jeżeli twoje dziecko najbardziej na świecie kocha filmy, a ty najbardziej na świecie kochasz swoje dziecko, to kup mu spekulacje o kinie, pozakulisowy apendyks:

Well Anthony Harvey’s “Players” is the Hollywood tennis movie.

Harvey’s film was ridiculed by critics and dismissed by audiences when it came out back in 1979. But as a Hollywood tennis sports movie it’s pretty good. The movie starts with a terrific sequence of two players waiting for three minutes in the waiting room where players cool their heels before their match at Wimbledon. It’s a great opening scene for a sports movie. And Arnold Schulman’s script has a neat idea of structuring the whole film around Chris’ championship Wimbledon match. We watch the different sets of the match as real life tennis pros of the era (Connors & McEnroe) sit in the stands. In between the sets, we see flashbacks that tell us how Chris got there.

The glitzy ritzy jet-setting love story between him and MacGraw isn’t very believable, and by the end doesn’t make much sense. In fact the whole third act of the love story seems left on the cutting room floor, with the film makers hopeful audiences wouldn’t notice. Yet even while the love story collapses by the end, in it’s own Greek Tycoon-like soap opera opulence, it’s still kind of fun. But the films best moments are Dean Paul Martin training with his coach, real life tennis giant Poncho Gonzales (playing himself), including a must in a sports movie, a great training montage.