Monday Night Mayhem

I must admit that The start of ABC'S Monday Night Football was before my time, But personally, I thought this was an excellent telling of the events leading from it's creation to the resignation of Howard Cosell. John Heard portrays Roone Arledge, the man behind the creation of ABC's Monday Night Football. He enlists play by play announcers Howard Cosell (John Turturro), "Dandy" Don Meredith (Brad Beyer), Keith Jackson (Shuler Hensley), and later, Frank Gifford (Kevin Anderson). The movie centers mainly on the action happening inside the booth, And on its rise to popularity. Memorable scenes include a drunken Cosell doing play by play during an Eagles game, Meredith at the Mile High Stadium literally "Mile High", and a scene where Cosell drops a lit cigarette butt(accidently) into Keith Jackson's trouser cuff during play-by-play, while Jackson, noticing his pants are on fire, nonchalantly pours his coffee onto the flame without missing a beat. But the main events center around Howard Cosell, who eventually became to stuck on himself and resulted in him resigning and never returning to the broadcast booth.

As to the acting, John Turturro lives up to being in the starring role and is excellent as Cosell. Heard gives another great performance as Arledge, Beyer and Anderson, whom I've never seen before are great as Meredith and Gifford, John's bother, Nicholas Turturro, puts in a strong performance as the director of the show, and Eli Wallach is great as always with the screen time that he is given.

all in all a very entertaining look into Monday Night Football. TNT does it again

10 out of 10

I'm 35 years old and the Cosell years on Monday Night Football bring me back to an age when football was the most exciting thing in my life. Although John T. overplayed Cosell's character, this movie kept my interest throughout the length of the film. Maybe it's my age, but this movie brought back memories of the famous 'monkey incident', the O.J. years as well as many other exciting events of the Cosell Monday Night Football years. I would highly recommend this movie for anyone looking for a very interesting and well documented account of Monday Night Football and the infamous Cosell.

The presentation was a little cheesy but all in all a strong movie. Turturro was great. I saw some criticism in previous reviews from people who fail to realize that this is ACTING not imitating. You don't need to get the look/speech perfect to play a real-life figure. Turturro seemed to capture what Cosell was all about and that's the point. Actors act, if you want to see imitating go to a Rich Little show.

Monday Night Mayhem is a great movie with Turturro's best performance yet. But my enjoyment of it on Dubai One TV last week was not helped by the censorship of the sequence detailing the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics by Palastinian terrorists. Sequences in the film are flagged in advance by titles reading, for example, 'Clay v Liston', or 'Superbowl 1959'. The title announcing 'Munich Olympic Games' appeared, but instead of showing Howard Cosell's reporting of the tragic events which occurred, we found ourselves back in New York and on to other events in Cosell's life. Had it not been for the incompetence of whoever made the cut in leaving in the title, I would have been unaware of this censorship. Are TV companies purchasing broadcasting rights to movies allowed to censor them in this way? Piers Jessop.

This was a great movie!! I didn't expect to like it, but the actors were so dead on in their performances, it was impossible to resist. I rarely watch football anymore, largely because there is no show with the chemistry of the original Monday Night Football lineup. A lot of ink was given to incredible acting displayed by John Turturro as Howard Cosell, but in my opinion, Brad Beyer was even better as Don Meredith. Who likeable enough as a sportscaster, always seemed two dimensional until Beyers performance.