Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, filmmaker, singer and songwriter. He received international attention after writing, directing and starring in the independent drama film Sling Blade (1996), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. For his role in A Simple Plan (1998) he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is also known for his film roles in One False Move (1992), Tombstone (1993), Dead Man (1995), U Turn (1997), Primary Colors (1998), Armageddon (1998), Monster's Ball (2001), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Bad Santa (2003) and Friday Night Lights (2004).
Sandra Annette Bullock is an American actress and film producer. The highest-paid actress of 2010 and 2014, Bullock's filmography spans both comedy and drama, and her accolades include an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She was named one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2010.
The Bad News Bears is a 1976 American sports comedy film directed by Michael Ritchie and written by Bill Lancaster. It stars Walter Matthau as an alcoholic ex-baseball pitcher who becomes a coach for a youth baseball team known as the Bears. The film's cast includes Tatum O'Neal, Vic Morrow, Joyce Van Patten, Ben Piazza, Jackie Earle Haley and Alfred W. Lutter. Its score, composed by Jerry Fielding, adapts the principal themes of Bizet's opera Carmen.
John Campbell McTiernan Jr. is an American former filmmaker and a convicted felon. He is best known for his action films, including Predator (1987), Die Hard (1988), and The Hunt for Red October (1990). The last three of his 11 feature films, ending with Basic (2003), were critical and box office failures.
Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016); and the romantic comedy Hit Man (2023).
Coach Carter is a 2005 American biographical sports drama film starring Samuel L. Jackson and directed by Thomas Carter. It is based on the true story of Richmond High School basketball coach Ken Carter, who made headlines in 1999 for suspending his undefeated high school basketball team due to poor academic results. The screenplay was co-written by John Gatins and Mark Schwahn. The cast features Rob Brown, Channing Tatum, Debbi Morgan, Robert Ri'chard, and the singer Ashanti.
The Rookie is a 2002 American sports drama film directed by John Lee Hancock and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is based on the true story of Jim Morris who debuted in Major League Baseball at age 35. The film stars Dennis Quaid as Morris, alongside Rachel Griffiths, Jay Hernandez, Angus T. Jones, and Brian Cox. It was released in the United States on March 29, 2002. The film was filmed in 2.40:1 widescreen.
The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training is a 1977 American sports comedy-drama film and a sequel to the 1976 feature film The Bad News Bears.
Varsity Blues is a 1999 American coming-of-age sports comedy-drama film directed by Brian Robbins that follows a small-town high school football team through a tumultuous season, in which the players must deal with the pressures of adolescence and their football-obsessed community while having their overbearing coach constantly on their back. In the small fictional town of West Canaan, Texas, football is a way of life and losing is not an option. The film drew a domestic box office gross of $52 million against its estimated $16 million budget despite mixed critical reviews. The film has since gone on to become a cult film.
Wolf Creek is a 2005 Australian horror film written, co-produced and directed by Greg McLean and starring John Jarratt, Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi. Its plot concerns three backpackers who find themselves taken captive and subsequently hunted by Mick Taylor, a serial killer, in the Australian outback. The film was ambiguously marketed as being "based on true events", while its plot bore elements reminiscent of the real-life murders of backpackers by Ivan Milat in the 1990s and Bradley Murdoch in 2001, both of which McLean used as inspiration for the screenplay.
The Benchwarmers is a 2006 American sports-comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan, written by Allen Covert and Nick Swardson, and produced by Adam Sandler and Jack Giarraputo. The film stars Rob Schneider, David Spade, Jon Heder, Jon Lovitz, Craig Kilborn, Molly Sims, and Tim Meadows, with Swardson, Erinn Bartlett, Amaury Nolasco, Bill Romanowski, Sean Salisbury, Matt Weinberg, John Farley, Reggie Jackson, and Joe Gnoffo in supporting roles. It tells the story of three nerds and a billionaire forming a titular baseball team to take on Little League teams.
The Bad News Bears Go to Japan is a 1978 American sport comedy film released by Paramount Pictures and was the third and last of a series, following The Bad News Bears and The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training. It stars Tony Curtis and Jackie Earle Haley and features Regis Philbin in a small role and Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki in a role.
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties is a 2006 adventure comedy film directed by Tim Hill and written by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow. It is the sequel to Garfield: The Movie (2004), and stars Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Bill Murray reprising their respective roles as Jon Arbuckle, Dr. Liz Wilson, and the voice of Garfield. New cast members include Billy Connolly, Ian Abercrombie, Roger Rees, Lucy Davis and Oliver Muirhead in live-action roles and Tim Curry, Bob Hoskins, Rhys Ifans, Vinnie Jones, Joe Pasquale, Richard E. Grant, and Jane Leeves as the voices of the film's new animal characters. In the film, Garfield, Odie, Liz and Jon travel to the United Kingdom, where Prince, another cat that looks exactly like Garfield, is ruling over a castle after the death of his owner. His reign is soon jeopardized by an evil aristocrat, who plans to remodel the castle into condominiums, destroy the estate, and get rid of Prince. The story is loosely inspired by Mark Twain's novel The Prince and the Pauper, while its title is a parody of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.
Flight of the Phoenix is a 2004 American survival drama film directed by John Moore and written by Scott Frank and Edward Burns. The film is a remake of the 1965 film of the same name, both based on the 1964 novel The Flight of the Phoenix, by Elleston Trevor, about a group of people who survive an aircraft crash in a desert and must build a new aircraft out of the old one to escape. It stars Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Tyrese Gibson, Miranda Otto and Hugh Laurie.
The Program is a 1993 American sports drama film starring James Caan, Halle Berry, Omar Epps, Craig Sheffer, Kristy Swanson, and Joey Lauren Adams. The film was directed by David S. Ward who has directed and written other Hollywood films such as the Major League series.
Semi-Pro is a 2008 American sports comedy film. The film was directed by Kent Alterman in his directorial debut, written by Scot Armstrong, and produced by Jimmy Miller. It stars Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, André Benjamin and Maura Tierney, set during the final season of the American Basketball Association and telling the story of a fictional ABA team desperate to survive the league's merger with the NBA. The film was shot in Los Angeles near Dodger Stadium, in Detroit, and in Flint, Michigan. Released in theaters on February 19, 2008, and released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on June 3, 2008, it was the last film from New Line Cinema before they were absorbed by Warner Bros. Pictures. As of 2024, it is the only film directed by Kent Alterman. The film received generally negative reviews, with critics criticizing the script, though Ferrell's performance received praise.
The Expendables is a 2010 American action film directed by Sylvester Stallone, who co-wrote it with David Callaham and also starred in the lead role. The film co-stars an ensemble cast of mostly action film actors consisting of Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, and Bruce Willis. The film was released in the United States on August 13, 2010. It is the first installment in The Expendables film series. This was Dolph Lundgren's first theatrically released film since 1995's cyberpunk film Johnny Mnemonic.
The Blind Side is a 2009 American biographical sports drama film written and directed by John Lee Hancock. Based on the 2006 book of the same name by Michael Lewis, the film tells the story of Michael Oher, a football offensive lineman who overcame an impoverished upbringing to play in the National Football League (NFL) with the help of Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy. It stars Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne, Tim McGraw as Sean, and Quinton Aaron as Oher.
Unfinished Business is a 2015 American comedy film directed by Ken Scott and written by Steven Conrad. The film stars Vince Vaughn, Tom Wilkinson, Dave Franco, Sienna Miller, Nick Frost, and James Marsden. It was released on March 6, 2015. The film was panned by critics and was a box office bomb, only grossing $14.4 million on a budget of $35 million.
Cocaine Bear is a 2023 American comedy horror film directed by Elizabeth Banks and written by Jimmy Warden. It is loosely inspired by the true story of the "Cocaine Bear", an American black bear that ingested several kilograms of a bag containing about 75 lb (34 kg) of lost cocaine. The film stars Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ray Liotta, the latter of whom died in May 2022, and to whom the film is dedicated.
