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Last Updated: October 30th
Live sports might be the last thing keeping streaming options from swallowing cable television subscriptions whole. And those barriers are beginning to fall, but that doesn’t mean there’s a shortage of sports content currently on Netflix. In fact, you should have a long list of good sports movies available to watch should your favorite teams have the night off.
While shows like Glow and The League are great for sports fans looking for a slow burn, the best place to start is movies and documentaries. From Netflix originals to classic documentaries and ’90s nostalgia, the Netflix catalog has a little something for everyone. There’s even a bit of romance on the list.
Let’s take a look at the sports movies Netflix has to offer.
Related: The 30 Best Movies On Netflix, Ranked
15) The Battered Bastards of Baseball (2014)
Did you know Kurt Russell’s dad owned a baseball team? And Kurt played on it? The saga of the scrappy Portland Mavericks is not the most well-executed film on the list, but it’s lovingly done and the archival footage carries the day here. If you’re curious, in need of a true underdog tale, and want to add a bit of baseball trivia to your brain, this might be for you.
14) Iverson (2014)
This 2014 documentary — which debuted at Tribeca a few years ago — takes a look at the career of former Philadelphia 76ers great Allen Iverson and the perception that many had of him. The film is a satisfying nostalgia trip for AI fans but it doesn’t introduce a wealth of new footage or offer anything new about The Answer. It’s still better than watching him in the BIG3, though.
13) Trouble With The Curve (2012)
Clint Eastwood stars in a film that uses baseball as a backdrop for a story about an out-of-touch scout and his complex relationship with his lawyer daughter (played by Amy Adams). John Goodman and Justin Timberlake also pop up in supporting roles with the latter having a bit of chemistry with Adams. If you need a baseball-themed drama, this is the best Netflix has to offer, presently.
12) The Short Game (2013)
This 2013 documentary is delightful look at a youth golf championship. Chronicling the 2012 championship at Pinehurst, it follows a handful of charming golf proteges from around the world as they vie for the title of best 7- and 8-year-old players in the world. Golf greats like Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Annika Sörenstam provide commentary on the difficulty and drama of the game while we watch young golfers deal with the stress of the tournament, parents, and some nit picky rules. It has its fair share of Sports Parent moments, but the kids are genuinely interesting and full of character.
11) Mascots (2016)
Christopher Guest’s absurd Mascots features Guest mainstays Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, Jennifer Coolidge, Parker Posey and Ed Begley Jr. It also co-stars Chris O’Dowd as a mascot called “The Fist,” which is a hockey-playing hand with a six-pack that can give the crowd the finger.
The joy of Guest’s movies is that these super weird and specific subcultures like the mascot world really exist. It makes you realize it’s possible that the fringe people in your life are as much into being a mascot as they are into Garfield or seltzer or whatever entirely earnest secret Facebook group you’re a part of that you never knew existed. While crude at times, Mascots doesn’t make fun of these people as much as it humanizes them in an entirely relatable way.
10) All Work All Play (2015)
This 2015 documentary chronicles the growth of pro video gamers and the ESL, a competitive e-sports league that features League of Legends and Starcraft II pros duking it out across the world. It also does a great job explaining those two games, so you might actually know what is going on if you stumbled across a match online sometime.
The film is an in-depth look at something that some feel isn’t a sport, but it goes a long way toward disproving that notion by smartly juxtaposing dramatic e-sports moments with major traditional sports moments and showing how fans of these sports fans react with the same enthusiasm and understanding as the fans of more traditional sports fandom. With the NBA getting involved in e-sports next year, this is the perfect Netflix documentary to give you a primer for exactly what will be happening there.
9) Pumping Iron (1977)
Part documentary and part scripted film, this 85-minute movie helped launch the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger while taking an extended dive into the very unique world of body building, including Schwarzenegger’s defense of his Mr. Olympia title against the likes of Serge Nubret and Lou Ferrigno before the latter became a star actor in his own right.
8) GLOW: The Story Behind The Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling (2012)
If you liked the Netflix original, it’s worth watching the documentary that covers the history of the real show. It’s a good look at what the show is based on, and the interviews with the women who made up the show’s cast allow for a fascinating story about wrestling in the ’80s. It’s also a serious look at the physical toll wrestling takes on its competitors.
7) Goon (2011)
Goon is the Slap Shot of this millennium, in that it’s utterly ridiculous and also somehow wildly entertaining. In the film (which spawned a recently released follow-up), Seann William Scott plays bruising bouncer Doug Glatt, who is brought onto a hockey team to do one thing: pound the opponent’s face in.
Jay Baruchel and Evan Goldberg (of Superbad fame) co-wrote the film with Baruchel appearing on camera as Doug’s foul-mouthed friend. Allison Pill also co-stars as Doug’s love interest, but it’s Liev Schreiber who steals the show as a veteran enforcer and rival. There’s even a cameo from Georges Laroque. If you can take the brutality of fighting in hockey, you’ll love this film.
6) The Waterboy (1998)
I wouldn’t say this movie has aged great in a modern world where every hard impact in sports makes you wonder how dangerous it was for the players involved. Still, of all the Adam Sandler and Happy Madison sports movies, this is probably the best one not named Happy Gilmore. All of these titles follow the same basic pattern: scrappy underdogs get to kiss girls and win despite being extremely unconventional and actually borderline bad.
The fun here is in the direct homages to real life. The rival Louisiana Cougars team, for example, is clearly an LSU clone, including the southern drawl and a trickster coach right out of a Les Miles casting call. The LCSU team also beat Iowa in improbable fashion, and the movie has lots of cameos from NFL legends like former Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor and former coaches Bill Cowher and Jimmie Johnson. Though he’s not a real coach, Henry Winkler does his best to nail his role as a slightly-damaged small-time coach who sees something in Bobby, Sandler’s character.
5) Best In Show (2000)
Yes, dog competitions count as sports.
In this Christopher Guest classic, the story of the Mayflower Kennel Club is told as a truly weird array of personalities vie for the title prize. There are truly too many laugh-out-loud lines to recall in a few paragraphs, and many of them are only funny when they’re half-spoken by the movie’s quirky cast of characters.
Fred Willard, for one, steals the show with his act as dog show announcer who knows nothing about dogs and Eugene Levy plays a man with, quite literally, two left feet. Mentioned above, Mascots is a variation on the theme Guest has established throughout his career, but Best in Show is him at his creative best.
4) Cool Runnings (1993)
Cool Runnings follows a classic sports movie arc. Lovable goofballs without a snowball’s chance in hell face immense odds, gain people’s favor, and defy the odds all in a tidy 98 minute package. The dynamics between the team are all formulaic greatness, too. There’s the guy from a rich family who can’t say no to his father. A sweet jokester who keeps everyone loose. The determined athlete torn asunder by defeat beyond his control. A redemption story you can laugh along with. Their inevitable camaraderie is predictable, sure, but it hits all the right notes.
John Candy is excellent in this, and the individual characters on the Jamaican bobsled team (Malik Yoba, Leon, Doug E. Doug, and Rawle D. Lewis) are all great. Who cares if it isn’t exactly how it happened? It’s 2017. You can choose your own reality.
3) No No: A Dockumentary (2014)
This 100-minute documentary is about Dock Ellis, the Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher famous for throwing a no-hitter while tripping on acid. It’s one of the most jaw-dropping sports stories of all-time (considering Ellis’ state and the rarity of his feat) and a bit more thorough than the No Mas animated short that was created by James Blagden. Dock is great, and his career is full of stories like the May Day beaning of the Cincinnati Reds. Go learn yourself something about baseball’s wild side.
2) Fastball (2016)
This Kevin Costner-narrated documentary is definitely the nerdiest movie on the list. It explores the physics behind throwing baseball’s most feared pitch. We’re talking Magnus effects, optical illusions, and how the early hurler’s pitches were measured by scientists. It even features interviews with some of baseball history’s best and most intimidating pitchers: Goose Gossage, Nolan Ryan, Bob Gibson, and many more.
Modern pitchers also pop up, with David Price, Justin Verlander, Craig Kimbrel and the current fastest pitcher of all-time: Aroldis Chapman lending their thoughts. Perhaps most fun: the documentary also has some of the best hitters of all-time talking about the pitchers they fear most. With rare footage of Sandy Koufax’s perfect game and looks at lost almost-legends like Steve Dalkowski.
1) The Mighty Ducks (1992)
Is this movie as good as you remember it was when you saw it in your youth? No, probably not. But it has its charms and its rabid fans.
In the film, Emilio Estevez plays a cocky lawyer laid low by a DUI who learns to love children and the game he once excelled at before a competitive streak and a bad-egg coach took it away from him. The film is extremely ’90s, completely unrealistic, and cheesy at times, but The Mighty Ducks forever embedded itself into the collective minds of a generation of kids, inspiring a Saturday morning cartoon show and a real NHL franchise in Anaheim. That’s gotta count for something.
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from Carlos B2 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uproxx/features/~3/0alShuDrw6U/
via carlosbastarache216.blogspot.com/
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