HOOP DREAMS (CHAMPIONS)

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Woody Harrelson is back on a basketball court but not like before.

Having strutted his stuff with Wesley Snipes in Ron Shelton's 1992 hit basketball hustler comedy 'White Men Can't Jump,' time has clearly marched on for the 62 year old.

In Bobby Farrelly's sports comedy 'Champions,' he's now a temperamental minor league coach.

That is until his temper really gets the better of him.

© Universal Pictures & Focus Features

His character Marcus Marakovich loses it during a game in Iowa and ends up shoving his best friend and the team's head coach, Ernie Hudson's Phil Perretti during a match.

Forced to leave the game in disgrace, Marcus compounds matters by getting drunk in a bar and then driving home inebriated, slamming into the back of a police car.

Bailed out of jail by Phil, he gets into another argument with his friend insisting he was right during the game.

However Phil fires back that he needs to get to know his team a bit better to really understand how their personal lives are impacting on the way they play.

© Universal Pictures & Focus Features

Appearing in court, Marcus is given the choice of either 18 months in jail or doing 90 days community service coaching a basketball team with intellectual disabilities.

Marcus chooses the latter and when he rocks up to the community hall where The Friends, as the team is known, practice, he finds it challenging to coach players who have their own way of doing things.

Offered a lift home by one of the players Kevin Iannucci's Johnny, Marcus discovers the sister who is driving them home is Kaitlin Olson's actress Alex who he had a one night stand with.

That one night stand ended fractiously and the drive home bristles with tension.

© Universal Pictures & Focus Features

Working alongside Cheech Marin's Julio, Marcus persists with a team comprising of Johnny, Madison Tevlin's Cosentino, Ashton Gunning's Cody, Matthew Von Der Ahe's Craig, Tom Sinclair's Blair, James Day Keith's Benny, Alex Hintz's Arthur, Casey Metcalfe's Marlon and Bradley Eden's Showtime whose one move appears to be throwing the ball backwards over his head towards the hoop.

Marcus also comes across a young player with real talent, Joshua Felder's Darius who refuses to play for him.

Puzzled by this, the coach discovers Darius is struggling to come to terms with the fact that a promising career was halted by a car accident that left him with a brain injury.

© Universal Pictures & Focus Features

Can Marcus persuade Darius to line out for The Friends and whip the team into competitive shape for a Special Olympics competition in Winnipeg?

How is he also going to navigate his interactions with Alex?

And given the bond he has forged with the team, what will he do when the community service comes to an end?

'Champions' is straight out of the Walter Matthau 'Bad News Bears' playbook and delightfully so.

© Universal Pictures & Focus Features

You can easily predict the contours the narrative will follow and there are really are no surprises.

Yet it has a real ramshackle charm to it and the film never goes off the rails in terms of bad taste.

A lot of this is down to its diverse cast who turn in genuinely amusing performances that really hit their comic marks.

Tevlin, Iannucci and Eden, in particular, shine.

© Universal Pictures & Focus Features

Asked to carry a more serious storyline, Felder is also on song as Darius.

Farrelly does a solid job ensuring the film laughs with its disabled cast than at their behaviour.

But it also helps that Harrelson slots comfortably into a role of a talented, flawed and frustrated coach.

He also works very well with his supporting cast.

© Universal Pictures & Focus Features

Olson is a perfect romantic foil for him, while Hudson brings a real sense of decency to the show.

Marin is a genial presence throughout.

Farrelly's direction isn't spectacular but he comfortably delivers a good, leave your brain at home comedy with the help of screenwriter Mark Rizzo who has adapted the story from Javier Fesser's 2008 film 'Campeones' which was a big hit in its native Spain.

He is also helped by Julie Garces' vibrant editing which drives the narrative along with vibrancy and makes really good use of needle drops by Michael Franti and Spearhead, Vampire Weekend, Willie Nelson and Chumbawumba.

© Universal Pictures & Focus Features

'Champions' isn't the best film you will see this year nor any year but as a comedy it works.

It's fun. It's lively and it's wonderfully inclusive without ever being condescending.

It knows how to make its audience laugh.

Sometimes that's all you need.

('Champions' was released in the UK and Ireland on March 10, 2023)

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