Product Description

Academy Award® winners George Clooney and Renée Zellweger team up in this fun-filled comedy set against the beginnings of pro football. Dodge Connelly (Clooney), captain of a struggling squad of barroom brawlers, has only one hope to save his team: recruit college superstar Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski, The Office). But when a feisty reporter (Zellweger) starts snooping around, she turns the two teammates into instant rivals and kicks off a wild competition filled with hilarious screwball antics! Critics are cheering Leatherheads as “a real winner” (Claudia Puig, USA Today).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38162 in DVD
• Brand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
• Released on: 2008-09-23
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.com
Leatherheads is a sort of two-fisted homage, simultaneously celebrating the early, unstructured days of professional football and the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s. George Clooney stars as "Dodge" Connelly of the Duluth Bulldogs, a wily (if a bit long in the tooth) player whose team goes bankrupt. His solution is to lure a war hero and star of the college-football circuit, Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford (John Krasinski from the American version of The Office) to join the team and, through the sheer force of his celebrity, legitimize professional football. Little does Connelly know that Rutherford's war record is being scrutinized by reporter Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger) and what she uncovers may undermine the whole scheme. Leatherheads isn't seamless--at times the screwball flavor feels forced and Zellweger's performance is labored--but those few awkward elements only emphasize how zippy and fun the rest of the movie is. Clooney also directed and demonstrates some real flair with editing and letting the fringes of the story be as vital as the main plot. Krasinski, with his goofy handsomeness and a streak of Jimmy Stewart charm, shows real promise as a movie star. Though Leatherheads has plenty of broad slapstick (and most of it is pretty funny), the movie's real comic richness comes out in offhand gestures and sly revelations of character. All in all, it isn't Preston Sturges (director of classic comedies like The Lady Eve and The Palm Beach Story), but it's in his neighborhood, and that's a pretty wonderful neighborhood to be in. --Bret Fetzer



Stills from Leatherheads (Click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

I really liked this off-beat romantic movie
George Clooney and Renee Zellweger star in this off-beat romantic comedy. Clooney plays Jimmy "Dodge" Connelly, an aging star in the seemingly collapsing sport of football. Zellweger plays Lexie Littleton, a positive woman, determined to make good in the man's world of reporting. Sparks fly when Dodge's scheme to resurrect football attracts Lexie, who quickly realizes that there is a dirty little secret being swept under the rug.

I really liked Renee Zellweger's portrayal of Lexie Littleton, a hard-headed, outspoken woman who is nobody's fool - it was very reminiscent of the tough women of yesteryear's Hollywood (check out Rosalind Russell's portrayal of a tough woman reporter in the 1940 film, His Girl Friday). George Clooney pulls off another good everyman role, bringing his charm and charisma to the role. I liked the way that Clooney and Zellweger bounced off each other - both too independent to simply surrender to the other.

I really liked this off-beat romantic movie, which really is a blast from the past of Golden Age Hollywood. I don't hesitate to give this charming movie 5 stars!

(Review of Leatherheads)

Beautiful cinematography, but...
I'm not really a football fan, but I am a Clooney fan and decided to check Leatherheads out. The movie is basically a screwball comedy dealing with aging football jock Dodge Connelly[played by George Clooney]who is desperate to keep his pro-football team alive.This is 1925, and pro-football is more of a joke than serious business. He decides to bring on a young, war hero/college football superstar Carter Rutherford [John Krasinski] and approaches his manager C.C. Frazier [Jonathan Pryce].Before long, Carter is playing for the Duluth Bulldogs and bringing in the crowds and money.But, things are not all smooth-sailing, as newspaper journalist, Lexie Littleton [Renee Zellweger] tags along for the ride, trying her best to uncover the real truth behind Carter's war hero story, whilst engaging in active verbal sparring with Dodge [Clooney].

I felt that the storyline itself wasn't anything unique - and to add to that, this wasn't really a true sports movie. Sure, it tries to provide an interesting backstory as to the genesis of pro-football, but doesn't really address this topic with any depth. The screwball comedy part is also half-baked - there are some laughs, but not many.

What I enjoyed [hence the three-star rating] was the beautiful cinematography and the attention to period details, evoking the 1920s with some measure of credibility. Also, I loved the witty banter between Clooney and Zellwegger, and the dialogue between them was the highlight of the movie for me. Though their verbal sparring was well-done, there did seem to be something lacking in their chemistry with each other. I just felt that Renee Zellwegger didn't seem a suitable match for Clooney in this role, there was just something lacking and I can't explain it. I felt they were both trying too hard to conjure famous screen couples of the past [the 1940s to be exact, like Bogart-Bacall, or Hepburn-Tracy] and just didn't quite manage to pull it off.

Anyway, that's how I felt as I sat through this movie. It's not a bad movie, and definitely worth a watch, but it wasn't exactly memorable either. Final verdict: an average romantic comedy.

Like the first years of pro football, this one's all over the map but always watchable
This engaging tale of the early days of professional football has two or three strong points going for it, namely gorgeous cinematography (I'm mainly thinking of all the burnished autumnal colors that were beautifully lit) and a nice fable-like quality, not unlike Robert Redford's "The Natural". On that second point, though, I liked that the storybook quality is diluted a little with some grit and humor, so the whole mythic feel isn't laid on too thick (as it was perhaps in the Redford film). Also, the acting is very good, both the individual performances by George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, and John Krasinski, and the cute way the performances bounce off each other.

Not fatal but less successful is the story, which starts off well but then splinters off into a variety of subplots, themes, and plot points, so after a while one asks "what is this movie exactly about?" Make no mistake, we're not talking messy and incoherent, just a lack of focus. And what focus there was sometimes seemed misplaced. For example, an investigation into the truth of the Krasinski character's war record by Zellweger's reporter character took up a lot of time in the second half but didn't deliver narrative rewards or even entertaining plot developments. It was just sort of there.

Despite those shortcomings, I'd definitely recommend "Leatherheads" for at least a viewing, primarily for the reasons stated at the outset. Also, as far as modern movies are concerned, it was fun to see a film set in an underutilized era (the 1920's) about an underutilized subject (sports history). So you see things you haven't seen in the movies a thousand times before.

The DVD offers top-notch picture and sound, which more than does justice to the original film's excellent cinematography. Featurettes in the special features section are only a few minutes each, but there are a nice handful of them. Paricularly interesting were the featurettes showing where special effects were applied to create crowds, stadiums that no longer actually exist, and other visual requirements. Special effects aren't just about spaceships and monsters anymore; the most normal and mundane background scenes are now routinely created via digital wizardry.

For decent evening's entertainment, one can do worse than this DVD.