Before there wasn't any rules, there was a game with no rules. George Clooney brings the audience to a time where there were no Super Bowls, and America pro-football league was really struggling. The film is a romantic 'screwball' comedy set against 1925 starting the over camera mugging leading man Dodge Connolly (George Clooney), a charming, brash football hero, is determined to guide his team from cow fields to packed stadiums. George Clooney is best suite for comedy, and it works in this film. His charm, his timing, and the way, he can get the attention to the audience to follow him is amazing. He's seems the leader type in the role. He wants to make the sport better, but deep inside of him, he knows he can't do the breaking of the rules anymore if he wants the sport to survive. Right now it's not. Not only the team lose their sponsor due to fighting, but the entire league faces certain collapse, unless Dodge can figure out a way to save the sport. Dodge convinces a popular college football star to join his ragtag ranks. That popular college football star is All-American Carter Rutherford ( John Krasinski) a World War 1 who single-handedly forced multiple German Soldiers to surrender during the trench warfare. Carter has dashing good looks and unparalleled speed on the field that can help the struggling sport finally capture the country's attention. Carter also holds a secret about his past, that Dodge is trying to figure out. Not only Dodge, but Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger) a sport journalist looking for the big scoop. Lexie tries to get close to both Dodge and Carter to find out if there is truly a deep dark secret that Carter is holding and maybe the All-American American isn't as perfect as it seems. Renee is no more then repeating how she acts when playing Roxie Hart in Chicago. Something about her, doesn't speak or look sexy. It's not new, it's feels cartoony when hearing the fast-talking exchanging between her and Dodge. The script gives her hard-boiled witticisms to work with, some are good quotes that are quite funny and sophisticated, others need some more work. It works better then some of the dearth of dialogue in other period films from today. The love triangle between the three is great, because each of them are trying to get over the other. The ending game is still awesome, I like how they pull out a way for the team to use what they learn for the War to apply to the game of football. George definitely was influenced by th film "The Sport Parade" (1932) for this film, and the film also loosely mirrors the real life events that save the NFL in real life, with Jim Thorpe joining the Canton Bulldogs. The team in the film also sports the name 'Bulldogs'. Leatherheads try re-creates a genre long lost, and while both don't fully realize the style of the classics they emulate, it's refreshing to see someone still remembers. The overacting by George Clooney and Renee Zellweger's sun parched face does hurt the film. The music, by Randy Newman, gooses the action along in a desperate effort to create an atmosphere of madcap Jazz Age insouciance, but over all, it's mediocre, but it's worth watching. Yes, it might be dumbfounded, and have some scarecrows brains bad pacing areas in the film, but eventually it's just a matter of taste. I find this so-so good, so check it out if a football fan.

Congratulations George Clooney. You've captured the 1920s era in a delightful period piece. The script is witty and there's several exchanges between the main characters that evoke memories of the 'golden era' of cinema. Even some of the scene setups are taken straight from the classics - the scene in the railway car with Clooney and Zellwegger taking turns opening and closing their drapes still works after all those years.The football scenes are played for laughs. You have to love a movie that starts its opening scene with a cow acting as interested spectator of a football game.There are some that argue that Clooney tried addressing too many themes int he same film. And there are others who argue that the plot is threadbare. I don't see how these two polar opposite extremes can exist in the same movie. And now that I've seen it for myself I'm glad I did.9/10

Set in the late 1920's, Leatherheads, directed by George Clooney, takes a look into the formation and legitimization of professional football in the United States. The film is not the best of Clooney's work as a director, but it definitely got me to laugh and kept me interested with a plot that thickens as the movie progresses in this romantic, screwball, sports comedy. Now that may sound like a mouthful of genres thrown together, but taking place in the world of football, then filled with field workers, coal miners, and generally the brutes who could not make it into college, the film incorporates a love triangle between Dodge Connelly (George Clooney), Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford(John Krasinski), and Lexie Littleton(Renée Zellweger) along with a double plot. Early in the film it is revealed that Dodge's team, the Deluth Bulldogs, has gone bankrupt and can't afford to keep paying its players or travel to away games, which is also the reality of many other teams at the time. College football, on the other hand, is extremely popular, especially the sensational Carter Rutherford, a war hero (he single handedly stopped a squad of German soldiers while in combat) that is unstoppable on the field and has dashing good looks. Dodge plans to save the dying professional football league by recruiting Rutherford to play for the Deluth Bulldogs. In the midst of this, Lexie Littleton is a young, attractive, spitfire reporter assigned to do a story on the country's youngest and biggest war hero; however, the goal of her story is to find a fault in the man, to discredit the young hero and find out the truth. All three of our characters then find themselves together as Dodge coincidentally meets Lexie right before he talks Rutherford into playing for the Bulldogs. The movie goes on to follow the three of them in their tour of the east coast, playing football and trying to uncover the truth, with lots of screwball comedy along the way and some surprising twists in the story.The actors chosen for this film were an okay cast. George Clooney is a very strong, charismatic actor with a strong background from films such as "Ocean's Eleven" (2001) and "O Brother Where Art Thou?" (2000). He plays a convincing role in this film as well, making the audience believe that he really loves playing football with his friends and doesn't want to lose it just because there's no more money in it. His character does develop well throughout the movie as he faces the issues in front of him, and does so with a charm like any other man from the '20s would have. John Krasinski, most well known as Jim from NBC's "The Office", plays a much better role in this film then he did in "License to Wed" (2007). He fits the character perfectly as he is able to connect with both Clooney and Zellweger, even though he is much younger. Zellweger is the only character that wasn't the best possible cast in the movie for Littleton's character. Although she does look like she could be straight out of the 20's with her costumes and attitude in the film, her chemistry with Clooney and Krisinksi seems to be a little forced, like they are acting, as opposed to a flowing chemistry that makes the acting disappear and brings the film to life. The other problem is the age difference between the characters; it's a love triangle between different generations, this is a cause of the poor chemistry in some of the scenes. Overall each actor fits their own respective character and plays them well, and with Clooney's and Krasinksi's strong background in comedy, it really makes for a fun, playful film as they throw quip's back and forth at each other and try to woo Zellweger along the way. Aside from the acting, the art direction of this film was done excellently by Christa Munro and Scott T. Ritenour. The movie is scripted to take place in the 20s, and it looks like it was filmed then. Every single outfit seen in the movie is tailored and looks completely authentic to the time period (Costume designer: Louise Frogley) . The main outfits seen in the film are all custom fit suits, with common colors, such as black and tan. The military uniforms seen are also all accurate to the times, simple yet authoritative, and accurate to the uniforms used during World War II. The vehicles are all old Model T's etc, and Clooney rides around on a 1918 Indian motorcycle(which is actually an electric replica, but looks real nonetheless). The main transportation used in the film is by train, which was a new and popular way to travel during that era. The uniforms worn during the football games are also accurate to what was worn in the 20's by football players. The film even includes a scene that takes place in a speakeasy, as prohibition was still in effect at that time. The biggest downfall of the movie is the poor chemistry between Clooney and Zellweger, as they are the main love interests of the film, but their mismatched casting does not take away too much from the enjoyment of the film. The film is very appealing to the eye because of its accuracy of what the '20s looked like. The jokes throughout the film are also good for a laugh and are sure to at least make you smile. The plot of the film also starts somewhat slow, but the jokes start early and allow you to get past that. As the film progresses and more is revealed and the characters start to change and develop, the film becomes more enjoyable and continually draws you in, especially to find out what happens to the Bulldogs after signing Rutherford and what is the true story behind his heroism. This is definitely a film worth seeing for a good laugh and good time.

Like a lot of people, I never bothered with this film when it came out in the cinemas because of the negative reviews that it got. Likewsie when it came to DVD it sat at the bottom end of my rental list waiting for me to want to watch it. Eventually I did and initially I thought that the reviews had been unfairly harsh because the film seemed like it was going to be a light and sparky sports period piece that captures the screwball comedies of years gone by. This is how it starts but unfortunately it is not how it continues. It is not like, at some point the film suddenly gets "bad" (it doesn't) but more that it doesn't quite have the sparkle or life that the trimmings all suggest that it will.In terms of capturing the period, it does a great job – or at least it does a great job of continuing the nostalgic idea of the period. It does this with a cool jazz soundtrack, good costumes and the suggestion of the snappy dialogue that the screwball movies are known for. I say suggestion because of the places where the film doesn't have the zing that it needed is in the script. It does have its moments though and it is quite fun at times but mostly it feels like it is just falling short of where it should be. It has a couple of things that don't help this either. Firstly it is too long, maybe not for the plot (it doesn't "drag" per se) but certainly for the light tone. Secondly, the romance aspect of the plot doesn't really work, which is partly down to the casting of Zellweger.Where Clooney fits the bill as a "too-cute by half" square-jawed matinée star, Zellweger cannot convincingly deliver her lines in a way that works. I think of Jennifer Jason Leigh in Hudsucker Proxy – she did an impression of an actress in a screwball comedy that was pretty good and looking at that shows up how ill-suited Zellweger is. I know people dislike her on principle but I am not one of them, I just thought she was pretty poor here. Krasinski is good in his role even if, to be frank, he didn't do anything that suggested he has more than the range of characterisation that he has already shown on The Office – and that should be of concern to his "people" since he will soon need to breakout of that show as it cannot run forever. The supporting cast has plenty of interesting and recognisable faces who do solid work.Leatherheads is not a terrible comedy as some have suggested and it should not be criticised for being inconsequential or light. Sadly though it is not frothy, sparky or fun enough to be the film that it was clearly intended to be. OK there are specific issues with aspects of the plot and some (well, one) bit of casting but generally this bigger picture problem is what limits it to be an "OK" film but no better than that.