I hope you are free from work or school right now, because Netflix just added some movies that are perfect for lazy, summertime viewing.
I’m not a huge fan of weddings, but I like watching them in movies, and underrated Debra Messing rom-com The Wedding Date has a doozy of a ceremony filled with lots of drama, romance and chiffon. My God, the chiffon!
I stink at baseball, which is probably why I like the sports fantasy Rookie of the Year. Like its kid protagonist, it lets me live out my long-dormant fantasy of becoming a world-famous pitcher.
If you’re a sports fan, chances are you’ve seen Rocky. Sylvester Stallone’s inspirational Oscar winner is back on Netflix in June, as well as all of its sequels and the Creed spinoffs with Michael B. Jordan, so now’s a good time to relive a bona fide classic.
‘The Wedding Date’ (2005)
Kat Ellis (Messing) has a champagne problem — she’s been invited to her half-sister Amy’s (Amy Adams) fancy wedding in London, and she doesn’t have anyone to accompany her. Since her ex-fiancé is going to be there, she wants a handsome man on her arm to make him jealous, so out of desperation, she hires male escort Nick (Dermot Mulroney), who has the goods to make any man envious. Once they arrive at the ceremony, Kat discovers Nick is worth every penny and begins to fall for him. But love might be too high a price to pay for both of them, and their wedding date could turn into a disaster even messier than a divorce.
Released at the height of the 2000s rom-com craze, The Wedding Date didn’t get the attention it deserved. Seen today, it’s a winning comedy with a high concept: what if the person who works for you is the one you fall in love with? Sure, Nick is a sex worker, but he still has a heart, and his time with Kat makes him realize he wants more than just money and momentary pleasure. If you’re familiar with Messing from Will & Grace, be prepared for a mild surprise when you watch her in The Wedding Date. Her Kat is more cynical and desperate than her kooky Grace, and she shows impressive range even in a fluffy rom-com like this one.
The Wedding Date is streaming on Netflix.
‘Rookie of the Year’ (1992)
Henry Rowengartner (Thomas Ian Nicholas) is a pre-teen Little Leaguer who is terrible at playing baseball. When he breaks his right arm during a game, he thinks his luck can’t get any worse. It turns out, she’s right — after his arm heals, he discovers he has an uncanny ability to pitch no-hitters. When he shows off his newfound talent at a Chicago Cubs game, he’s immediately hired by the team’s manager, Sal (Albert Hall), who is desperate to turn his team’s bad fortunes around. While Henry helps the Cubs get closer to reaching the World Series, he’s still just a kid, and he’s way in over his head playing an adult game with high stakes.
Hollywood doesn’t make mid-budget, high-concept films like Rookie of the Year anymore, and that’s a shame. The film isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s amiable and good-natured, kinda like Henry himself. There’s a cute subplot involving Henry’s mom being romanced by a veteran pitcher who Henry is replacing, and the climax, which involves the usual “Big Game” trope, is different enough to be a little surprising — and surprisingly touching.
Rookie of the Year is streaming on Netflix.
‘Rocky’ (1976)
Netflix just added all the Rocky and Creed movies at the beginning of the month, and while some are better than others, nothing beats the Oscar-winning original. The seminal 1976 film stars a then-unknown Sylvester Stallone as the titular character, an Italian-American nobody who is picked by heavyweight boxing champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) to fight him in a highly publicized upcoming match. Rocky is seriously out of his depth, but with the support of his trainer Mickey (Burgess Meredith) and his shy girlfriend Adrian (Talia Shire), he has a fighting shot at pulling off the impossible — beating Apollo and escaping his lower-class lifestyle.
Winner of the 1976 Best Picture Oscar, Rocky stands alone as the most inspiring — and inspirational — movie ever made. Most of the credit should be given to Stallone, who also wrote the screenplay and made Rocky into an underdog hero everyone could root for. Even though the film has been ripped off and parodied for nearly half a century, it remains as fresh and vital as it was in 1976. After you watch, you’ll feel like you can take on anyone, even Apollo Creed. (Reader, please don’t do that.)
Rocky is streaming on Netflix.
