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: #40590 in DVD
• Brand: CLOONEY,GEORGE
• 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
• Dimensions: 1.20 pounds
• 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

great-looking film in the service of weak material
**1/2

In the 1920s, even though college football was regularly playing to sellout crowds, the professional side of the sport was as anathema to most Americans as Hulk Hogan being feted as guest-of-honor at the Queen's high tea.

Poorly regulated and sparsely attended, these early pro games were true spit-and-bailing-wire affairs, the players little more than a ragtag collection of "miners and farmers and shell-shocked veterans of the Great War," the equipment well-worn or nonexistent, and as for venues - well, pretty much any turnip field that didn't have too much of a slant or too many holes in the ground would suffice in a pinch. It was about as far from the multimillion dollar contracts and corporate sponsorships of today's NFL as one could possibly imagine.

It's nice to be reminded of football's humble beginnings every now and then, and "Leatherheads," at least in theory, is just the movie to do it.

Based very loosely on fact, the screenplay tells the story of Jimmy "Dodge" Connelly (George Clooney, who also co-wrote and directed the film), a pro ball player who comes up with a scheme to save the league from extinction by recruiting the top player from Princeton, a charismatic war hero named Carter "the Bullet" Rutherford ("The Office"'s John Kransinski) to play for the Duluth Bulldogs. This brings the fans to the arenas in record numbers, and pro football seems well on its way to a bright and lucrative future. Enter Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger), an acerbic ace reporter for the Chicago Tribune whose editors have sent her on assignment to investigate whether Rutherford's status as a war hero is really all it`s trumped up to be or whether it`s just a carefully manufactured fiction designed to boost his popularity with the fans - an expose that, if printed, could well spell doom not only for the young man himself but for the sport whose new-won fame is intricately linked to the prestige he alone confers upon it.

Done in the style of a 1930s screwball comedy, "Leatherheads" is filled with sharp-tongued characters who basically spoon and spar their way to a happy ending. But while the movie certainly looks sensational and boasts tremendous star power in the likes of Clooney, Zellweger and Kransinski, the triteness of the storyline and the cutesiness of the humor rob it of much of its sophistication and charm (an attempt at a Keystone Kops parody is a particularly dopey and ill-conceived attempt at period detail relevance). Unfortunately, the farther the story drifts from the field and the history of football itself, the less compelling the movie becomes. Thus, "Leatherheads," with all its side forays into romantic schmaltz, corny newsroom melodrama and lowbrow slapstick, squanders its opportunity to be the first mainstream movie to truly explore the infancy of the game. A pity.

On the other hand, the movie does contain some of the best art direction, costume design and cinematography of any movie in recent memory. And that alone might make it worth checking out.

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)

Enjoyable 1920s Football Comedy
Most of the movie is snappy comedy and old-time romance. The football scenes toward the end drag but overall a fun movie to watch and enjoy.

The early 1920's is when Leatherheads takes place. Leatherheads title comes from the helmets they wore at the time - hardly protecting the player's heads, but much about football has changed since then. Professional football was laughable. It showed the early team playing in a farm field with a cow chewing grass and looking mildly irritated her field was full of crazy men running back and forth. Few fans were around.

Dodge Connelly (George Clooney) is an older player (45 years old) and does not want his team, the Duluth Bulldogs, to fold - like other teams are across the United States. College football is doing better than the weak professional teams. Dodge latches onto a top player Carter Ruthford (John Kasinski) who is also a national hero of the First World War. Carter is young, smart and is talked into playing for the Bulldogs for $5,000 of the gate receipts. He brings in the fans, the reporters and money. The Bulldogs are on a gravy train with him - he helps pack in the fans and get bigger professional stadium.

Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger) is the cute Chicago Newspaper reporter (also the romantic interest of Dodge and Carter) who wants a "big" story to make her editor of a newspaper. She is ambitious, full of moxie and knows how to handle herself in a man's world of sports. The drama starts when Carter falls for her and confesses that his heroics in capturing a group of German Soldiers was sheer luck (although I thought he should still get credit). She has some guilt but prints the story and then the movie gets complicated and a little off kilter. The story line gets a bit goofy and off the point.

However the movie meanders, it was fun and enjoyable - Dodge and Lexie are played in the spirit of the 1930's romantic comedies and many laughs throughout.