Movie Rental Review: Second String

I saw this movie, Second String, selling for $3 at Big Lots, and saw that it had a football theme. Particularly, that it was on the premise of the Buffalo Bills making it back to the Super Bowl and actually winning it this time around.

So, I picked it up, figuring, how bad could it be?

But this was a pretty bad movie, indeed.

Gil Bellows stars as Dan Heller, a down on his luck former quarterback who had at one time seemed like a top prospect, but who was now selling insurance, and in over his head in so doing, at that. He is married to Connie Heller, played by Teri Polo. After one particularly rough day  selling insurance, Dan comes home to his wife, who is excited, and tells him the news that the Buffalo Bills called. He is skeptical at first, knowing that he is likely going to be used as target practice, since his style of quarterbacking is similar to that of the San Diego Chargers, the team that the Bills are preparing for in an upcoming playoff meeting.

When he gets there, he is indeed right. He is treated with disrespect, even disdain, yet he continues on.

Of course, this is a movie, and the Bills offensive starters, and even their back ups quarterbacks, wind up getting sick while eating bad oysters, and are out for the foreseeable future. There is no chance of them being able to return within a month, let alone on time for the playoff game against San Diego within a couple of days.

So, suddenly, Dan gets another chance at a playing career. He is going to be the starting quarterback in a playoff game, and he will be heading a group of similarly burned out ex-pro's, or even never have-beens.

But the game turns out horribly, filled with miscommunication and very poor play. If not for the defense, which remains the Bills starting unit, Buffalo would have lost, and lost badly. It takes a defensive touchdown by Buffalo in the waning minutes to break a scoreless tie, and that allows the Bills to live to fight another day.

Up next, they will be hosting the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Championship Game, to fight for a berth in the Super Bowl.

Can you guess who wins?  

With a week to prepare the group, Heller manages to learn the men and their talents enough to beat a highly paid, professional football team, by playing a high risk style, relying mostly on trick plays that wind up working beautifully. Buffalo overcomes a huge deficit to win the game, and qualify for the Super Bowl.

That is when they sign a star quarterback, Tommy Baker, played by George Eads, who comes out of retirement just to get the chance to add to his Super Bowl ring collection, since he already has three rings. He will be the starting quarterback for the Bills in the Super Bowl. Heller is thus cast aside, and finds himself having to face the very real prospect of returning to reality as a salesman, after having been on the cusp of fulfilling a childhood dream.

But, wouldn't you know it? Things turn out badly. Baker is a star, and his ego gets in the way of his working well with this band of outcasts, who normally would never have seen the light of the day in a starting line up, let alone in the Super Bowl. Suddenly, Buffalo is losing badly to the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings (incidentally, another franchise that has been to four Super Bowls, but never won yet), and Heller manages to convince his head coach, played by Jon Voight (you may recognize him as the dad in National Treasure, among other roles that he has played) to give him another shot. At that point, the coach figures, there is nothing to lose.

And just before the half, when Coach Dichter has told Heller to take a knee and run out the clock, Heller decides to take a risk, and tries a trick play that (surprise surprise!) works out beautifully, and provides the Bills their first points in the game.

Coach Dichter is actually quite furious, as Heller had disobeyed his directions to take a knee, and the coach and quarterback have an explosive exchange in the tunnel at halftime. But Heller has nothing to lose, and lets loose like never before.

He manages to convince the coach to let him have his way and make his own calls in the second half of the biggest game that either of them will ever be a part of. Now, it's a new game.

Everything works beautifully, because this is a movie. The professionals on the Vikings, who have been a solid enough defense to take them to the Super Bowl, seem completely lost and unable to stop Heller's trick plays, and unprepared to contain the suddenly real threats of the offensive guys who were supposed to be just the warm ups for the Bills starting units. Instead of a ridiculous blow out, which was the direction the game seemed to be heading in the first half, the Bills manage to make it a close game, and it comes down to a thriller in the final seconds, with Heller and the offense having an opportunity to steal the game!

Can you guess who wins?

All in all, this was not a very good movie. The acting was not very convincing, nor was the plot. Also, it seemed weird that the Bills were playing playoff football in January, and yet the practices were seemingly in warm, summer like conditions, with the grass green and the trees full of leaves. It's hard to believe that not a single person would have caught that.

The movie also starts out with a fictional game between the Giants and the Bills (the Giants were the first team to beat the Bills – just barely, by a whisker – and get them started on their losing streak, so it must have been symbolic), in which Buffalo needed to win to qualify for the playoffs, or go home. Yet, all of the Bills games were at home, which is usually a privilege extended only to the truly elite teams, where you have to be one of the top two seeds. It is not impossible that such a scenario could happen, but it seems highly unlikely, even if you suspend your belief and realize this is the world of Hollywood.

This movie is considered a comedy officially, but there was not a single moment when a smile graced my face through this movie. There was one moment where it came rather close, and that came during the AFC Championship game between the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins, when suddenly, for a split second, the Dolphins uniforms looked suspiciously like those of the San Diego Chargers in one clip, before returning back to the regular uniform that Miami usually wears. Weird.

So, it was not really a comedic movie, but it certainly could not have passed for a drama either, since there was a considerable lack of drama during the confrontational scenes.

Hate to say it, but this simply falls under the category of bad movie. It is relatively short, which helped, at least.

There are guest appearances by notable football personalities, particularly Doug Flutie and Mike Ditka.  There are also clips of actual games.

All in all, this is a highly forgettable movie. I would be generous to rate it a 4 out of 10, and was amazed that some people online had rated it higher than that.

Don't waste your time with this one. Not even Buffalo Bills fans will really appreciate this movie.