SnoopyStyle
Molly McGrath (Goldie Hawn) is a divorced mother of two girls and a Chicago high school girls' track coach. Verna (Swoosie Kurtz) is her sister best friend. Molly knows more about football than her male colleagues due to her late famed coach father. She wants to be the JV football coach but head coach Dan Darwell (Bruce McGill) picks the clueless home-ed teacher instead. He offers her the varsity coaching job at the rundown inner-city Central High. Levander 'Bird' Williams (Mykelti Williamson) is the local hustler and Ben Edwards is the principal. First, she has to win over the players.Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson play two of the players. It's a standard white savior movie with a bit of fun and a healthy side of sexism. It's a bit funny but not too much. It's nothing great. Goldie Hawn is solid. There isn't anything special but it's good enough.
statuskuo
I vaguely remember this movie as a kid. So I had to revisit it. And to my surprise, I thought it was a fun movie. It's got some strange dated material. And all the "kids" look like they were 30 years old, but I had a fun time watching Goldie, Wesley and Woody when they were young. It's really great watching them in hindsight and where their career is now.For those sick of watching comedies today that skate a politically correct agenda, I think Wildcats is a fun watch. Also, if we're in the realm of football...a LOT more honest than a movie like "The Blind Side" which seemed more like a fairy tale.
moonspinner55
Goldie Hawn is her usual fizzy, feisty self playing a football-crazy coach trying to whip a high school team into shape. The young men are made up of delinquents and goof-offs, but can Goldie work her magic on them before the big game? "The Bad News Bears"'s Michael Ritchie directed, and it's the kind of comedy knock-off you'd expect from any Hollywood hack but Ritchie (hopefully he was well paid). Supporting cast is unusually good, with Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes in early roles, Swoosie Kurtz doing her likable sisterly bit, Nipsey Russell nicely low-keyed as a school official, Jan Hooks wonderful as the new woman in Hawn's ex-husband's life, and handsome Bruce McGill as the enemy coach (although he gets the worst scenes, particularly at end when he's forced to shout "Search his jock!" and then roll around in the mud). Hawn herself has an embarrassing moment nude in the bathtub, and the sub-plot with her boring ex is just time wasted on the clock, but her forthright comic performance just about saves "Wildcats" from the cookie-cutter bargain-bin. ** from ****
JONEFC
I saw this on television once sometime on the late 1980s (I don't think the movie had been in theaters more than two or three years before). I liked it but haven't thought anything about it since. WILDCATS came on television this morning, and I started watching it to kill time before getting hooked on the goofy but likeable story. It is really a funny, cute movie.First, let me say I am not a fan of football movies; however, I have enjoyed movies such as THE LONGEST YARD, NORTH DALLAS FORTY and AGAINST ALL ODDS (to name a few) where an interesting story and characters add life to an otherwise "sports film." Yes the football scenes are fun to watch, but what makes the movie truly watchable is the feeling Goldie adds to her character (like in PRIVATE BENJAMIN) plus the developing struggle between her ex-husband concerning her new career and raising of her children. Its predictable in many ways, but hey, it was nice to watch a movie that made me feel happy for a change (rather than depressed or confused as so many contemporary movies seem to do).