9. The Big Green: "Becoming the Nightmare"
Ah,
TheBig Green. While not as notable as a lot of the other entries on the list will be, it still holds a special place in my memory. You may not remember all the specifics of
TheBig Green, but with a lot of 90's kid's movies, there was usually a simple formula that most filmmakers followed: pick a sport, a rag-tag group of losers, a unique/down and out/alcoholic coach played by a slightly famous actor rinse, and repeat. The sport they chose for
The Big Green was soccer. The rag-tag group of losers were a bunch of hick kids in a run-down town with various idiosyncrasies and problems that stereotypically befall kids of their social standing. The coach falls into the unique category: she's an English import (Olivia D'abo) and therefore alien to the hick kids, compounded by her knack for a very strange game called soccer. When broken down to the lowest common denominator, the success of most 90's kid's films depended upon how well all their phases (sport, kids, coach) are pulled off. When judged from that angle, then I think you could place
The Big Green in the success column. In fact, the film may be a lot better than you remember from when you saw it as a kid. The film has homespun drama with a healthy dose of comic relief thrown in for good measure (provided by a very hilarious Steve Guttenburg, who plays assistant to the D'abo's Coach Montgomery and eventually wins first place in her heart). Of particular note are the child actors (see Jessica Robertson playing Kate Douglas) who get some great material to chew on. My favorite kid out the bunch, however, would have to be Larry Musgrove, played by 90's sports movie veteran Patrick Renna (of
Sandlot fame).
He plays the team's chubby goalie who has a massive inferiority complex. How massive you say? Well its so massive that when he sees opposing players closing in to to score, he imagines them as various imposing fantasy figures (everything from ninjas to terminators). It's hilarious stuff, and very astute considering how kids tend to exaggerate when sizing up an opponent. Musgrove's problem provides a great set up for the finale when Coach Montgomery helps him realize that the only way to help the team win is to enter the nightmare and take control, which leads to a hilarious showdown. 90's kid's sports movie craziness at its finest.