Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[Alex]

Today I watched the 1999 version of That Championship Season. It is actually a remake of the 1982 version which starred Robert Mitchum, Stacy Keach, Bruce Dern, Martin Sheen, and Paul Sorvino.

In this version, Paul Sorvino got promoted into the Mitchum role and then he is joined by Vincent D'Onofrio, Gary Sinise, Tony Shalhoub, and Terry Kinney.

That Championship Season is one of the rare play adaptations that I enjoy even though very little was done expand it cinematically from a one set theatrical experience. I don't know why that is, it just touches on themes that work for me.

Considering it was made for TV it looks pretty good (though maybe it was made for HBO or Showtime, I didn't notice anything that screamed "commercial break").

Sorvino was the weakest link in the first version and is again in this version. If you overlook Sinise and Shalhoub being offered up as Polish brothers everybody else is quite the actor and comports themself well.

So, this is one remake where I think you can watch either version safely (though the former is interesting for a "old man" Robert Mitchum performance). But according to IMDb neither version is very well regarded so I may be alone in enjoying them.