I've got a huge soft spot for FOR LOVE OF THE GAME, the last film in Kevin Costner's baseball trilogy. He's a Detroit Tigers pitcher throwing his last game (at Yankee Stadium, poor guy), reflecting on his life and career. The baseball scenes feel authentic, the romance is well-played, and the 9th inning thrills me every time.

My favoritest sports movie ever used to be PRIDE AND ARROWS (an obscure archery film by Mikio Naruse), but I've seen ZIDANE: A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PORTRAIT three times in the last year and it just sends me. The movie covers a Real Madrid/Villareal match, with seventeen cameras all pointed at Zidane for the duration. You barely even see the game, and get to a point where you live and die with every gesture on screen. There's even a halftime show that takes in activity from around the world. The score by Mogwai's pretty terrific, too.