Necessary Roughness (1991)

What a beautiful movie!

Instant Favorite.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This was a rather good comedy sports movie featuring a college football team that basically gets hit hard with sanctions and such. I can not believe this film is so old, however. I was thinking this thing was made in 1995 or 96, but it came out in 91 while I was still in high school. The film actually predates Quantum Leap, a television show that features the star in this one Scott Bakula. Speaking of Scott, here is the case of a guy that just seems like he should of been a major star in Hollywood, but it just never materialized for him. He is great in this one as an older man who returns to college because he had to leave college prematurely the previous time. A coach in charge of rebuilding the football program recruits him as the team has few players and no real quarterback. The dean of the school is against the coach the whole way and is sort of the villain of the piece, but here is one of the kinks. I find it refreshing that a dean would want to focus on education rather than the gridiron. As much as I enjoy football, to often the educational program takes a backseat to a bunch of jocks who should not even be at the college except they are good at sports. Meanwhile, those who go to the school trying to pay their way and in the need of loans have to keep having their tuition raised to pay for things such as stadiums. Enough of my rant, the film is rather good, but is unbelievable. Suffice to say, there is no way a team that has so few players that some have to play offense and defense is going to compete against the number one team in the country. So just think of it as a Hollywood sports comedy, totally unrealistic, but worth a few laughs, unless of course it is Sinbad making the jokes.

This is a very good flick, and Scott Bakula has always been one of my favorite actors.I first saw this film on TV as a child and recently picked up the DVD in a bargain bin and just re-watched it. It has only gotten better with age.I love the concept of this movie, and having been a college athlete myself, understand the NCAA sanctions and the rampant cheating that does go one within the sports world, which made this movie all the more enjoyable for me.Within the course of this movie we see the Texas State University football team (the two time defending national champions) suffer through a plethora of NCAA violations and lose all of the scholarship players, coaches and broadcast rights to their games. The new coach recruits a 35-year old freshman with a what-if I had gone to college attitude, and he quickly meets and falls for his journalism teacher, before she realised that he was not faculty but one of her students. It's fun to watch this film and wonder 'what if' like if this really did happen to this extent how would a team prevail.

After the college football team is cracked down on by the dean for poor grades, the coach is forced to sign on some unconventional players (a 34-year old man, a teacher and a samurai) to play Iran Man football.With Scott Bakula being the star of the film, this movie is very much like "The Natural" with Robert Redford. Like Redford, Bakula was pushed out of sports 16 years ago and returns to be a star in his later years when everyone thinks he is past his prime. Yes, 16 years in both films. I could say it was like "The Replacements" but that seems almost too easy.A lot of things about the film are really stupid. Using Kathy Ireland as a kicker was just an excuse to put a hot girl in a locker room. Having a teacher coincidentally be a woman with a crush on Bakula from his high school years is a stretch. And in general, the movie served no point... the team has no chance of winning, so the best they can hope for is to not be skunked.Bakula is a great actor, but very dated in this film with his goofy jean jacket. Sinbad was Sinbad, and not the one from "Houseguest" but the unfunny one from the 1980s. Kathy Ireland was a better actress than I expected. The best actor? Strangely, Rob Schneider, who is probably known best for his dumb characters from Saturday Night Live and subsequent bad movies. In this, a young Schneider plays an announcer who is lovable and funny... comparable to Bob Uecker from "Major League".This film was okay, but I have no interest in seeing it again and if you choose to watch it, you don't have my blessing.

This movie really shows how the college football teams get away with this. "Necessary Roughness" is like the sister movie to "Major League". Only it's dealing with college football. Times do change for sports. The old members of the teams are gone not because they have moved on to bigger projects. Scandal is the cause of the team's folly. A shady dean, two coaches who are trying to get the team back to their winning ways. There comes a 34 year-old farm hand , and former high school football hero named Paul Blake(Scott Bakula, aka Sam Beckett on "Quantum Leap") gives the college a hand. He does a mighty good throw, and along with the other misfits. The big guy Manumana is the most menacing character of the team. However, they bring in the kicker Lucy(Kathy Ireland) and Manumana is smitten. I liked it when Samorai(Michael Dolan) got really rough with one of the players and the ref was good at naming the moves he was doing. I liked the part where Lucy reduced that blow-hard player into a "little boy" when she gave him a three point kick to his "friends". HAHAHA! It all ended well when the dean got his "just desserts" and Manumana went down "hard and fast" when Lucy gave him a victory kiss. I would feel the same after I do some back-flips. It was funny and it was fast, see this movie, the fun always lasts. RATING 3 OUT OF 5 STARS!