80 for Brady Review

Last Updated on February 8, 2023

PLOT: A group of eighty-year-old women (Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno) win tickets to the Super Bowl to see their favorite quarterback, Tom Brady, in action.

REVIEW: One has to give all the gals involved in 80 for Brady credit. In recent years, all four have had tremendous success, with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin doing excellent work on the consistently watchable Grace and Frankie on Netflix. Meanwhile, Rita Moreno, at ninety-one (but looking at least fifteen years younger), is an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner who was just in Spielberg’s remake of her own West Side Story, while Sally Field (the youngest of the group at 76) was recently in a terrific indie called Hello My Name is Doris. All four are still in the game and doing great work, but 80 for Brady isn’t going to be a career highlight for any of them.

It’s a shame, as the director, Kyle Marvin, made a superb comedy a few years ago called The Climb, and I was hoping the film might have some of that same edge or at least some of the bite Grace and Frankie had over its run. Instead, 80 for Brady is like one of those embarrassing late-era comedies Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon were stuck making in the nineties (think Out to Sea rather than the pretty good Grumpy Old Men).

All four play to type, with Lily Tomlin having the closest thing to an affecting arc as a cancer survivor who, during her recovery, got into watching football with her long-time best friends. All four ladies were taken by Tom Brady’s good looks (to note – Brady not only plays himself but produced the film, too) and became giant football fans. All of them are in the midst of a crisis, with Fonda’s character a serial dater who’s unlucky in love, Field a professor’s wife who feels unseen, Tomlin worried about her cancer returning, and Moreno missing her late husband.

It could have probably been a good-natured slice of life, but the film fumbles once the ladies get to Houston and fall into a bunch of “wacky” situations that go on and on. Some of the episodes are embarrassing, with Guy Fieri playing an extended role as himself, being impressed by the gals when Field wins a hot wing-eating competition. There’s a painful bit where all four women get stoned on edibles and start hallucinating at a party they’ve been invited to, with Patton Oswalt and Billy Porter showing up as themselves. Meanwhile, Harry Hamlin plays a hunky former football player who falls for Fonda. It’s all harmless enough but far below what any of the four are capable of. Let’s not forget that they’re all responsible for some of the best movies ever made, and while this was probably meant as a minor entry for the four, you can’t help but expect something more substantial from the stars of Klute, 9 to 5, Norma Rae and West Side Story.

In the end, 80 for Brady is likely passable enough entertainment for the audience it was geared towards, but it’s unlikely to appeal much beyond their base. If you want to see any of the four at their best, not only is there a boatload of classics to choose from, but all are still doing much better work right now. 80 for Brady is disposable, and maybe a decent rainy day watch for die-hard fans of the four (or Tom Brady), but not much else.

80 for Brady

BELOW AVERAGE

5

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