'Draft Day' About What You'd Expect

The movie "Draft Day" is a combination of poker, chess and "Moneyball" that fantasy football fans have anticipated for months and the new Kevin Costner vehicle works on those levels. It also entertains those who enjoy puzzles and compiling statistics.

I liked it. The person I went with--who is not a football fan and knows nothing about the draft--liked it, for different reasons.

This one's not a shocker on any level. It's almost completely predictible, down to the payoff shot, but it's fun to watch, fun to figure out and will even give you some inside information about the game and its workings if you're interested.

Costner plays himself and has a balanced supporting cast with Jennifer Garner as his football executive (that guys would kill to have close by and who's in better shape than most gridders) girlfriend, Dennis Leary as a cranky and demanding head coach and Frank Langella as the owner--all of the Cleveland Browns. They're trying to build the franchise back to previous levels and need a good draft to do that. It falls to Costner to execute a great draft plan and the game is on.

Fun movie. Not an award-winner, but few are. Escape nicely with this one.