Champions (2023)

My Review

“Champions” is a sports film about a coach who is sentenced to 90 days of community service for a DUI, consisting of coaching a team of basketball players with mental disabilities. Director Bobby Farrelly put together a winsome movie from a good screenplay by Mark Rizzo, making for great family fare and general audience entertainment. It was filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

The cast includes Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Ernie Hudson, Cheech Marin, Mike Smith, Madison Tevlin, and sportscasters Scott Van Pelt and Jalen Rose as themselves. This is Farrelly’s first solo directorial job, as he previously was at the helm of movies with his brother Peter Farrelly, such as “Dumb and Dumber” (1994) and “Kingpin” (1996), which starred Harrison. The watchable “Champions” was a modest box office success for Gold Circle Entertainment and Universal Pictures.