With 2012 finally here, January is shaping up to be an incredible month for sports. European football is in full swing, the NBA is back in action, hockey just came off the fifth Winter Classic outdoor game, and the NFL is into the playoffs with the Super Bowl set for Sunday 5 February. As such, let’s take a look at some of the best movies about sports.

Though not about an NFL team, 1974’s The Longest Yard, is an excellent place to start for sports movies. Burt Reynolds stars as Paul ‘Wrecking’ Crewe, a former professional NFL quarterback who gets thrown in jail for taking his girlfriend’s car after an argument, leading police on a chase which eventually culminates in the car ending up in the ocean. Once in prison, he’s hated by both his fellow inmates (for point shaving) and the guards (for not coaching the prison staff’s team). Naturally, prison warden Rudolph Hazen (Eddie Albert) is the chief antagonist. Hazen is a football fanatic who manages a semi-pro team made up of the prison's guards, and wants Crewe to lend a hand. When he refuses he’s given a severe punishment and quickly reconsiders. He proposes an exhibition game with the inmates taking on the guards. That game is what makes this film so great and shows the drama inherent in sports; the camaraderie between the teammates of the inmates’ squad, the nearly impossible odds to overcome and, of course, the high-tension slow-motion everything-on-the-line sequences. In one particularly memorable scene, Crewe calls for a particular play over and over which involves him line driving the football into the groin of Bogdanski (played by former Green Bay Packer and Hall-Of-Famer Ray Nitschke). Reynolds may not seem to be a leading man today, but in the 70s, there was nobody who did it better.

The Longest Yard has been remade twice, once as a UK football film under the title Mean Machine (the name of the inmate team) in 2001 starring Vinnie Jones as England captain Danny Meehan, thrown in jail for assaulting two police officers and drink driving. Mean Machine has the added benefit of co-starring Jason Statham and many of the Guy Richie Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels crew. This version is much better than the other, made in 2005, which stars Adam Sandler in the Paul Crewe role, co-stars Chris Rock and features Burt Reynolds as the coach. In addition, this remake relies heavily on the stunt casting of various NFL and World Wrestling Entertainment characters.

The legendary Paul Newman makes the list of greatest sports movies with his starring role in the 1977 hockey film Slap Shot. Starring as Reggie Dunlop, the player/coach of the fictional Charlestown Chiefs, Newman shines. And he’s said that shooting this film was not only the most fun he’s had filming a movie, but that the role of Dunlop is one of his favourites. Technically a comedy, the plot involves the trials and tribulations of a minor league hockey franchise and what steps Dunlop takes in order to win a championship. The film is loosely based on the rough and tumble lives of real players in the American Hockey League’s Johnstown Jets franchise. Nancy Dowd’s screenplay came as a result of her brother Ned playing for the team when it was announced it was for sale. It’s practically common knowledge that the ‘goon squad’ players of the Hanson brothers are in fact real brothers that played with Ned Dowd on the Jets. As a testament to the movie’s popularity, several real life hockey teams have taken the name ‘Chiefs’ and their logos bear striking resemblance to the one in Slap Shot. In addition, replica Chiefs sweaters are still popular sellers.

This list ends the only way it ever could, with Raging Bull, Martin Scorsese’s 1980 epic tale of boxer Jake LaMotta. Starring Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriaty, Raging Bull is an amazing ride from the first bell to the last. Told in flashback, we meet LaMotta in 1964 as he’s working on a stand-up comedy routine and then we quickly go back over 20 years to 1941, to his first major loss in the ring. Over the course of the next two plus hours, we’re riding the rollercoaster that was this pugilist’s life. Everything about Raging Bull is literally awe inspiring. Filmed in black and white for emotional intensity, you don’t need to be anywhere near the boxing ring to feel the sweat flying off DeNiro’s face, or smell the smoke (and other odours) in the air. The fight scenes themselves are choreographed like a master ballet, and the cinematography is gorgeous. Other notable scenes include the way LaMotta woos the 15-year-old Vickie (Moriaty) outside a public swimming pool in the Bronx, the violent banter between LaMotta and his brother Joey (Pesci) as the former accuses the latter of being intimate with his wife, and finally, the closing scene with LaMotta in jail slamming his fists into the concrete wall. Raging Bull only won two Academy Awards out of its eight nominations; including a much deserved Best Actor for DeNiro (some would argue that this is his best work – and I agree), but has gone on to be tops of almost every single ‘Best Of’ list in film history. Raging Bull cannot be overstated as the greatest sports movie ever made and is a must watch under any and all circumstances.

Honourable mentions:

• Boxing: Rocky
• Basketball: Hoosiers
• NFL Football: Brian’s Song, Rudy
• Football: Fever Pitch
• Major League Baseball: The Natural, Pride Of The Yankees
• Cycling: Breaking Away
• Running: Chariots Of Fire