Champions is a Woody Harrelson movie. But the more important characters in this film are the folks with “intellectual disabilities” on his basketball team.

Marcus (Harrelson) gets bounced from his gig as an assistant coach on a minor league hoops squad for insubordination. He drives drunk… right into a police car. He is given community service: coach this untalented team of apparent misfits.

If you’ve seen one sports redemption movie, you’ve seen ‘em all. You can guess what’s going to happen here. But… the journey to the unsurprising outcome has its fun moments.

Quick warning: Champions is not a movie for little kids. It’s PG-13 with sexual references and language but no nudity. Champions is directed by Bobby Farrelly who, with his brother, directed Woody in the funny and downright weird 1996 bowling movie Kingpin (which also had some crude humor).

As Champions begins Marcus is sending off his one-night stand Alex (Kaitlin Olson) only to have her reappear as the sister of one of the intellectually challenged players. She and Marcus ramp up their relationship. (Olson is best-known for her work on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.)

Alex is a Shakespearian actress who plies her trade for school groups. Her van that takes her act on the road also serves as a transport for her brother and his teammates.

Marcus has one truly talented player. But Darius (Joshua Felder), a brain damaged young man, refuses to play for him until Marcus learns why.

In these ultra sensitive times, it may be borderline courageous to focus on young adults with learning disabilities. Ben Stiller was recently roasted again for his film Tropic Thunder and that film’s ridiculous suggestion that an actor portraying a person with learning disabilities never go “full (R-word)” if he wants to win an Oscar. 

There could be criticism for the portrayals of these individuals in the movie from friends and family of persons existing in similar circumstances. But thumbs up to Farrelly and Woody for presenting this crew with good humor and appropriate respect.

Also in the cast are Ernie “Ghostbusters” Hudson as the coach who fires Marcus but later befriends him. And Cheech Marin as the director of the team’s community center.

Champions clocks in at just over two hours. Which seems about 15 minutes too long. But the soundtrack is fun. Tubthumping by Chumbawamba! Among other cool tunes.

Not a “must see.” But an upbeat underdog movie can bring a bit of joy and who doesn’t need some of that these days?

Fun, comic horror/gore with a goofy bear. And Ray Liotta, too! 

Cocaine Bear lives up to the promise of its viral trailer with a story that’s inspired by true events. But that story comes with a whole lot of embellishment. 

The film’s opening scene signals the light-hearted tone of the movie. The ill-fated pilot dances wildly inside his soon-to-crash plane as he ejects the parcels of nose candy just before he ejects himself.

Yes, a bear discovers the coke in the north Georgia woods and appears to like it. Much to the dismay of the St. Louis-based (!) drug kingpin (Liotta) who sends his son (Alden Ehrenreich) and the son’s chum to fetch it. 

The cast also includes Keri Russell as a single mom whose daughter is lost in the woods where the bear is romping, high on flake. And Margo Martindale as a park ranger. They, like everyone else in the cast, are all looking for the bear, the coke or both. But the real star of the movie is the bear.

And the bear looks good! Okay, it’s mostly a CGI bear plus some scenes with a guy in a bear suit. But it looks real. And it is huge. (The bears I’ve seen in the wild in the Smokies are smaller and almost cuddly looking.)

The film, directed by Elizabeth Banks, has sufficient blood and gore to satisfy fans of that kind of thing. (In addition to dismemberment and contusions suffered by humans, the bear slobbers. Gross!) And Cocaine Bear has enough chuckles to tickle audience funny bones.

Considering that Ray Lotta died last May, you might presume this would be his last on-screen appearance. You would be wrong. According to IMDB, there are still three more Liotta roles yet to come.

One more thing: the St. Louis advance screening of Cocaine Bear was held at the city’s new Alamo Drafthouse theater multiplex at City Foundry. The seats, the sight lines, the sound were terrific. Let’s hope this place is a success.

The new two-part documentary George Carlin’s American Dream is a must-see for baby boomers. And a probably-should-see for gen-Xers and millennials. Because Carlin, who died in 2005, has influenced not just other comedians but also for much of our pop culture over the past few decades.

Would there be as many f-bombs in movies and music as we encounter today had Carlin not tested the boundaries with his 7 words you can’t say on TV? Probably yes, but Carlin certainly moved the needle for what’s acceptable. The documentary shows how Carlin and his content evolved in much the same way many of us boomers did.

This retrospective follows the usual pattern: video/audio clips of Carlin’s work, photos, comments from numerous show biz folks. Carlin himself tells parts of the story via recordings he made for his autobiography. The remarks from his older brother Patrick are candid and often hilarious. Those from his daughter Kelly reveal many personal details, especially of George’s relationship with his first wife Brenda and Brenda’s heavy drinking.

Of course, George had his demons, too. Particularly cocaine. The marriage survived their addictions until Brenda’s passing. Interestingly, the doc never hints that either of them was unfaithful. George Carlin’s second wife Sally Wade mentions that Carlin waited until a full year after Brenda’s death before he asked her out.

Carlin mentions in interview clips that he likes people as individuals but does not care for them so much when they form groups and try to exert influence on others. That’s a timely comment considering that one particular group has come down recently on Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais for some of their bits which that particular group finds offensive.

I first became familiar with Carlin in 1966 when he and Richard Pryor were featured on the Kraft Music Hall TV show. I listened to Carlin’s hilarious albums in the early 70s. I saw him at Valley Forge Music Fair near Philly in the early 80s. 

I have enjoyed all the iterations of George Carlin—but I was less enchanted by the last few years of Carlin’s work. Like Mark Twain in his old age, Carlin’s later work was marked with a tinge of bitterness. Parts of his performances became more about pushing an agenda than about getting laughs. But the latter day version of Carlin and his HBO comedy specials resonated with audiences and he went out on top.

It is interesting to recall that even after Carlin went from suits to jeans and grew his hair and a beard, he still hung out with the mainstream talk show hosts: Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dinah Shore. From the clips included in the doc (and from my personal recollections), it’s obvious why they kept inviting him back: he always had clever things to say.

The main credit for assembling this documentary goes to Judd Apatow, who famously interviewed comedians when he was still a teenager. He and Michael Bonfiglio are the co-directors. The doc is available via HBO Max on cable or stream.