The Best of Times (1986)

Funny and hilarious!!!!!

Kurt Russell and Robin Williams are dynamite as always. It's about a football reunion (more or less), between two opposing "old school" teams. It's hilarious and worth seeing. You can't go wrong with Kurt Russell or Robin Williams. May 31, 2008

A cute movie for old-school football player or those who love football

I give this one 3 and 1/2 to 4 stars, and it is really cute, not as funny as one might think, but it is cute and if you love football or used to be an old player, and have ever had dreams about playing again or what if??? then this movie will give you a laugh! January 23, 2008

best of times is good times!

Best of Times is a overlooked classic from the 80"s!
Kurt Russell is great as the old hero football star
who winds up in a car repair shop and Robin Williams
in his best role ever as the pathetic bank manager
who's life is out of control and both team up to
relive their youth by starting up a football game
with the stronger rival team that whipped them years
ago. Of course they win the game and all ends well but
it's worth watching this classic comedy. June 25, 2007

Best of Times

It's a fun filled comedy about highschool football in a small town. Robin Williams and Kurt Russell are great as they replay the game that shaped their lives January 17, 2007

Excellent scenery from Taft, California.

The film is a typical football story, where the underdog wins the game. In THE BEST OF TIMES, the underdog is a collection of out-of-shape, out-of-practice middle aged men who prepare for a re-match, a football game against their better-prepared counterparts from across the highway. In this film, the underdogs are from Taft, a real town that still has a functioning oil well industry, while the better prepared team is from Bakersfield, a major city in California.

During the re-match, the underdogs begin by playing poorly. But the team's abilities improve after a sudden thunderstorm douses the field and changes it to mud. The change appears due to the fact that their star player, Reno Hightower, joins the team.

Most of the time spent in THE BEST OF TIMES is devoted to Robin Williams' efforts in convincing the people of Taft that a high school football game, from some 15 years back, should be replayed with the original players, most of them tubby in their middle age. For example, Robin Williams secretly paints inflammatory graffiti in an effort to gurd the townsfolk into playing a re-match against the rival time.

This film contains excellent images from Taft, California. The film begins with an excellent narrative of the early history of Taft. Recently (April 2006), I discovered Taft, and visited the Oil Museum, and generally enjoyed the intriguing aesthetics of the hundreds of bobbing oil wells found in the area. The Oil Museum has a tiny gift shop, with mugs, featuring a black drawing of a wooden oil well structure. The film lovingly features the bobbing oil wells as a backdrop for much of the acting.

THE BEST OF TIMES dwells lovingly on the local color of the town, for example, on employees in an auto repair shop, members of a men's club (Caribou Club) at work at one of their meetings, amateur female singers in a lounge, and a high school dance.

Several clever sight gags enliven the plot. For example, Robin Williams plays a bank worker. But the bank president teases him for making his high school team lose an important game, years earlier. The bank president teases him by taking off his cowboy hat, tossing it around and fumbling with it, as though it was the football that Robin Williams had dropped. Another sight gag consists of Robin Williams driving a broken-down loaner automobile. While coming to a halt, he crashes it into a low brick wall, making the bricks scatter about. (Nothing else is made of this accident. It is just a quick sight gag that comes and goes.) Still another sight gag occurs during the actual rematch, the football game that takes place at the end of the movie. The sight gag consists in our introduction to one of the other team's players, a former convict who calls himself, "Dr. Death."

The film suffers from its periodic bad language. Once might be enough. But the bad language in this film continues, again and again and again and again and again. Isn't there a bowdlerized version of this movie that can be shown to kids? Also, I really didn't like the brothel scene, or the bedroom scene with Robin Williams and his wife getting undressed together. These scenes make the movie inappropriate for kids. Also, Robin Williams is too hairy. With his top off, he looks like a baboon.

This film is a must for fans of California history. Taft played an important role in California's oil industry. But for those interested in sports movies about underdogs, there are plenty of better choices, for example, RUDY (football), MIRACLE (ice hockey), THE ROOKIE (baseball), and HOOSIERS (basketball).

To conclude, if you find yourself traveling along the vast wasteland of a journey, along Route 5, from Los Angeles,CA to Sacramento, CA, I would emphatically recommend stopping to see the oil well museum in Taft, CA, and then picking up a copy of THE BEST OF TIMES, in order to view your vacation spot. May 9, 2006

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