Along with his brother Peter, writer-director Bobby Farrelly were best known for their outrageous comedies that reached their zenith with the box office smash, ‘There’s something about Mary’ that earned $369m worldwide. So his comedy drama Champions with a cast that included a number of actors with intellectual disabilities would seem to be on shaky ground and an excuse to make some tasteless jokes at their expense. But the truth is anything but that with Champions featuring a cast of endearingly likeable actors with such a disability in a film that portrays them all in a sympathetic manner through their own performances.
In fact the Farrelly’s have long featured such actors in their films dating all the way back to 1994 when they were making Dumb and Dumber and after its success a friend of theirs Danny Murph , himself disabled in a wheelchair , pointed out that there were no characters like him or with any other disability. After this the brothers always hired cast and often crew with disabilities.
Champions is a film inspired by a true story Harrelson stars in the hilarious and heart warming story of a former minor-league basketball coach who, after a series of missteps, is ordered by the court to manage a team of players with intellectual disabilities. He soon realises that despite his doubts, together, this team can go further than they ever imagined.
Harrelson stars alongside Cheech Marin (Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie, Nice Dreams), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters, Miss Congeniality), and Kaitlin Olson (Hacks, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia).
The bonus features rightly focus on the disabled cast and the ‘Casting the Friends’ feature though short shows them as a delightful, entertaining and down to earth bunch and Farrelly’s commentary has a load of revealing insights into how he made the film with such a cast.
‘COLLECTOR’S EDITION’ EXCLUSIVE DELETED SCENES AND BONUS FEATURES TO OWN ONLY ON DIGITAL*, BLU-RAYTM & DVD:
- 12 Deleted Scenes
- Keeping it Friendly– Director Bobby Farrelly, Woody Harrelson, and the rest of the cast share how they became involved in CHAMPIONS, as well as the importance of representation in the film.
- Woody and the Team– Every team needs a good leader – here we explore how Woody Harrelson filled that role on and off screen.
- Casting the Friends
- Feature Commentary with director Bobby Farrelly*available via iTunes only
Champions is a decent film if a little ‘worthy’ at times but the cast of disabled actors that Farrelly hired are uniformly good each giving it their all in a variety of character traits that is the highlight of a film that follows the expected tropes of a story about underdogs hoping to make it big and an inspirational speech towards climax has a whiff of cheese about it. But as a film that openly embraces inclusivity in an age where, somewhat cynically, an able bodied actor might regard taking an ‘intellectually disabled’ role in the film as a possible Oscar bait it’s those real life people with such a disability that is where the appeal of the film lies.
related feature: Jake Gyllenhaal drama, ‘Stronger’ reviewed
related feature: George Somner with the cast & director of ‘Kindling’ at the film’s premiere do a Q&A
Here’s the Champions trailer…..
Champions is available on Download, Blu-ray™ and DVD now from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
