
CHAMPIONS
