If you want to understand the unbeatable charm of 80 for Brady, watch Sally Field chow down on hot wings in a contest hosted by Guy Fieri.
In a world where we’ve lost touch with how to build consistent studio comedies for theaters, it seems strange to imagine that there aren’t 500 more movies like this. You know, just watching an elderly screen icon doing something silly can bring forth laughter you never know you had in you.
That’s the fun of 80 for Brady, a sports-centric comedy with four undisputed entertainment legends who just want to have a good time watching Tom Brady play football. If you can’t find at least something enjoyable in watching a stoned Rita Moreno walk around a mansion in a Venetian mask to discover a room full of Guy Fieris playing poker, you need to loosen up a bit.
What’s refreshing about 80 for Brady is the commitment to the concept. It’s easy to get a bunch of hyper-talented comedic actors like Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda together and let them just do their thing. Tomlin and Fonda have been doing that together for decades, going all the way back to 1980’s 9 to 5. It’d have been easy to just throw these four ladies in any sort of situational comedy and let it all just work itself out. However, the feisty screenplay from Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern helps the broader humor all blend in together with the Super Bowl-related shenanigans.
They do have a real-life story to kinda-sorta consider, even though there are clear fantastical licenses the writers had to take with what inspired this. You can’t really make that much of a movie just about four seniors heading to Houston to watch Brady and the New England Patriots take on the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51. You can, however, delightfully embellish just how that might’ve gone down.
There isn’t a nuanced bone in this movie’s body, and it’s all the better for it. Playing it as broad as possible allows 80 for Brady to maximize its loonier plot developments, and it gives the primary quartet plenty of room to just let their organic comedic chops take over whatever scene is going on. Moreno has been doing this since the 1950s, and she’s still as spry as ever. You could argue, even though Tomlin and Fonda are the comedic titans here, that Moreno and Field get the biggest laughs.
While any Falcons fan attending might want to excuse themselves for a bathroom break during the film’s actual Super Bowl sequences, there’s enough for even the most begrudged Dirty Bird fan to find something pleasant in a lighthearted comedy that’s very sure of itself.
How is Brady, you might wonder? While he’s certainly not going to have an acting career like the one former NFL cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha has built for himself, he holds his own with what he’s asked to do. He and Tomlin share one sweet moment toward the end of the movie that does make you wonder if Brady does have something in him for acting, but more than likely, he won’t grace the screen with any movie that doesn’t have his name in the title.
Watching 80 for Brady is a bit like joining in for a game night at your grandma’s retirement village. There’s just something nice about watching an entire room of elderly people crack jokes and sip the bubbly on a Saturday afternoon. If you have a grandma, take her to see this one. The smile on her face will undoubtedly make the one on yours grow even bigger.
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