Inspirational sports films are not something I generally look forward to seeing. After all, not every film can be a Pride of the Yankees or Bang the Drum Slowly, both of which were about baseball, or Knute Rockne All American or Brian’s Song, which were about football. Over the past thirty years, there have been a lot, but the two that I remember best were 1986’s Hoosiers, which was about basketball and 1993’s Rudy, which was about football.

Both Hoosiers and Rudy were written by Angelo Pizzo and directed by David Anspaugh. Now Pizzo has written and directed My All American on his own. That was enough incentive for me to pick up the newly released Blu-ray. I’m glad I did.

Generally when a film receives a low rating on the critics-driven Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic and a high score on the fan-based CinemaScore, I side with the critics, but not in this case. I think the fans’ “A” score is more on target than the critics’ “33” and “34” scores on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic respectively. The inspirational drama about the short life of Freddie Steinmark, starting safety for the undefeated University of Texas Longhorns in 1969, is a lot more compelling than some of the other non-awards-winning films released toward the end of 2015.

Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story: Freak Show) is excellent as the undersized hero and Sarah Bolger (In America) is charming in an underwritten role as his girlfriend Linda. Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight) is also good in his top-billed role as Darrell Royal, the legendary Longhorns coach who tells Steinmark’s remarkable story in flashback. This is a little odd because Royal died in 2012 at the age of 88 but it doesn’t take anything away from Steinmark’s story.

At the other end of the spectrum is The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, the fourth and final installment in the dystopian science fiction series. This series and its several imitators which feature teenagers as their protagonists are in the end all the same. The misery will continue. Why invest so much time to get there? In this case, it took more than eight hours to tell the tale of Katniss Everdeen across four films, the last two of which were two halves of the same novel, neither of which stands on its own.

The best thing about the series is the casting, beginning with Jennifer Lawrence whose career fortuitously took off simultaneously in awards caliber films at the same time as this Oscar-spurned series. Lawrence is a force of nature in the series, holding our interest through all her improbable death-defying adventures. Her co-stars Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, however, are rather bland leaving the heavy lifting to the excellent supporting cast, most of who make their mark and move on. Julianne Moore, Woody Harreslon, Elizabeth Banks, Jeffrey Wright and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and others come and go, with only Donald Sutherland making a lasting impression as the evil President Snow. The direction by music video director Francis Lawrence (no relation to the star) is as bland as his direction of Water for Elephants and other disappointments.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 is available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg were the main attractions in the Christmas box-office hit, Daddy’s Home from We’re the Millers director Sean Anders. Ferrell was the successful if nerdish newlywed husband in the process of bonding with his new stepchildren and Wahlberg was the kids’ birth father who comes for a prolonged visit to win back his wife (Linda Cardinelli) who isn’t buying it. There are several genuinely funny scenes, but ultimately it’s a formula-driven film not much different from your standard TV movie. Thomas Haden Church and Bobby Canavale are pretty much wasted in supporting roles.

Daddy’s Home is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Olive Films has released Blu-ray upgrades of three fairly forgotten mid-nineties films, all of which are of some interest.

Michael Keaton and Geena Davis are hilarious as speech writers working for opposing candidates in Ron Underwood’s 1994 film Speechless, which may well be the TV director’s best theatrical film.

Keaton and Davis meet cute hiding behind other personas before being introduced to one another under their true identities at a high school presentation in which they uproariously confront one another. The strong supporting cast includes Christopher Reeve as Davis’ fiancé, Bonnie Bedelia as Keaton’s boss, and Ernie Hudson as Davis’ boss.

The first of only two film directed by Rory Kelly, 1994’s Sleep with Me has a screenplay by Kelly and five other writers, all of whom worked separately on different scenes which may explain the film’s schizophrenic style. Craig Sheffer (A River Runs Through It) is the self-absorbed twenty-something in love with Meg Tilly (Agnes of God) married to his equally aimless best friend Eric Stolz (Mask). Parker Posey, Joey Lauren Adams, Thomas Gibson and Todd Field have key supporting roles, but the film is best remembered for Quentin Tarantino’s cameo and monologue in which he makes a case for Top Gun being a thinly-veiled gay love story.

Elizabeth Perkins (Weeds) is the star of David Anspaugh’s 1995 film Moonlight and Valentino. She is a newly widowed college professor whose husband was killed while jogging. She is comforted by her insecure neighbor (Whoopi Goldberg), her flighty sister (Gwyneth Paltrow), and her take-charge former stepmother (Kathleen Turner) in what is basically a throwback to the women’s films of prior decades. Jon Bon Jovi plays the house painter who reawakens her spirit. It’s worth seeing for the interplay between four fine actresses we don’t see a lot of these days.

Warner Archive has released Season 5 of Dr. Kildare and Season 6 of Medical Center on standard DVD.

Dr. Kildare’s fifth season, which ran from 1965 to 1966, was its last. The only season shot in color, the show also underwent a change from a weekly series to a serialized half-hour twice-per-week series. Major guest stars were still there to support Richard Chamberlain and Raymond Massey. Among them this season were James Mason, Fred Astaire, Basil Rathbone, Dean Stockwell, Cloris Leachman, Kim Hunter, James Earl Jones, Ricardo Montalban, Martin Balsam, William Shatner and Jack Nicholson.

Medical Center’s sixth season, which ran from 1974 to 1975, was its next to last. In the midst of astonishing social changes, the series managed to make news of its own. The episode “The Tainted Lady” guest-starring Shirley Knight received a citation from the American Cancer Society for its treatment of the stigma then-surrounding breast cancer and radical mastectomies. Other issues confronted included nymphomania, the intersection of faith and medicine, treatment of undocumented workers, resurgent white supremacy, the integration of the mentally challenged into society, and the chemical castration of convicted sex offenders. Other guest stars in support of Chad Everett and James Daly included Cyd Charisse, Jodie Foster, Rita Moreno and John Travolta.

This week’s new releases include The Hateful Eight and Concussion.