movie review for 80 for brady

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80 for Brady Reviews

A lot better than many will think - but perhaps a film you understand a little better if you a passionate sports fan. As you would expect with the calibre of the cast the comedy does hit when it needs to.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 16, 2023

Sadly, Tomlin’s line delivery is wooden and inert, even with her “Grace and Frankie” costar Fonda; she’s better doing deprecating physical humor or when paired with Brady.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 16, 2023

The film is full of sitcom-level jokes, Screenwriting 101 plotting, and cameos from former Patriots stars that play out exactly as expected.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 9, 2023

The quartet of seasoned actresses bring their A-game to make this wish-fulfillment, feel-good movie a lot of fun to watch.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 7, 2023

Football fans accustomed to the superstitions and obsessive fandom that comes with following a squad should find lots to love. It also should score with audiences looking for an earnestly good-natured and only slightly rowdy girl’s trip.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | May 15, 2023

One gets to witness such idiocies as a Tom Brady bobblehead talk to Tomlin’s character or an accidental drug trip that results in Moreno’s character seeing everyone with Guy Fieri’s head.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 13, 2023

It’s corny and phony and drippy and only the die-hardest of Brady’s fans wouldn’t be turned off by the blatant fellating of the superstar quarterback and his numerous achievements (and the NFL in general).

Full Review | May 4, 2023

These actresses are legends on their own, but collectively they are iconic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 4, 2023

Unfortunately for me, there is no reference to Lady Gaga’s halftime show - but there is a way too long, very 2008-era gag about the ladies accidentally taking edibles and hallucinating visions of Guy Fieri.

Full Review | May 3, 2023

Good intentions and a kind heart does not always a good movie make, and 80 For Brady is, sadly, a pedestrian effort at best

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 29, 2023

Why, girls, why?

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/5 | Apr 28, 2023

80 For Brady sounds like 90 minutes of solid torture. But the good news is that it’s merely fairly bad. The leads don’t stretch themselves, but also do nothing to mar our sense of them as legends who deserve better material.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 27, 2023

Good luck to you, 80 for Brady. You are lukewarm drivel. And yet, you're affectionate, ever so slightly funny and your heart looks to be in the right place. Some days, that'll do.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 26, 2023

A comfort movie for the silver-haired cinephile, 80 for Brady is charming enough to score a touchdown for those who like their cinema undemanding.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 29, 2023

It's never very funny, and the drama is thoroughly sappy, but these four grande dames of cinema keep it entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 28, 2023

Far from a touchdown. We can do better for our icons than this.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 25, 2023

Instead of bothering to craft any decent jokes, the scriptwriters rely on the concept of old people getting out of the house being inherently hilarious.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Mar 24, 2023

A children’s film for pensioners, 80 For Brady is an absurd, silly mess. But in spite of itself — and thanks to the warm, genuine chemistry of its legendary leading ladies — it is sweet, and difficult to truly begrudge.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 24, 2023

You needn’t be an American football fan to enjoy Kyle Marvin’s film, but its general cheesiness and lack of surprises — flaws only mildly alleviated by the stars’ high spirits — are pretty good reasons to exercise caution.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 20, 2023

It’s tame, like really tame, with a distinct 80s screwball comedy feel. The comedy is cringe-worthy but wholesome, and we laugh with the foibles, not at them.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 18, 2023

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‘80 for brady’ review: tomlin, fonda, moreno and field outmaneuver screenplay fumbles in a crowd-pleasing sports comedy.

In a feature inspired by a true story, four silver-haired Massachusetts friends head to Houston for Super Bowl LI to see their hero Tom Brady in action.

By Sheri Linden

Sheri Linden

Senior Copy Editor/Film Critic

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From left: Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Sally Field

If 80 for Brady , the opening-night selection of the Palm Springs Film Festival, lures the 55-plus cohort from its living-room flat-screens to the multiplex, it won’t be for the bromides on friendship. Those are delivered with an almost shocking literalness, but sparingly at least. This movie’s dazzle is all about the chemistry of its powerhouse quartet and the potential for comic sparks, and on that front, the starry huddle of Lily Tomlin , Jane Fonda , Rita Moreno and Sally Field delivers.

As for the story itself, most of which is not set in the stadium, it’s a variously awkward, sweet and silly amalgam of day-to-day reality, sitcom zaniness and pure worship fantasy — those worshipped being, understandably, its glorious leading ladies. Scripted by Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins, whose previous teamwork includes Carol’s Second Act and Booksmart , and directed by Kyle Marvin, an indie producer ( The Climb ) at the helm of his first film, 80 for Brady lays out all its plays right on the surface, sometimes ploddingly. It’s when Marvin stands back and lets his stars loose that the film finds traction, delighting in their skill at bringing expert devil-in the-details flourishes to the obvious setups.

The screenplay grasps how superstition takes hold of otherwise rational people in the name of their sports-team devotion. Every time they gather to watch a Patriots game, Lou and company go so far as to re-create what they were doing in her living room on the occasion of a decisive Pats victory. As local sportscasters Nat and Pat, Alex Moffat and Rob Corddry further capture the emotional extremes of fandom (and also give the always problematic Bay State accent a creditable shot; the only other castmember to try is Tomlin, with an understated slant on her vowels here and there).

Through a ticket giveaway contest and a series of events that are muddled for plot purposes but also unnecessarily confusing, the four friends get themselves to Houston to see the Patriots take on the Atlanta Falcons. For reasons that Lou doesn’t reveal to her pals, this Super Bowl has taken on enormous importance to her; hiding her health concerns, she frames the need to go as perhaps their last shot to see the 39-year-old Brady play.

At its sharpest, the screenplay by Halpern and Haskins gives the cast terrifically droll lines — a bit of haggling between Moreno’s Maura and a scalper being a highlight. But even when it doesn’t, these four effortlessly elevate the material with their unforced readings and offhand spins, Tomlin in particular. She manages to withstand the script’s most mawkish passages, involving Lou’s psychic connection with Brady, who addresses her from TV screens and billboards with words of encouragement, a favor that she ultimately repays with her own timely pep talk.

It’s more fun to watch the foursome outwit a Calm Gardens employee (Jimmy O. Yang) and, later, a stadium facilities manager (Ron Funches). Given how deliriously witty the central performances can be, it’s too bad the writers and Marvin didn’t push the absurdity factor more. There’s no need to supplement the comic framework with feel-good affirmations when these actors bring such accomplishment and well-earned affection to their roles; they’re rooting interests from the get-go, which is, above all, the point of this cinematic valentine.

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