User reviews

As a huge NFL fan, I had heard of Warner, but had no clue about his story. This is clearly one of the best real-life underdog stories. The directing was decent, but the writing was a little slow and stale. It needed more action and suspense, and less happy-go-lucky vibes. The 112 min runtime and slow pacing really made the film feel dragged out. The casting and performances were spot-on and convincing, and although a fan of Zachary Levi (especially in Shazam!), I think his overly happy and smiling demeanor was too much to play Warner's character. I kept expecting to hear him yell Shazam! Nevertheless, he acted his heart out, as did Anna Paquin. Still, an amazing and emotional story (have the tissues nearby) and I'm really glad I watched it. It's a well deserved 8/10 from me.

Powerful, this is just solid. A very inspirational story that will make you tear up....a story that is so rare and unique in football. Perfectly performed by great actors. Highly recommend this for the sport fans.

Okay, this isn't the best movie technically I've ever seen, but it's a good story that needed to be told and I enjoyed it.

The moral conclusions will be obvious once you watch the movie, so I'll just skip over those. And unless you're a diehard cynic, you should.

Yes, it's sentimental, but it's not maudlin (much) and the story is largely factual. If it bothers you, you've got issues. How someone could rate this four stars, I have no idea. The acting is not mediocre, it's quite good. Dead on for the lead characters if you've ever seen the real folk interviewed live.

The overall flow of the movie is reasonable sprightly, though a tad clunky in places.

A good, fun, watch that doesn't go overboard with the emotion... Okay, maybe just a tad, but mainly the movie lets the story speak for itself.

Get the tissues - American Underdog will make even the most stone face man let go... Best sports themed feel-good movie I've EVER seen (and I see a LOT of movies)! Second only to CODA this year in the feel good category at large, which might very well be the best of all time. It was a memorable year for feeling good watching movies 👏.

Better than anticipated, and glad I bought American Underdog (only way to see it right now other than in Theaters). Worth it!

My "Favorite Film of 2021" [EDIT: Replaced later by 'CODA' which I saw after this film]

Anyone who reads my reviews knows I don't give out 9s or 10s easily. Like Kurt Warner, this film defies the "usual" and earns my 9 without reservation.

👍👍

Brenda joined the Marines but received an early discharge when her first child, Zack, developed some medical issues. Kurt was a quarterback for a lower division college in Iowa in the early 1990s. Even though he had dreamed from a young age to play quarterback in the NFL he was not able to get drafted when his year came. So he made ends meet by working at a grocery store but never gave up hope.

Brenda and Kurt managed to forge a relationship and Kurt cherished her two young children. Eventually, even though too old and too inexperienced, Kurt got a job with an NFL team and when their starting QB was injured Kurt took over. It was a gamble but it paid off. And as they say, the rest is history.

This is a very well made movie and from what I can tell by reading bios, plus the extras on the movie disc, appears to be totally authentic. As you would expect with the Warners as producers. Truly a fine story of an American Underdog.

At home on BluRay from our public library.

There's no doubt this is a feel good story showing the trials and tribulations of two people who had to endure lots to keep both their dreams and relationship alive. It's slow paced which is to be expected for what it's aiming to achieve but I didn't find there was much to differentiate it from other films that use a similar framework.

I thought Anna Paquin was quite good, but wasn't totally sold on Zachary Levi's performance. The latter half of the film which focuses on the culmination of all the two went through with Kurt succeeding in the NFL is quite rewarding to watch and well done.

Perhaps my rating is a bit harsh, because it is fine, just not special for me.

American Underdog is such a fantastic film. The acting is like no other and the cast was a great choice selection. It is definitely a must see film for the whole family.

No disrespect but still screw the Rams.

It's not the most unique plot of all, but it sure was a feel-good underdog story. I had a great time watching the story of Kurt Warner. It's great that the real people actually involved a lot in the production, because I felt the relationship between Warner and his family first charming, and then endearing. Another warm aspect was the amount of support that the side characters had for our main quarterback. I just can't help but feel inspired.

Overall, it's another underdog story, but man it's a good one. 8.5/10.

Zachary Levi (from Shazam) stars in the Kurt Warner story (I mean it might as well be called that) as the film traces his struggles from being an unknown Midwestern quarterback hoping to make to the NFL but due to not playing in a big school & not having decent representation (he has to browbeat an agent to back him), he has to make due by stocking shelves in a supermarket but then an entrepreneurial indoor football team owner, played by Bruce McGill, entices him to join up where he finally achieves some state of success (along w/bagging a divorcee w/2 children played by Oscar winner Anna Paquin) but things take a turn when the ST. Louis Rams give him a chance (spearheaded by the coach's, played by Dennis Quaid, belief Levi can make a difference to the team). Not a bad film even though something like 1993's Rudy kind of got here first but it's crowd pleasing, inspirational & w/a dash of sentimental religious rot which will not completely turn off the casual viewer. Also starring Adam Baldwin (from Firefly) as one of Levi's first coaches.

I was fifteen years old during the 1999 Rams season. I still remember the "greatest show on turf" like it was last year, even though it's now been 22 years. The Rams revolutionized the sport that season.

"American Underdog" left me speechless at times. Levi was believable enough as an athlete, but the major theme of the story is family and how sometimes winning isn't really winning if you don't have those to share it with. I had heard the Kurt Warner story a few times, but obviously not with this much detail and heart.

As for the football scenes, I was blown away by how well they did. The play calling especially was well done. The trailer had me worried about the quality of football and my worries quickly subsided only after a few minutes of the film.

The supporting cast also was impressive. I wish we saw more of the beautiful and talented Paquin, who portrayed Brenda Warner and knocked it out the park. Dennis Quaid plays Dick Vermiel and like usual, was awesome. I could go on and on.

I mostly wanted to write this review for football fans (like me) who were skeptical of this film after the trailer. Please see it. I will definitely be buying this film for my personal collection. I hope you all enjoy it as well.

You've seen the insurance commercial with the football in the baby carriage? The ball's covered in a blanket, being cradled and hushed by a lineman. Then, in the last five seconds, that same lineman pulls away the cover and prances into the end zone. Then it's over.

That's this movie. 25 seconds of schmaltzy sentimentality or family drama. 5 seconds of gridiron.

If that sounds like a skewed ratio for a sports movie, you'd be right. That might not be a problem for many. And to be fair, I enjoyed both performances from Levi and Paquin. But there should be more touchdowns and fewer letdowns.

Kurt's relationship with Brenda and her family stands front and center. While Brenda brought emotional baggage into the fold, Kurt's brand of baggage proved more toxic: a myopic singular dream to play in the NFL. The rift that develops hurts to watch, but Brenda's faith in God gives Kurt strength to discover faith of his own and to be a better man. Then Kurt reiterates his dream. Brenda supports him. Dream consumes Kurt. Brenda resents dream. Kurt tries to woo Brenda. Rinse and repeat. But where's football?

It's here and there.

I found Kurt's relationship with his coaches and teammates to be more compelling. Yet outside of a handful of instances, we only get tidbits. The football scenes are pretty good, too. Also liked seeing Kurt play against Ray Lewis.

This movie works for what it is, but make no mistake: it's a stretch to market this as a sports film. I remember that Ben Affleck flick where he's a youth basketball coach with dependency issues, and there was way more basketball than Ben hitting the bottle. Invincible? Remember the Titans? Plenty of sports action. Here? Not nearly enough.

This is honestly a film that the entire family should see. Well crafted and inspirational, it's very much old school and what old school Hollywood used to deliver. Kurt Warner's real life story needed this treatment and I can't wait to own this one on dvd. I love that the faith-based aspects made it into the film yet weren't depicted in an over exaggerated or overt manner. This is a love story as much as it is a football story. Not just the love of a man and his wife but for God and his children.

I gave a very average rating for a very average movie. I went into this hoping that maybe it can have the same effect as 42 did. While it had some elements it just wasn't anything memorable or anything unique about this. It's not the best football movie, it's not the best Christian-based movie, it's just very run-of-the-mill. The acting is average, Levi does a fine job trying to exercise his dramatic skills, but was never hooked into his performance. Anna Paquin plays your typical wife with typical problems and some of it is very cliched, and the one guy I was looking forward to seeing was Dennis Quaid, but even he didn't turn in a mind-bending performance, sometimes came across as awkward and silly. The only two things that did impress me however was the young actor who played Zack who's name is Hayden Zaller, I thought he did a fantastic job, giving the only standout, most genuine performance in the film. The last thing is the editing at the end of the film was very subtle and caught me off guard, but at the same time I do feel like the ending was compromised as it just didn't feel complete, I appreciate what they were going for and I like the editing itself but what it resulted in for the ending as a whole didn't work for me. Overall, I was very unimpressed by this film, I don't hate it or want it to be burned from human existence. However, it was just very generic, very mundane, nothing about the movie is anything I'll remember, certainly not in the same way as 42. The acting was subpar minus Zaller, the story was uneventful and flat, but on the same token, it's a very harmless film. If you just want a movie that's not too complex and is told in the simplest way, and a movie you can just sit back and relax with as your full attention is not required, then you may enjoy. For people like me who likes to get engrossed in the story and ask for a lot more to be offered, this is not the movie for me. If seen better movies similar to this, and I don't need to talk about it any further. 6.1/10.

The movie is solid and a feel good as it should be.

BUT and this is a big BUT!

The casting is catastrophic!

40 year old actors plays 25 years old. It is not realistic at all. Brenda has two kids from earlier marriage with the same man but they have different ethnicity.

Not knowing anything about Kurt I needed to use Google to understand that he was not a middle age man that got his chance of his life (like Invincible). If they had found 25 year old actors it would have been more realistic that it could be though to get date a girl with 2 kids. For a 40 year old it is a totally normal situation...

Sorry but it ruined the movie.

This was the best movie we have seen in a long time. It's just proves you don't have to curse or show nudity to make a good movie. Don't give up on your dreams no matter what comes your way persevere. Just do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do.

After following the war in Ukraine and watching a ton of largely colorless depressive movies I really needed some feel good story. This looked colorful and energetic from the trailer and it got good viewer ratings. I don't know who Kurt Warner is and don't watch NFL, but as a man I watch pretty much any sport movie.

The movie is well shot, has fine acting, the sets look real, and the production overall looks high enough. It just looks like a quality movie that people will rate highly for that alone. Unfortunately the script is very weak and the story goes nowhere. Firstly it's not really a sports movie. It's largely about how Kurt found and dated his wife. He meets a woman with 2 kids. They try to get by on little cash while he remains undrafted with a football career going nowhere. This is by the main story. Football takes up maybe 20 minutes of the movie. The love story takes up over 1 hour. Nearly all scenes are Kurt hanging out with his girlfriend and her kids while living in poverty. To me as a man that's rather boring. And furthermore the movie is about an athlete so it's not even marketed as a romance hence women won't know that this is a movie for them. NFL is only shown at the very end of the movie. He joins a team and then from then on they show a bit of training and him winning Superbowl minutes later. That's the plot I wanted overall! He's apparently the greatest undrafted player ever and a legend of the game. But up till the 5 last minutes of the movie it was impossible for me to even know if he made it in NFL or not. The movie is just about his relationship which is a shame as the football in it is amazingly shot. It's clear who is running where and all the athletes show a ton of energy. It feels like real football which I haven't seen in movies before. I guess you can create magic by using CGI instead of having fans sitting around and doing only boring shots. It looks like they rented some indoor location with blue screens all around. The camera is on the field following each play. It's great! But it's a very small part of the movie and once it appears you are already tired of the story. Keep in mind the story is about this poor couple struggling each day. Then 1 hour and 20 minutes into the movie he is picked by an NFL team. Then we see the wife walking around in fancy high heels as they move into a mansion. So what happened? They were poor and then 1 minute later they are super wealthy. What's the story here? The plot never clearly moves anywhere. Stuff just happens to this family.

It's a shame such an impressive project feels produced. The story lacks passion and creativity. The script goes nowhere for the first hour. We get a few scenes with Kurt's friend. 1 scene of him working in a supermarket and playing around there. Maybe 2 short training scenes before he made NFL. Maybe 2 football games before the NFL part. And Anna Paquin is not even that interesting. Her face looks weird in this role because of her face job and she doesn't quite look like a poor housewife. She looks like a 40 year old actress who underwent a few surgeries in Hollywood. There is no great emotional bond between her and Zachary Levi. Both do a good job, but it's nothing energetic or romantic. Just a bunch of scenes of them being together that feel real, but don't push the plot anywhere. You should have cut 40 minutes of this stuff and shown more football. As of now it's not really a movie for sport fans. It's a weak romance. To me it's rather boring, but looks impressive. But I can't judge romance so I don't know if it's a good or bad one. I just didn't enjoy it. It's just a movie showing daily life scene by scene.

In these times of doom and misery you just need a film like this to give you a shot in the arm!

Inspirational and very moving story.

Just one great story and film.

Had me jumping out of my seat for joy!

Loved it...

As a European i can see this as a 'true' American story.

Just a shame that the left out the part where he played in NFL Europe with the Amsterdam Admirals.

I was at all the games but guess it was a phantom on the field and not Kurt Warner... True story it is not, it is shortened and adapted for making an entertaining movie.

So when you watch this keep that in mind.

Fact is he did not come on the team the season they went to the superbowl.

That was his 2nd season with the team and between 98-99 he played the season in NFL Europe.

It is said his wife hated the godless city of Amsterdam so it could be 1 of the reasons they left that part out.

I have to begin by saying I am a huge NFL fan. But, to my surprise, this was not a movie about the NFL. It is a touching story about an athlete and the strong woman by his side. We often here the words faith, hope, and love in spiritual talks and discussion. What do these words look like in life.... The Warner family. This movie does a nice job at showing the path to success and yes, it comes with trials and tribulations. This was well done.

To be honest I never heard of Kurt Warner before. As a European American football is just not that interesting, almost nobody watches this sport, mostly because the game is interrupted every five seconds and that's just a buzz killer. We don't need commercials every five seconds but in the American culture it's all about consumption so I kinda get it. Football is the main sport here (Americans call it soccer). That said American Underdog is an interesting and entertaining movie/biography. Personnaly I wouldn't have casted Zachari Levi to play the role of Kurt Warner. I mean, he's supposed to be in college in the beginning of the movie but looks like way over thirty. His acting was okay but it could have been better. Anna Paquin that I knew from the excellent show True Blood is a decent actress, looks way better with longer hair, like almost every woman by the way. There was a good chemistry between the two main charaters. The cinematography was good, it's not just football scenes and that was a good thing to be honest. The thing I learned from this movie is that Kurt Warner did a special thing in that sport, but I will probably forget everything about him by next week. He just isn't Pele or Maradona, names the entire world knows. Worth a watch even for somebody that has absolutely no interest in the sport.

Very hokey, over the top sentimental, cheesy, bland, and overall boring. I'm a huge football fan, but the in your face emotion made me want to surf my phone while the movie was going on. Even the NFL action scenes looked fake. I swear, every actor looked like an over aged, out of shape pretender. Very predictable. Maybe worth a rental if you're a big sports fan and like the lifetime movie network.