Main Cast: Damon Wayans, Daniel Stern, Dan Aykroyd, Gail O'Grady, Adam Hendershott
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Two basketball fans, whose enthusiasm overwhelms their intelligence, come up with a new but legally problematic way of helping their favorite team in this comedy. Physical education instructor Mike O'Hara (Daniel Stern) and plumber Jimmy Flaherty (Dan Aykroyd) are close friends and obsessive followers of the Boston Celtics; to them, the Celtics are everything, to the point where Mike's marriage is falling apart because his wife can't deal with his mood swings, hinged as they are on the Celtic's fortunes. One night, with the Celtics and the Utah Jazz tied at three games each in the NBA championships, Mike and Jimmy spot Lewis Scott (Damon Wayans) in a sports bar. The star player with the Jazz, Lewis is known to sink up to 50 shots a game, and his talent on the court is exceeded only by his arrogance. Emboldened by alcohol, Mike and Jimmy start buying Lewis drinks, posing as Jazz fans; the next morning, they wake up hung over to discover that they kidnapped Lewis while drunk, and he's tied to a chair in Jimmy's living room. Neither of them planned on doing anything like this and at first they think they ought to let him go. But then again, if Lewis can't play the final game of the championship series, the Celtics chances look a lot brighter. Former Celtics star Larry Bird has a cameo as himself; as do sports heroes Bill Walton and Deion Sanders. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Celtic Pride seems conceived as an homage to the outgoing Boston Garden, the site of 16 Boston Celtics world championships which was torn down two years after this film. It appears Dan Aykroyd and Daniel Stern's characters were meant as beloved tributes to an intensely passionate fan base, one that might go so far as to kidnap the star player of the opposing team -- kind of by accident, of course. That's a funny idea, and the movie actually plays out according to plan, more or less, during the first half. But Celtic Pride has huge problems in the third act -- or perhaps, the fourth quarter. Because it has an essentially good heart, resisting the urge to go the black comedy route, both the kidnappers and their quarry must learn something from the experience of being holed up in Aykroyd's memorabilia-festooned bachelor pad. But in that third act, those lessons get applied in a way that's morally confused at best, downright self-interested at worst. Plus, the film goes from amiably goofy to just plain silly, at about the point Lewis Scott (Damon Wayans) escapes the aforementioned bachelor pad prison but can't seem to outrun or outwit the two wheezing fortysomethings chasing him. In one of his earliest screenwriting efforts, Judd Apatow finds his best stride exploring the dynamics between the three men when they aren't actively threatening each other. Here, they engage in semi-interesting dialogues about why athletes hawk products and what it means to have passion for the game. But these moments are fleeting, with continuity errors and just plain carelessness (a 7-foot Croatian substituting for Scott's diminutive point guard?) using up a much larger portion of the shot clock. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Paul Guilfoyle - Kevin O'Grady; Larry Bird - Himself; Christopher McDonald - Coach Kimball; Bill Walton - Bill Walton; Vladimir Cuk - Lurch
Credit
Dina Lipton - Art Director, Ferne Cassel - Casting, Mary Claire Hannan - Costume Designer, Michael Waxman - First Assistant Director, Tom DeCerchio - Director, Hubert de la Bouillerie - Editor, Judd Apatow - Executive Producer, Jonathan Glickman - Executive Producer, Charles Schlissel - Executive Producer, Basil Poledouris - Composer (Music Score), Basil Poledouris - Songwriter, Stephen Marsh - Production Designer, Oliver Wood - Cinematographer, Roger Birnbaum - Producer, Roger Burnbaum - Producer, Al Manzer - Set Designer, Curt Frisk - Sound/Sound Designer, Colin Quinn - Screenwriter, Judd Apatow - Screenwriter, Tom Perry - Re-Recording Mixer
Best friends for life, gym teacher Mike O'Hara and plumber Jimmy Flaherty are united by their love of Boston and its sports teams, especially the Boston Celtics, who are playing their last season in the old Boston Garden. So when the Celtics drop Game 6 of the NBA Finals to the Utah Jazz, setting up a deciding Game 7 in Boston, Mike and Jimmy find themselves depressed and hopeless. On top of all this, Mike has moved back in with Jimmy after his wife Carol, fed up with his unhealthy obsession with the Celtics, left him and took their son Tommy with her. Despondent after the Celtic loss in Game 6, a loss engineered by the Jazz's selfish, one-man-show shooting guard Lewis Scott, Jimmy and Mike stumble upon Scott at a Boston nightclub. Hoping at first to get him drunk enough so he'll be hungover for Game 7, Mike and Jimmy pose as Utah fans. However, the pair get more than they bargained for when they end up kidnapping Scott after he wakes up at Jimmy's apartment the next morning. Mike and Jimmy decide to hold Scott until after the game, reasoning that if they are going to prison, they might as well help the Celtics win in the meantime.
Scott's streetwise, arrogant ways contrast with Jimmy and Mike's bumbling blue-collar lifestyle. He derides them for being washed-up losers, and insinuates Mike is only after him because he is jealous of Scott's fame and ability. Mike, on the other hand, berates Scott for his behavior on and off the court, including starring in a campy Oscar Mayer hot dog commercial and skipping practices. Scott attempts to turn Jimmy against Mike, and, when this fails, escapes, only to be foiled by an antagonistic cabbie and a local cop, Kevin (Paul Guilfoyle), both fellow Celtics fans.
Ultimately, Mike challenges Scott to a game of one-on-one and the pair is incapacitated well before the final game is set to begin. Before he runs off, Scott presents the pair with a dilemma, they must root for him and hope the Jazz win, otherwise he will turn them both in to the police. Mike reconciles with his wife and son, knowing he might be going to prison, and Jimmy says goodbye to his grandmother. At the game, the two convince the other Celtics fans they are only pretending to root for the Jazz, and the first half ends with the Celtics leading 52-38. Mike, who knows the Jazz are losing because Scott refuses to pass the ball, gives him a pep talk from the stands, and Utah closes the gap to one point with a little over 7 seconds remaining. With one play left and the Jazz with the ball, Mike and Jimmy choose life over the Celtics, rooting for Utah and rushing the court after they win. Approached by Kevin who earlier ignored his cries for help, Lewis denies Mike and Jimmy committed the kidnapping, saving them from prison.
A few months later, Mike has promised his wife he would never interfere with an NBA Finals game again. But now it's football season. He and Jimmy sneak into the hotel room of Deion Sanders at 3:00 a.m. And they don't want his autograph.
