There's a new movie coming out about legendary Las Vegas Raiders coach John Madden, but the trailer ain't great.
Former Las Vegas Raiders coach John Madden is an iconic figure dating back to the team’s time in Oakland, but the trailer previewing the new movie about Madden didn’t exactly get a boffo review from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk as he provided some comments on the trailer.
Folks under 50 mostly know Madden from the video games that bear his name, but Madden earned his Hall of Fame chops as a great coach before he became a great announcer. His signature call featured an emphatic “BOOM!” that now sounds incredibly dated, but Florio noted that the trailer landed with more of a thud than a boom.
Nicholas Cage in costume looks nothing like Madden, per Florio, who was hoping that Cage would mvoe or sound or behave like Madden.
Sorry, no dice there.
Florio’s bon mot was that Cage looks more like a grown-up Chunk from The Goonies than Madden, which is disappointing since it shouldn’t have been all that hard to pull of Madden’s uniquely rumpled look. Instead, Florio stated that Madden looks more like “Weird Al” Yankovic in his “Fat” video, which is about as badly as you can miss the mark.
It gets worse, too. Madden’s announcing sidekick was legendary play-by-play man Pat Summerall, who made the announcer’s wing of the Hall of Fame for his ability to narrate the games while playing straight man to Madden’s schtick. (For those who don’t know their NFL history, Summerall was also something of a star in his own right as a receiver and place kicker for the New York Giants way back in the day.)
Joel Murray plays Summerall in the movie, and Florio’s take on his performance was that the actor “doesn’t even land in the area code” of the announcer.
On the bright side, Florio lauded Christian Bale for his take on Al Davis, the legendary owner and coach. Davis's outrageous Elvis-inspired outfits and his general "Just win, baby" schtick is low-hanging fruit for any actor with the chops to pull off the role, which might make the movie worth watching for Raiders fans.
Finally, there’s the NFL action in the film. It’s authentic, per Florio, which is great news given the generally poor quality the football stuff generally receives in these kinds of films.
The writer's conclusion is that no one can really pull off a movie take on Madden, but we disagree. If director David O. Russell could find an actor who could nail the Davis portrayal, finding someone better to play Madden shouldn’t have been all that hard.
