Who'd have thunk it?

"Who would have thought we'd have a black son before we met a democrat?" Certainly not the Tuohy family from The Blind Side. This feel good sports film depicts the true story of the rise of a young man from the projects of Memphis to becoming a Dean's List All-American left tackle for the Ole Miss Running Rebels. Bill Simmons got it right when he said that the choice of actors for Michael Oher (who is currently a rookie playing for the Baltimore Ravens) was dead on, while the young brother could have been casted a bit better (although it is the kid from Friday Night Lights). Before meeting up with the Tuohy family, Big Mike (6'6", maybe 325) doesn't really have a home, is barely allowed admission into a nice private school (the football coach pulls some strings, even though he doesn't realize that Michael has never played football before), and owns two shirts. His mother is a crack head, and his neighbors are thugs. Luckily for him, Leigh Anne and Stan take him into their home and raise him as their own. They even put him in their family Christmas photo, to which Cousin Bud replies, "Are you aware there's a large colored boy in your photo?" As Michael learns to play football, the recruiters from just about every football university in the south coming knocking. Mike lets SJ (the brother) handle most of his negotiations. He also has to work extremely hard in school to raise his GPA from a 1.76 to a 2.5 in order to be eligible to receive a scholarship. A bit of controversy arises when the NCAA brings up the question about whether the Tuohys brought Mike into their home in an effort to persuade him to go to Ole Miss (their alma mater). Mike has a moment of regret and returns to his old home and has a run in with his old neighbors. But, all's well that ends well. Sandra Bullock does quite a good job (when doesn't she do a good job) as the mom. Bill Simmons argues that this is one of the best sports films of the year, and I would agree that it is indeed a good movie, maybe not as focused around sports as one would hope for a "sports film." Instead it focused on accepting people and helping when you can, even if it's only one life at a time. Perhaps more a family movie than a sports movie. There really isn't much more to say about it, other than pointing out that Kristen Bell should have been at the top of the list to play Collins, the sister in the family.