Sport and Cinema.com

Rob Siegel, the writer of the Oscar-nominated drama, The Wrestler, writes and makes his directorial debut in this small, but exceptional and thought-provoking tale on obsessive behavior through the prism of sports – in this case NFL football.

Making its national debut over the past weekend is a comedy from Fox that features Dwayne Johnson as Derek Thompson aka The Tooth Fairy, a rough-house hockey player whose nickname comes from his penchant for separating opposing players from their teeth.

When Derek discourages a youngster’s dreams, he is sentenced to one week’s hard labor as a real tooth fairy forced to trade in a hockey stick for a magic wand and shoulder pads for wings.

This year’s NFL Playoffs have certainly re-affirmed that a team’s performance, now more than ever, is closely tied to the results produced by their quarterback.

The pressure in the NFL’s second season to reach the Super Bowl has knocked off the likes of San Diego’s Phillip Rivers, the Cardinals’ Kurt Warner and the Bengals’ Carson Palmer.

With good reviews on the film festival circuit and a theatrical release, the boxing documentary “Facing Ali” is now available for home entertainment as a single disc DVD from Lionsgate.

Muhammad Ali, the three-time world heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist who electrified the world with his unorthodox style and charismatic ways, is paid tribute by ten of his acclaimed rivals.

As we begin 2010 it is time to consider which is the BEST sports movie from the first decade of the 21st Century.

There are some very good choices. Documentaries, by the way, like “Dogtown and Z-Boys” deserve their own column.

Here is the Top Ten:

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It is a tough criteria, some play longer seasons, others go solo, a few operate complex machinery while others merely navigate their bodies through wind or water.

The Tide’s Heisman running back, Mark Ingram and Longhorn mobile QB Colt McCoy may be taking a rare back seat to a pair of defenses that are likely to determine the winner in the first-ever BCS Championship clash of 13-0 teams.

The first decade of the twenty-first century has come to a close and there have been some outstanding squads from all the team sports.

You recently witnessed a dominating run by the New York Yankees who became the only team of the decade to win 100 games and the World Series.