LEATHERHEADS is moderately entertaining. It tries to recapture the feel of classic romantic comedies that starred the likes of Clark Gable. However, it does fall a little short. The big highlight is a look at the early days of professional football in 1925 USA. LEATHERHEADS revolves around Dodge Connelly (George Clooney) as he recruits college football star/ war hero Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford (John Krasinki) to his failing pro football team the Duluth Bulldogs. Meanwhile, newspaper reporter Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger) is given the job of exposing the truth about Carter's war hero legend. 1925 was a time where college football was praised while pro football was looked down on (and college football stars were supposed to get real jobs and not go pro). It all changed when they got the college football stars to join and the rules for pro football changed. LEATHERHEADS examines this in the context of a romantic comedy. Will Lexie write her story or will she feel too sorry for Carter and fall for Dodge? LEATHERHEADS is an enjoyable film for those looking for the type of films that used to be made.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
Nine deleted scenes that include two different versions of a train dining car scenes and a dog humping Dodge's leg.

FOOTBALL'S BEGINNING: THE MAKING OF LEATHERHEADS- basic promo fluff that features interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and basic info like they had to make the costumes and footballs, create some sets, and use CGI to enhance the stadium scenes.

NO PADS, NO FEAR: CREATING THE ROWDY FOOTBALL SCENES- A football historian and a stunt coordinator helped create and train the actors (and stunt extras) for the football scenes. also see a little bit from their football boot camp.
VISUAL EFFECTS SEQUENCES- side-by-side before and after visual effects comparisons.
Also included is a lame featurette about the prank George pulled this time (GEORGE CLOONEY: A LEATHERHEADED PRANKSTER).

The feature audio commentary with director/star George Clooney and Producer Grant Heslov provides some production info, but this track can be skipped.

FINAL ANALYSIS: LEATHERHEADS isn't bad. Some mildly good comedy mixed in with football history. I wish the extras were more like have a featurette focusing completely on pro football of the 1920s.

this DVD review is (c)9-25-2008 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com  

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