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Best Cricket Movies?
- Thread starter Ike
- Start date
Great minds and all that...
kingkallis
International Coach
In India, we've had a few:
Lagaan
Iqbal
Ferrari ki Sawari
Stumped!
Awwal Number
Meerabai Notout
Say Salam India
Hattrick
Jannat
I think there were few more such titles but I cant remember.
Lagaan
Iqbal
Ferrari ki Sawari
Stumped!
Awwal Number
Meerabai Notout
Say Salam India
Hattrick
Jannat
I think there were few more such titles but I cant remember.
harsh.ag
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Love the first two! Weirdly, Aamir Khan appears in both Lagaan and Awwal Number . Definitely on a must-watch list for cricket fans who don't mind melodrama. Actually Iqbal doesn't have any melodrama at all. It's just a good boyhood-dream-come-true-with-hard-work story.
HeathDavisSpeed
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I saw some Australian comedy on a plane once about a local club team who bag a tour to India under some confusion as to how good they are. I forget the name of the film, sadly, but that had a reasonable amount of cricket in it (and a small amount of comedy).
Ike
Cricket Web Staff Member
Just came across this article on cricinfo:
Rob Steen on the slim canon of cricket movies | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo
A discussion of cricket movies (and the lack thereof), and compared (briefly) to American baseball movies. It discusses or mentions most of the movies that have been mentioned in this thread (but not all, especially some of the Indian ones). I'd appreciate folks' take on this article.
Rob Steen on the slim canon of cricket movies | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo
A discussion of cricket movies (and the lack thereof), and compared (briefly) to American baseball movies. It discusses or mentions most of the movies that have been mentioned in this thread (but not all, especially some of the Indian ones). I'd appreciate folks' take on this article.
Contra
Cricketer Of The Year
Honourable mention goes to Kai Po Che IMO. It's not full fledged cricket movie, but it has enough cricket content that is actually well presented to make it worth watching for a cricket fan. Otherwise Lagaan and Iqbal are the only two cricket containing movies I would recommend any non Indian cricket fan to watch.
Oh and there is this neat movie called 99, which is a light hearted take on the India-SA match fixing saga in the 90's and 2000. It's worth a watch, despite not much actual cricket content in it. It's also just under 2 and a half hours, if you skip the songs its about 2 hours or so tops.
Oh and there is this neat movie called 99, which is a light hearted take on the India-SA match fixing saga in the 90's and 2000. It's worth a watch, despite not much actual cricket content in it. It's also just under 2 and a half hours, if you skip the songs its about 2 hours or so tops.
We've had Save Your Legs and Backyard Ashes recently. Both pretty appalling, from the little I know of them.
And I swear if there's an Australian movie at all related to sport, Stephen Curry ends up playing the main character.
harsh.ag
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
A movie called Million Dollar Arm is about how a baseball scout goes to India after he watches a game of cricket on the telly.
Jon Hamm (of Mad Men fame) the male lead, and the two guys he scouts from India are the boy from A Life of Pi and the second lead from Slumdog Millionaire.
Jon Hamm (of Mad Men fame) the male lead, and the two guys he scouts from India are the boy from A Life of Pi and the second lead from Slumdog Millionaire.
OverratedSanity
Request Your Custom Title Now!
Yeah, can't believe I forgot about Iqbal completely. Really good movie. Would recommend that to non-indians too.
OverratedSanity
Request Your Custom Title Now!
+
Mystery bowler with an awkward action who takes several wickets initially but is then worked out by the batsmen
The classic non-striker backing up too far runout
Use of a runner
And bonus points for it actually being a proper test match (well almost, it's 3 days and only 1 innings per side), instead of a cheap odi/t20
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weldone
Hall of Fame Member
+
* A batsman who can't play proper cricketing shots in front of the wicket, and scores all his runs behind the wicket
* Older players not being able to run as quickly as the younger ones
* Importance of farming the strike while batting with tailenders
* Importance of singles when boundaries are hard to come by
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Ike
Cricket Web Staff Member
Thank you all for the feedback thus far! I haven't watched any of the recommended movies yet, but Fire in Babylon is on YouTube, and I have ordered Lagaan and Calypso Summer. I figure I have some good times ahead of me. A bit of popcorn and a pint of bitter and I'll be all set! If I think of it then, I'll share my reaction to the movies once I watch each of them.
OS, you mentioned the Lagaan thread.. did you mean http://www.cricketweb.net/forum/off-topic/12416-lagaan.html ? Thanks, and as noted above, I've ordered the movie on DVD. By general consensus it seems to be judged the best cricket movie, so I'm really looking forward to it, all 4 hours, lol. (Of course, a good cricket movie, to my mind, doesn't have to have a lot of actual cricket in it.. it just has to have cricket central to the story. Similarly, what many consider the best baseball movie ever, Field of Dreams, only has a limited amount of actual baseball in it, but at its heart it is about the wonder of baseball.)
HDS, thanks for your recommendations too. I looked up The Final Test, and wikipedia says it was only released on region 2 DVD, so it may not be available to me. But I'll look into it in more detail after I've watched the ones I already have on the way. Wondrous Oblivion I was able to find on Ebay with US DVD (region 1) and quite inexpensive (about 3 pounds with shipping), so I've ordered that one now too.
Watson, I think I'd really enjoy From the Ashes. Alas, it doesn't seem to be available in USA DVD (it's in Region 2 DVD, and USA Blue Ray, but I don't have a BlueRay player or HD TV. ). I checked Amazon and Ebay, but I can always search further in the future.
Monk, by Cricket Archives do you mean the site with all the scorecards? I think not. I found a reference to Australian video by that name (and mentioning Jack Egan), but not easily available for the US. Is that what you meant?
Iqbal sounds good too, I'll add that to my list.
GGG, thanks for the video. I think I got most of the jokes anyway. Yorkshire is historically one of the best cricket counties, right? I see the video's BBC... what did they create such a short video for?
I looked for Out of the Ashes on Amazon and Ebay. Only available as Region 2 apparently.
Howe_zat, I tried playing the video you embedded of Out of the Ashes, but I get an error message. Is it a trailer or the entire video?
And thanks for your list, Kingkallis. The top two are on my list; I'll check out the others once I've gotten through my first list.
Thanks for mentioning Kai Po Che, Contra. I've added it to my list. Seems available in Region 1 format. Kingkallis, any particular reason that one's not on your list?
Btw, the article by Steen I referenced above mentions P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang as being a good cricket movie. Alas, it appears not to be available in Region 1 format either. No one here has mentioned that one... any thoughts on it?
So, I have or am getting: Fire in Babylon, Lagaan, Calypso Summer, and Wondrous Oblivion.
Later I will look for (or continue to look for) The Final Test, From the Ashes, Cricket Archives (?), Iqbal, Out of the Ashes, Kai Po Che.
Again, thanks to all. Perhaps this list will make things easier for other Yanks or Canadians looking for cricket films in the future.
OS, you mentioned the Lagaan thread.. did you mean http://www.cricketweb.net/forum/off-topic/12416-lagaan.html ? Thanks, and as noted above, I've ordered the movie on DVD. By general consensus it seems to be judged the best cricket movie, so I'm really looking forward to it, all 4 hours, lol. (Of course, a good cricket movie, to my mind, doesn't have to have a lot of actual cricket in it.. it just has to have cricket central to the story. Similarly, what many consider the best baseball movie ever, Field of Dreams, only has a limited amount of actual baseball in it, but at its heart it is about the wonder of baseball.)
HDS, thanks for your recommendations too. I looked up The Final Test, and wikipedia says it was only released on region 2 DVD, so it may not be available to me. But I'll look into it in more detail after I've watched the ones I already have on the way. Wondrous Oblivion I was able to find on Ebay with US DVD (region 1) and quite inexpensive (about 3 pounds with shipping), so I've ordered that one now too.
Watson, I think I'd really enjoy From the Ashes. Alas, it doesn't seem to be available in USA DVD (it's in Region 2 DVD, and USA Blue Ray, but I don't have a BlueRay player or HD TV.
). I checked Amazon and Ebay, but I can always search further in the future.Monk, by Cricket Archives do you mean the site with all the scorecards? I think not. I found a reference to Australian video by that name (and mentioning Jack Egan), but not easily available for the US. Is that what you meant?
Iqbal sounds good too, I'll add that to my list.
GGG, thanks for the video. I think I got most of the jokes anyway. Yorkshire is historically one of the best cricket counties, right? I see the video's BBC... what did they create such a short video for?
I looked for Out of the Ashes on Amazon and Ebay. Only available as Region 2 apparently.
Howe_zat, I tried playing the video you embedded of Out of the Ashes, but I get an error message. Is it a trailer or the entire video?And thanks for your list, Kingkallis. The top two are on my list; I'll check out the others once I've gotten through my first list.
Thanks for mentioning Kai Po Che, Contra. I've added it to my list. Seems available in Region 1 format. Kingkallis, any particular reason that one's not on your list?
Btw, the article by Steen I referenced above mentions P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang as being a good cricket movie. Alas, it appears not to be available in Region 1 format either. No one here has mentioned that one... any thoughts on it?
So, I have or am getting: Fire in Babylon, Lagaan, Calypso Summer, and Wondrous Oblivion.
Later I will look for (or continue to look for) The Final Test, From the Ashes, Cricket Archives (?), Iqbal, Out of the Ashes, Kai Po Che.
Again, thanks to all. Perhaps this list will make things easier for other Yanks or Canadians looking for cricket films in the future.
andmark
International Captain
Nearly watched that today but went with the Babylon one about the West Indies. Bad choice. Frifth's criticisms of the Windies pace bowlers is spot on.
cnerd123
likes this
Kai Po Che is good but the book it's based on (forget the name now but I read it) is much better.
Lagaan also has the Dilscoop in it!
And Million Dollar Arm is a terrible move. A) Not factual (claims both pitchers who won hated cricket when in reality one of them was actually a cricket player) and B) is set out to poke fun at cricket and make baseball seem superior (they show the results of the tryouts as being lot worse than they actually were, and made it looked like cricketers can't throw).
Awful movie, clearly just made for American audiences and baseball fans and has nothing to do with cricket at all.
Lagaan also has the Dilscoop in it!
And Million Dollar Arm is a terrible move. A) Not factual (claims both pitchers who won hated cricket when in reality one of them was actually a cricket player) and B) is set out to poke fun at cricket and make baseball seem superior (they show the results of the tryouts as being lot worse than they actually were, and made it looked like cricketers can't throw).
Awful movie, clearly just made for American audiences and baseball fans and has nothing to do with cricket at all.
weldone
Hall of Fame Member
Yes, unlike Lagaan (and to an extent Iqbal), a non-Indian might not relate to Kai Po Che.
I think a non-Indian cricket lover will even relate better to average movies like 99 and Jannat, although Kai Po Che is a much better movie overall. [if that sentence makes sense]
In summary, among Indian movies Lagaan is a must-see for all cricket-lovers; and Iqbal if you need a second one. That's it.
I think a non-Indian cricket lover will even relate better to average movies like 99 and Jannat, although Kai Po Che is a much better movie overall. [if that sentence makes sense]
In summary, among Indian movies Lagaan is a must-see for all cricket-lovers; and Iqbal if you need a second one. That's it.
