EDDIE

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sexual humor, language

Rated:

Although flawed in terms of foul language, Eddie actually has quite a humorous and good natured heart behind it. True, some of it is clichéd and the villain is hardly believable, but all the same audiences will find enjoyment watching a losing team coached by an amateur make the big leagues. 

There isn't a bigger fan of the New York Nicks than Eddie (Whoopi Goldberg). She watches every game, either glued to her television set with a mock microphone and running commentary, or from the nosebleed section in the stadium with her best friend and boy-hunter Claudine (Lisa Ann Walter). Her day life consists of driving limousines for NYC's rich and famous. Little does she know that one morning she has the new owner of the Nicks, "Wild" Bill (Frank Langella) sitting in the back. He's live on talk radio and his driver calls in to give him what-for. They wind up having an earnest conversation and parting on friendly terms.

The current coach for the Big Apple's losing-streak team has a lot of attitude and not much patience. He is content to bark orders from the sidelines and let his spoiled rotten boys get away with lax practices, turning down autograph signings, and flirting with cute reporters in the locker rooms. Eddie absolutely loathes him and when a publicity stunt lends her the title of honorary coach at halftime, she takes every advantage of it. The crowds love her big-mouthed, brassy commentary and Wild Bill realizes he has a bona fide hit on his hands. Ticket sales go up, the crowd boos when she's escorted out at the orders of the coach, and he's desperate to have her back. He can't fire Coach Bailey without a multi-million dollar fine attached, but the profit is forfeit if the man quits. This is very simple to arrange.

He brings Eddie back and names her the new head coach. She sits out a couple of games. They continue losing. But more people are buying tickets. Eddie starts to come into her own, getting to know the players, becoming involved in their personal life, and whipping them into shape, little knowing that Wild Bill has much bigger plans for the Nicks. Your average sports film can be found herein but with a little more heart than usual. Eddie is a likable protagonist from the very first, when she manages to get herself thrown out of the good seats for heckling the coach, to the end when she appears in an Armani suit. Whoopi doesn't sign on for scripts that don't have humor to them, and it abounds, sometimes corny, sometimes downright brilliant, but always hilarious. She has some great comebacks and seeing her play off the cast is just fabulous. Frank Langella has a brief stint as the owner who turns semi-bad, but it's never a very convincing turn due to script flaws. There's not much in the way of substance aside from working hard to reach your goals, and there's a nice sub plot involving marriage reconciliations rather than divorce. That being said, language and crude humor is definitely a problem. Most of the players are black and talk to one another in street speech, usually including words like a**, s**t, and other slang. There are a couple mild abuses of deity, and one f-word. Wild Bill also uses vulgar terms to describe why he hired the cheerleaders.

Sexual content consists of one scene when Eddie is hiding beneath a bed, and her player and his wife come into the room. They get a little frisky before she decides to interrupt, but no further than trading innuendo. Eddie tells Claudine that she dresses like a fifty dollar hooker. There's also a brief scene in the locker room when Eddie comes in to tell off the boys and leaves laughing because of their genitals' size. (We don't see anything.) It's unfortunate that these minor flaws taint the laugh fest, because the film does have a good heart, despite it's cornier moments.