The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #2. Hoosiers

 The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #2. Hoosiers

One of the first movies that comes up when talking with people about what the best basketball movie is. Only eclipsed by Air and Hoosiers from a critic standpoint but Air is very recent so doesn't get the benefit of the doubt. Audience score is only like 7th for RT which maybe it's biggest reason it's number 2 though I put it 4th as well. I'm just a White Men Can't Jump fan and this was the first time watching Hoosiers.  And if we count BASEketball as a basketball movie, which I did here, I think 4th is reasonable. Can you guess #1 yet? With such high expectations I did my best to watch it trying not to let that impede my judgment. It's better to me than The Way Back and Coach Carter but not by much. Though the plot is very similar to those two. New coach, nobody believes in us concept. Takes the coach awhile to warm up and the town in this case takes time to warm up. We have a star athlete that won't play for the coach immediately but becomes the deciding factor in Gene Hackman's Norman Dale keeping his job. Gene is still here as of 7/1/23 at 93 years young. He was great in Superman, The Replacements, Unforgiven, The Firm, Crimson Tide, Behind Enemy Lines, Enemy of the State, The Chamber and it just goes on. Barbara Hershey was in The Last Temptation of Christ, Falling Down, 11:14, Black Swan, Insidious, Swing Kids, The Right Stuff, The Natural. Dennis Hopper earns his only Oscar nomination and I didn't even recognize him. He plays a drunk that knows quite a bit about basketball that Dale hires as his assistant. Director David Anspaugh did Rudy after Hoosiers, but beyond that I'm not familiar with his work. Apparently Hackman was very negative when making the movie and never thought it would amount to anything. Local basketball players made up of the actors. It's well deserving of top 5 and even 1 or 2. I'm sure I'll watch it again at some point. 

Movie	Rotten Tom	Rotten Tom Aud	IMDB	Internet Rank	My Rank
2. Hoosiers	91	88	7.4	4	4
3. Love and Basketball	85	95	7.2	5	8
4. The Way Back	84	84	6.7	9	5
5. Coach Carter	64	85	7.3	7	7
6. Air	92	98	7.7	1	14
7. White Men Can't Jump	77	68	6.8	17	1
8. He Got Game	80	83	6.9	8	11
9. Uncut Gems	91	52	7.4	13	9
10. One on One	88	75	6.5	15	12
11. Above the Rim	52	82	6.6	18	10
12. Champions	59	95	6.7	12	17
13. BASEketball	41	74	6.5	28	2
14. Glory Road	55	81	7.2	14	18
15. Finding Forrester	74	79	7.3	10	22
16. Rebound: The Legend of Earl “The Goat”	50	94	7.6	6	27
17. Inside Moves	50	77	7.0	19	16
18. Hoop Dreams	98	92	8.3	2	35
19. Uncle Drew	61	48	5.7	32	6
20. Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story	50	99	6.9	11	28
21. The Winning Season	50	55	6.6	26	15
22. Fast Break	50	59	6.1	30	13
23. Believe in Me	60	74	7.0	16	29
24. High Flying Bird	91	50	6.2	20	26
25. "O"	64	58	6.1	22	25
26. Forget Paris	48	56	6.5	29	19
27. Sunset Park	13	83	5.9	31	21
28. Game Day	50	82	5.4	25	30
29. Blue Chips	37	51	6.2	33	23
30. Amateur	60	66	5.9	24	32
31. The Air Up There	21	35	5.5	38	20
32. Space Jam	43	63	6.5	27	31
33. Semi-Pro	22	38	5.8	36	24
34. Heaven Is a Playground	50	84	5.8	21	39
35. Hurricane Season	50	69	6.5	23	38
36. Teen Wolf	42	52	6.1	34	34
37. Boogie	42	57	5.2	35	36
38. Rebound	14	38	5.1	40	33
39. Slam Dunk Ernest	50	31	4.5	37	37
40. Eddie	17	36	5.2	39	40