Seasonal post – Cricket films

Well those crazy kids over at b5, i.e., the peeps who made this blog what it is (actually, that was me, those guys just pay for the server and stuff, hah) said that all the sports blogs should get in a big circle and join hands and chant a bit, it being Christmas and all. And our chosen chant this year: Movies about your sport. Crikey. Now, I’m a bit of a movie geek and I’m finding it somewhat ironic that I’d never thought of writing about cricket in films before, BUT, as most cricket fans will know, cricket doesn’t really rate high up there on Hollywood’s list of blockbuster themes and as such the cricketing genre is a little slim. Perhaps the best real cricket film that springs to mind is Lagaan, an enjoyable cricket flick with actual cricket in it. Sure, it tells the story of an oppressed Indian village and their fight against their, er, oppressors, and such, but it’s well worth a look. There’s also the infamous Bodyline, which tells the story of that series (check it out) and stars none other than Hugo Weaving, aka, Mr “Goodbye Mr Anderson” Smith of The Matrix fame. It’s brutal, but fun.

Perhaps the most famous references to cricket tend to be in the use of cricketing implements in films, recently brought to the fore by weird zombie flick Shaun of the Dead, where the zombie-whacking weapon of choice is none other than a slice of the finest willow.

Other than that, I’m all out. (Get it?. Sorry.)

(Feel free to have a poke around the rest of the channel to see what other sports flicks have been made. Guaranteed nothing beats Cool Runnings. Guaranteed.)

(Oh yeah, Happy Christmas and all that. See you on Boxing Day for Melbourne.)