1983 and a cold, bleak and struggling town of Ampipe plays home to Stefan Djordjevic (Tom Cruise) he has a plan to get a football scholarship and get out of town before he is swallowed up by a life in the steel mills. But can he make all the right moves in his quest for freedom, or will he fall foul of coaches, criminals and teenage pregnancy?

At Champions of Cinema we love nothing less than a movie about Football, but with our first foray into High School, is Joe too old to remember being a teenager and is James far and away from a steelworkers son? Join us as we start a new series of Tom Cruise movies!

The Hosts

Joe Walker is a Sports Coach and graduate of Loughborough University, with 16 years coaching experience and a degree in Sports Coaching. His first passion has always been movies and the stories that they tell.

James Marshall is a National Championship winning athlete and graduate of Loughborough University. He has a background in a variety of sports including American Football, Athletics and Swimming. He grew up with aspirations to pursue a life in Drama and Acting.

Contact Info

Instagram - @championsofcinema

Tiktok - @champions.of.cine

Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics are one of the cheapest teams in Baseball, with a cut price roster of misfit and broken players can they do the impossible and compete with the big boys of Baseball?

Stepping onto the mound for the first time with a Baseball movie, Joe and James flirt with pivoting the podcast into Mathematics rather than Movies, with discussions about how Billionaires save money in their sport teams and whether economics really is the future of sports.

The Hosts

Joe Walker is a Sports Coach and graduate of Loughborough University, with 16 years coaching experience and a degree in Sports Coaching. His first passion has always been movies and the stories that they tell.

James Marshall is a National Championship winning athlete and graduate of Loughborough University. He has a background in a variety of sports including American Football, Athletics and Swimming. He grew up with aspirations to pursue a life in Drama and Acting.

Contact Info

Instagram - @championsofcinema

Tiktok - @champions.of.cine

Vinny Pazienza was a 5 time world champion boxer, but can he be a Champion of Cinema? Sure an athlete can come back in a game or a season to overcome their challenges and opponents, but Bleed for this sees Vinny having to overcome a broken neck just to make it back into the ring.

With James angering the gods of martial arts this episode, it nearly never made it to your ears, but after some quick editing work and a whole lot of heart and hustle, the boys rally in the 2nd half of the fight to bring you their newest episode.

The Hosts

Joe Walker is a Sports Coach and graduate of Loughborough University, with 16 years coaching experience and a degree in Sports Coaching. His first passion has always been movies and the stories that they tell.

James Marshall is a National Championship winning athlete and graduate of Loughborough University. He has a background in a variety of sports including American Football, Athletics and Swimming. He grew up with aspirations to pursue a life in Drama and Acting.

Contact Info

Instagram - @championsofcinema

Tiktok - @champions.of.cine

Chariots of Fire won Best Picture at the Oscars in 1982, but is it a Champion of Cinema? Olympics movie at its finest the story follows the live of two young sprinters Harold Abrahams a Jewish Cambridge student with a competitive streak and speed to boot, and Eric Liddell a Christian Scot who runs both in celebration of and with the challenges his faith provides.

In their first foray into Athletics, Oscar Winners and The Olympics, Joe and James find the funny, the touching and the inaccuracies of Chariots of Fire with the usual passion and depth that they are becoming accustomed to, but can they avoid the Nazis even in the 1920's?

The Hosts

Joe Walker is a Sports Coach and graduate of Loughborough University, with 16 years coaching experience and a degree in Sports Coaching. His first passion has always been movies and the stories that they tell.

James Marshall is a National Championship winning athlete and graduate of Loughborough University. He has a background in a variety of sports including American Football, Athletics and Swimming. He grew up with aspirations to pursue a life in Drama and Acting.

Contact Info

Instagram - @championsofcinema

Tiktok - @champions.of.cine

The Program is a 1993 sports movie following the fictional Eastern State University and its players as they compete against powerhouse college football programs the likes of Mississippi State, Iowa and Michigan. The story follows Coach Sam Winters (James Caan) a man in the hot-seat as Head Coach for ESU managing relationships with Quarterback Joe Kane (Craig Sheffer), Linebacker Alvin Mack (Duane Davis) and rookie sensation Darnell Jefferson (Omar Epps) as they try to make it to a major Bowl Game.

On familiar ground with American Football Joe and James discuss the closeness of this movie to that of Any Given Sunday (2000), how accurate the lives of early 90s football player have been depicted and the heady mix of fame, steroids, beer and women on student athletes trying to make a way in the world of college football. Starting Defense! Place at the Table!!

The Hosts

Joe Walker is a Sports Coach and graduate of Loughborough University, with 16 years coaching experience and a degree in Sports Coaching. His first passion has always been movies and the stories that they tell.

James Marshall is a National Championship winning athlete and graduate of Loughborough University. He has a background in a variety of sports including American Football, Athletics and Swimming. He grew up with aspirations to pursue a life in Drama and Acting.

Contact Info

Instagram - @championsofcinema

Tiktok - @champions.of.cine

Rollerball is a 1975 dystopian sci-fi sports movie set in the futuristic year 2018! Telling us the story of its greatest player, Johnathan E (James Caan)! In what would start a run of similar movies with dystopian futuristic films director and writer Norman Jewison delves into a world without countries, where corporations run the world captivated by the hyper violent game of Rollerball!

Joe and James explore themes of slavery, stoicism and coming to terms with the inability to affect ones reality whilst playing a sport. How this movie borrowed from Kubrick whilst also paving the way for a whole raft of dystopian sci-fi in the future.

The Hosts

Joe Walker is a Sports Coach and graduate of Loughborough University, with 16 years coaching experience and a degree in Sports Coaching. His first passion has always been movies and the stories that they tell.

James Marshall is a National Championship winning athlete and graduate of Loughborough University. He has a background in a variety of sports including American Football, Athletics and Swimming. He grew up with aspirations to pursue a life in Drama and Acting.

Contact Info

Instagram - @championsofcinema

Tiktok - @champions.of.cine

Brian's Song is a 1973 Movie chronicling the relationship between Chicago Bears Running backs Brian Piccolo and Gaye Sayers. This made for TV American Football Movie explores the themes of friendship, sports and race based segregation in a 1960s NFL. The friendship of Piccolo and Sayers shines through as a beacon for seeing through race and differences whilst growing as men and team-mates.

In this first episode of Champions of Cinema, Joe and James wrestle with their rookie knowledge of audio production (apologies in advance) and discuss the beauty of this simple made for TV movie, its cast, themes and production in the early 70s.

The Hosts

Joe Walker is a Sports Coach and graduate of Loughborough University, with 16 years coaching experience and a degree in Sports Coaching. His first passion has always been movies and the stories that they tell.

James Marshall is a National Championship winning athlete and graduate of Loughborough University. He has a background in a variety of sports including American Football, Athletics and Swimming. He grew up with aspirations to pursue a life in Drama and Acting.

Contact Info

Instagram - @championsofcinema

Tiktok - @champions.of.cine