80 For Brady (Movie Review)

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

80 for Brady‘s titular hero is usually supported by a cast of all-star football players on the gridiron and, in this storyline, by a cast of all-stars on the big screen: Lily Tomlin as cancer survivor Lou; Jane Fonda as the divorced bimbo Trish who writes erotic fan fiction; Rita Moreno as the widow Maura; and Sally Field as Betty, a university mathematics professor married to nerdy Mark (Bob Balaban).

The script by Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins is based on the account of an actual group of five octogenarians who took turns watching the New England Patriots‘ games on television at each other’s homes. While the real Brady fans never made it to the Super Bowl, 80 for Brady revolves around an all-girls weekend at the 2017 Big Game in Houston’s Astrodome between the Atlanta Falcons—and you guessed it—Tom Brady’s New England Patriots. Thanks to the moving phone message that Lou sent to the Patriot’s fan-based radio station manned by Pat (Rob Corddry) and Nat (Alex Moffat), these women are now the proud possessors of four tickets to the big game—or so they think.

After rescuing a slumbering Maura from the seniors’ home–she mistook a sleeping pill for blood pressure medication, the four friends finally arrive in Houston. The first crisis occurs when Betty leaves behind her “fanny pack” containing the precious tickets after she wins a hot wings eating contest at super chef Guy Fieri’s food exhibit. Fortunately, Trish has connected with former NFL player Dan (Harry Hamlin) who gets the four of them invited to a VIP Super Bowl party (and later to prime seats in a luxury sky box). When Lou’s tickets turn out to be fakes, the women gain entrance into the stadium past their nemesis, security gate guard Chip (Ron Funches), thanks to choreographer Gugu (Billy Porter), who briefly passes them off as members of his half-time dance squad.

But this is just the beginning of a feel-good film about four old ladies who end up having the time of their lives and finally realize the dream they have had since Lou got them all excited about the New England Patriots while she was undergoing chemotherapy 16 years earlier. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments such as Trish, Betty, and Lou extracting an unconscious Maura in a wheelchair out of her seniors’ home, thanks to a distraction created by fellow resident Mickey (Glynn Turman), Lou besting all her male competitors in a football passing contest, and Maura winning a high-stakes poker game against Gugu.

It is a true pleasure to watch four veteran actors like Fonda, Field, Tomlin, and Moreno go through their paces as a tightly-knit ensemble. Granted, the script is somewhat lightweight, there are some gratuitous drug use scenes, and most of the plot twists are eminently predictable. But these women whose actual ages range from 76 (Fields) to 92 (Moreno) give it their all and the results are never less than satisfying. Even recently retired (again!) NFL quarterback Tom Brady gets to flex his acting muscles in a couple of brief scenes while the action sequences on the football field often border on the spectacular.

Although the target audience may be women “of a certain age,” as the lone male sitting in my local movie theater, I found myself laughing along with the dozen or so female viewers also there in attendance. So I can safely recommend this one for adults of all ages and genders.

80 for Brady is now screening in movie theaters

• Rating Certificate: PG-13 (for brief strong language, some suggestive references and some drug content)
• Studios & Distributors: 199 Productions | Fifth Season | Watch This Ready | Paramount Pictures
• Country: USA
• Language: English
• Run Time: 98 Mins.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Director: Kyle Marvin
• Written By: Emily Halpern | Sarah Haskins
• Release Date: 3 February 2023