80 for Brady: Quatro Amigas e uma Paixão

From the trailers, I was expecting this to be a very obnoxious, clunky movie. I'm happily surprised to have been mostly wrong about that.

Yes, it is often melodramatic. Yes, it has a plot as thin as rice paper. Yes, it's directed and edited in a way that looks like a cheap made-for-tv movie.

But I didn't care. Because what handily saves this movie is the chemistry between its four aged-yet-still-talented actresses. They embody their characters distinctly and charmingly, and from the first few scenes I was thoroughly convinced of the authenticity of their friendship.

Their dynamic carries this lighthearted experience and makes it an engaging, and often legitimately hilarious, one.

80 for Brady is a wholesome comedy where every twist and turn can be spotted miles away but the core four are so entertaining to watch that it never becomes a big issue. It's breezily entertaining in the way the best 3 star movies can be and even if the individual adventures don't go as far as they could, there's still fun to be had watching these four celebrated actresses going through them.

Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, and Sally Field are a delightful group who are endlessly watchable together and just as good when they're on their individual side quests. Everyone gets a nice character arc so all four of them have grown in some way by the end with Sally Field being the best of the bunch thanks to her general likeability and how consistently joyful she is throughout.

Kyle Marvin's direction is competent enough despite it generally looking like a glossy episode of television and the jokes missing a couple of big opportunities. His greatest achievement is making sure the film doesn't stray too far from the preferred 90 minute run time. Like all films inspired by a true story should do, it shows the real people at the start of the credits which is always a nice touch.

And they are as follows: Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Sally Field. (Okay, if you like football, there will be a fifth: Tom Brady). This movie has the barest of plots (four ladies realize their dream to see the SuperBowl and their favorite player, Tom Brady). Some of the events that play out make no sense. (For example, when they dance their way into the SuperBowl. I'll be the first to say they dance better than I do but the crowd acts like they've just seen Cirque de Soleil not four old broads doing the frug.). But these four pros take thinly written characters and make them stand out. Sally Field is probably the funniest as the retired math professor who loves spouting statistics. Jane Fonda, who looks incredible, is sympathetic as the aging sexpot who really just wants to have a comfortable romance. Rita Moreno is great as a grieving widow with a penchant for gambling. And Lily Tomlin, as the de facto leader of the quartet, leaves the snark behind to play an ordinary woman with health issues that just wants to have one last fun trip with her friends. Check your brain at the door, accept that this is silly sentimental nonsense half the time and remember that this could be the last time we see any one of these great actresses.

If you've seen the trailer, don't bother seeing the movie. All the best moments in the movie are strung together in the trailer.

The four stars are great -- how could they not be? -- but the plot is just a series of loosely connected and poorly set-up situations that the various actresses stumble into. The repeated appearances of two amazingly unfunny disc jockeys slowed things down considerably.

If he puts his mind to it, Tom Brady can do anything, so I'm sure he'll be a great actor in about 10 or 20 years, if that's what he wants to dedicate himself to. But giving him an emotional soliloquy at the end of this movie, that would have been challenging even to an experienced actor, was beyond Brady's current acting limitations.

Very improbable plot, which I suppose I should have expected, except that they've repeatedly emphasized that this movie is "based on a true story." Yeah, maybe like the Wizard of Oz is based on my recent flight from Cleveland to San Antonio.

I'd welcome another movie by these four extremely talented and engaging actresses. But one that very talented writers, producers and directors have given some thought to.

Oh, and if you absolutely insist on going to see this movie, don't watch the trailer. It's worse when you've already seen the best jokes.

I admit, when this movie was being advertised just about two years ago I told myself I had zero interest in seeing it. And I made no effort to see it. Until today when my wife and I were looking for something to stream.

Now I can confidently say "This movie is a lot better than I thought it would be" and that is always a welcome surprise. A bonus is that it was inspired by a true story of four elderly Tom Brady fans going to Superbowl 51 in Houston (where we happen to live for the past 38 years).

The gist of the story is, these four friends call themselves "80 For Brady" because most of them are over 80 and all of them are big Brady fans and Patriots fans. They even have special jerseys they wear when watching games on TV, all with number 12 on them.

It is 2017 and the Superbowl 51 in Houston is coming up. Two local radio jockeys have a contest, the best story from the fans will win four tickets to the game. A few days later one of the ladies produces four tickets and they are off.

Part of the humor here is that not everything goes smoothly. But the four veteran actresses are in fine form and a fantasy conclusion to the game, which required the Patriots to come back from a big deficit, is entertaining. Actual NFL footage from that game is used, and several Patriots players, including Brady and Gronk, are characters in the locker-room after the game. In fact Brady was the producer for the movie.

Good entertainment, inspired by real people and real events, what's not to like?