Movie Ratings That Actually Work    Become a Member

"One of the 50 Coolest Websites...they simply tell it like it is" - TIME

Eddie the Eagle | 2016 | PG-13 | - 3.4.3

Inspired by actual events: A boy (Tom Costello Jr.) in a knee brace is determined to become an Olympic athlete, against his father's (Keith Allen) objections. As an adult (Taron Egerton) he plans to represent Great Britain in the ski jump at the 1988 Winter Olympics, but must train without financial support or the approval of the British Olympic Committee. Also with Hugh Jackman, Iris Berben, Christopher Walken and Jo Hartley. Directed by Dexter Fletcher. Some lines of dialogue are in Finnish, German and Norwegian with English subtitles. [1:45]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - Several sweaty men appear fully nude in a sauna (with genitals obscured by a bucket or the manner in which they sit on wooden benches); we see bare chests and abdomens, as well as the partial buttocks of two men and another man wearing only knee-length shorts enters and says, "Oh God, nude." Two skiers appear bare-chested in a locker room and a coach looks them up and down as they ask the secret to successful skiing and the coach replies, "Clothes." An older woman behind a bar wears a low-cut blouse that reveals some cleavage.
 A ski jump coach explains to a male trainee that the downhill slope is foreplay and the takeoff from the jump is like an orgasm; when the trainee does not understand, the coach acts out with facial grimaces, moaning, and the final shout for the jump is as if he's climaxing (the coach mentions the shout a few more times in future practices). A man says about a new ski jumper that the younger man should be crashing into the ladies instead of crashing down slopes. A reporter asks a ski jumper if it is true that he has had a lover for two years and that he has a baby; the jumper looks blankly at the reporter as the scene ends. A man sleeps in the small supply room of a ski café and the middle-aged owner wakes him up and she says that in the past he would have been in her cabin and asks how he would like her to visit him some nights; he confusedly declines as he walks out of the room.
 An official hugs a woman in the viewing booth. A ski jumper shakes his rear end at a cheering crowd and they laugh and applaud.

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - A man on a 70m jump slope ready bar asks another skier to push him as he falls forward and plummets down the slope; he falls loudly, rolling, losing skis, crashing onto his back, shouting, and groaning and men run out with a gurney to take him away as another man shouts at the skier's coach that he will be the next person to need a stretcher (we see the jumper injured with facial bruising and cuts and wearing a very tall cervical collar in a clinic bed and another scene shows him without the collar and recovering. A skier falls during a downhill run that we see on TV (we do not hear about injuries). Archival ski jump footage shows a skier falling on a jump slope and rolling with his legs and skis at odd angles as we hear loud crunching (we hear that the skier suffered severe injuries). A skier falls loudly and slides while jumping a 70m slope and we see men place the skier onto a gurney in a long shot. A man jumps a 40m ski jump and lands on his back, groaning, but uninjured. A man falls on a ski jump and grabs one hand as a snowplow driver tells him to stay off the slope (we see a large splint on the skier's hand later). A woman holds a large ice bag to a skier's bruised face and slightly cut lip. A skier falls and crashes loudly 10 times in ten jumps, groaning and shouting, but is unharmed.
 A skier in a cafe calls a trainee and his coach "Milky Boy and Pisten Bully" after the trainee will not drink alcohol and the coach is a snowplow (Pisten Bully) driver; the coach punches the bully unconscious and a larger man punches the coach unconscious (no injuries are seen).
 A man trains a ski jumper with an indoor short ramp and a shortened automobile mechanic's creeper; the trainee rolls down the slope and jumps as the other man catches him under the belly and holds him, shouting to the trainee to strike a position, release power and shout loudly (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) and this drill is repeated several times.
 A young boy attempting to play sports argues several times with his father and breaks things around the house in his attempts; pole vaulting into a mattress outdoors results in the pole breaking and the boy falling (he breaks his glasses), he lifts two paint cans on ends of a poll and falls backwards (unhurt), he falls over hurdles and breaks his glasses, and he hits himself in the face with a ball on a string (he breaks his glasses and a window of his house). Several skiers line up at the bottom of a ski slope and fall like dominoes (no injuries occur). A man drives a van while drinking whiskey (please see the Substance Use category for more details) with another man wearing skis riding on top of it, practicing ski jump positions. A new skier practices balance by wearing a harness and ropes to stand one-footed on the top of upright poles about eight inches in diameter, and to jump on and off two slack leather straps hung parallel about two feet off the floor, falling a few times without injury; he also jumps two-footed over hurdles and back and forth over markers in a line on the floor. A few scenes are shot from the point of view of a ski jumper and we see the path as he plummets down a high ski jump ramp at high speed and into the air. A man jumps a 90m ski jump while under the influence of alcohol (please see the Substance Use category for more details); as he jumps, the scene becomes slow motion and we see sparks fly from a tossed cigarette when the man lofts into the air, soars and lands safely. A novice ski jumper rides two elevators to the top of a 90m slope, sits on a ready bar and hesitates (we see a vista of a village with tiny buildings) and the jumper finally pushes off at tremendous speed and a close-up shows his frowning face as the slope races away from the camera and he lands, falls backward, but stiffens and does not touch the snow and ice, struggles to stand back up and lands safely to set a record.
 A skier argues with a man and additional men on the Olympic Committee in several scenes and is rejected by them for competition; he argues with other officials who also reject him as he falls onto his rear end during a jump (no injury). A skier and his coach argue loudly twice about behavior required at the Olympics and the coach withdraws from coaching him; the skier competes without his coach. A man tells a skier that Britain had only one ski jumper in 1929, and the jumper died in 1975. A man tells a jump trainee that the 70m slope breaks bones and the 90m slope is worse; he says twice that before you get to the stairs of the 90m, people are already measuring you for your coffin. A woman states that a man was an Olympic skier who was kicked off the team for arrogance, drunkenness and fornication. A man takes another man's whiskey flask and the first man tells him to return it or he'll tattoo his face (the other man returns the flask). Skiers trick a new team member into missing the Olympic Opening Ceremonies by drinking too much (please see the Substance Use category for more details); we see the man standing in a laundry cart while explaining to an official that he was nervous and did not attend the opening and the official tells him to control himself or he'll be doing the ski jump event in a nappy (diaper). A skier with only a year's experience sets a ski jump record and crowds gather and cheer loudly, waving banners at the finish line, even though the man came in last place in the 70m jump event. Two news conferences contain shouting reporters and many flashing camera light bulbs as a skier is interviewed and an Olympic official becomes angry and walks out as his assistant rolls her eyes at him angrily. A coach tells a skier that he is like gum on a shoe, never quitting and that he (coach) needs booze to be able to jump the 90m. We see an experienced Olympian crash on a 90m jump and hear over a TV that paramedics are coming. We see silent slow motion scenes of a coach, a venue announcer, other skiers, a skier's parents, TV viewers, and people in a crowd shouting wildly. A large crowd at an airport waits for a skier's return, shouting, chanting his name and waving banners when they see him. A retired ski jump coach criticizes a younger coach for some time on a TV interview and he says the younger man is disrespectful, not serious and not suited to coach, but later apologizes to the younger man in person with a hug. A man tells another man that he was in a hospital for a year in childhood with bad knees. A man tells his wife, "I'm gonna break his neck" about their son. A man sticks his head out a window, sees his son taking the father's van and hits his head on the window frame as he yells.
 A young boy experiences knee problems in 1973 and wears a series of heavy knee braces that cover most of his leg for support. A skier is heavier proportionately than other downhill skiers and ski jumpers, has an under bite and continual frown, and has very poor eyesight that requires thick glasses; other athletes laugh at him and appear angry when he attempts to enter competitions, and an Olympic Committee rejects him and he argues with them to no avail.
 A man breaks into the training room of a ski team and draws white feces balls under the rear ends of stick-man jumpers on a chalkboard; he knocks down a few diagram displays and calls them incorrect.
 A skier spits on the ground (we see white spittle) as a criticism about another skier and a man says that the second man will be dead by the weekend. A man at a bar drinks from a tall glass of bubbly clear liquid containing a lemon slice and spits it out in a spray when he hears on TV that a skier will attempt a 90m slope without ever having jumped that venue, even in practice. A man smells a pair of underwear from a laundry basket and grimaces, saying they smell bad.

LANGUAGE 3 - 4 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 8 mild obscenities, name-calling (crazy, stupid, idiot, fool, mad, madman, silly, total loser), exclamations (shut it), 7 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, Oh God, Jesus).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man drives a van while drinking alcohol from a flask of whiskey that he carries in his hip pocket and pulls out in several scenes (in a parked snow plow, in random outdoor shots, at a ski jump camp a few times, at home, and at a ski competition), a man offers a flask to a younger man who says that drinking doesn't agree with him, a man lights a cigarette and drinks from a flask before jumping a 90m slope and he chugs from a bottle of whiskey at the bottom of the hill, a man keeps two bottles of whiskey on top of a crate-bookshelf in his bedroom, a man drinks two shots of whiskey, a man says that he has quit drinking and we see him remove a flask from his pocket and not drink from it, two café scenes show many men and women drinking glasses and bottles of beer, a man drinks a glass of beer while talking on a payphone in a café, men and women at a ski slope hold and do not drink from champagne cups and we see a bottle of champagne on a table, a beer bottle is shown on a coffee table near a man and a woman has a glass of wine in a home (neither person is seen drinking), and several skiers pressure a non-drinking new team member into drinking shots of different alcoholic beverages symbolizing the Olympic Rings and then order him a beer (the next morning, the new man is asleep in a laundry cart and awakens with a severe headache). A man smokes a cigarette in a house twice and another man smokes a cigarette in his workshop and a café several times, a man smokes a cigarette inside his snow plow cab twice and outside near a ski jump hill three times, and a man sits with a large ash tray partially filled with ashes and a lighter at a bar (we do not see him smoke).

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Determination, guilelessness, hard work, dangerous sports, mentors, fighting unfair sports systems, conflict, bullying, alcoholism, facing problems, forgiveness, redemption, recognition, reconciliation, friendship.

MESSAGE - A hero is a person who does not quit, not one who wins medals.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


how to
support us

PLEASE DONATE

We are a totally independent website with no connections to political, religious or other groups & we neither solicit nor choose advertisers. You can help us keep our independence with a donation.

NO MORE ADS!

Become a member of our premium site for just $1/month & access advance reviews, without any ads, not a single one, ever. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

We welcome suggestions & criticisms -- and we accept compliments too. While we read all emails & try to reply we don't always manage to do so; be assured that we will not share your e-mail address.

how to
support us

PLEASE DONATE

We are a totally independent website with no connections to political, religious or other groups & we neither solicit nor choose advertisers. You can help us keep our independence with a donation.

NO MORE ADS!

Become a member of our premium site for just $2/month & access advance reviews, without any ads, not a single one, ever. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

We welcome suggestions & criticisms -- and we will accept compliments too. While we read all emails & try to reply we do not always manage to do so; be assured that we will not share your e-mail address.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter

Know when new reviews are published
We will never sell or share your email address with anybody and you can unsubscribe at any time

You're all set! Please check your email for confirmation.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This