MovieChat Forums > Major League II (1994) Discussion > Writers should come up with a better fo...

Writers should come up with a better forumla !


How lazy are movie writers that they need to follow the same formula used in every other movie. If you look at Mighty Ducks, Bad News Bears, Little Giants, Eddie, Sunset Park, Ladybugs, The Replacements,Cool runnings etc......they all follow the same formulas, the same archetypes.

Heres how it goes in each movie
*It usually starts with a rag tag team of rejects who suck at what sports they play.
*A coach, with no athletic background, is forced to coach them under abnormal circumstances
*At the beginning, the team shows resistance against the coach or leader since he attempts to train them with unorthodox methods.
*They do horribly in their first game, coach or leader regrets decision.
*Each player begins to show their wacky special abilities.
*A new player is added who is curcial to the success of the team
*The team wins their second game, things begin looking up.
*They lose the third game, coach or leader lose their *beep* and vents anger.
*Coach or leader gives team dillema, team re-cooperates.
*Team play faces off against the intimidating final team, usually the first team that they lost to in the beginning of the movie.
*Final team plays dirty, some team member gets injured.
*Team wins.

The sequel, such as in Major League
*Bigger movie budget
*The team comes back but are now superstars
*They get over their own heads, fame starts getting to them.
*The entire team lose their special abilities
*The team lose horribly
*The coach throws a hissy fit
*The team remember why they wanted to play in the first place
*Team wins the game

The trilogy,also in Major League: back to the minors
*Smaller movie budget
*Some of the original team members come back to retain older movie fans
*The team goes back to the original movie, goes back to the source
*They win

If you notice, you could apply these formulas to every sports movie.

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Scripted movies and television, in general, follow an easily recognizable formula. Additionally, a lot of sports movies aren't aimed at adults, but kids, who likely want to see happy endings, and formulas they've recognized before.

Though it's odd that you mentioned two movies where the team *doesn't win* in the end: Bad News Bears and Cool Runnings, and didn't mention other movies like Mystery, Alaska or even Little Big League

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http://cinefilestv.blogspot.com/2020/01/major-league-2-1994.html

The camaraderie just seems absent with less inspired scenes. As the first film felt like a sports movie made by a Baseball insider. This film feels like it was made by someone who only watches sports...occasionally. As here it seems more about trends then heart. It’s no surprise that after this movie the next sequel went more the home video route. As this sequel feels like a pilot for a TV series that even though it focuses on Sheen’s character. Still it feels like he is the only thing that keeps this as a star vehicle even though before it was an ensemble and most of the characters are back it still feels more centered around Sheen and Tom Berenger.

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