Did you know the Quarterback for the New England Patriots directed a movie? Wait, it's a different Tom Brady? Oh, thank God. I thought America's golden boy was about to lose his star status. Because the other Tom Brady has directed a pretty bad comedy. I'll admit that I approached The Comebacks, a spoof of inspirational sports movies, like it was going to be another Date Movie or Epic Movie, similar spoofs that were among the worst flicks of the last couple years. It's nowhere near that bad, providing at least a few laughs, even if it never quite develops anything approaching a consistent comic timing (and runs way too long for this kind of movie, at least in its unrated form). David Koechner does his best to sell the material and the young cast of misfits just trying to win the big game aren't half-bad, but The Comebacks falls prey to the same problem with most comedies of this kind - lazy writing. How many times do we have to say it? Reminding a viewer they saw a movie like Invincible or Radio isn't funny in itself. You actually have to write a joke.

Koechner (best known as the sports guy from Anchorman) plays Lambeau Fields, one of the most unlucky guys in sports history. He takes a rag-tag bunch of college misfits and tries to guide them through a season to the big game. At least the writers of The Comebacks keep their spoofs mostly within the realm of sports movies (unlike the Epic Movie and Date Movie franchise, which doesn't care what genre it tosses in). So, The Comebacks trots out cliches from Friday Night Lights, Rudy, and every other movie where the little guy triumphed over the big one. There are moments of ingenuity and a few funny cameos from people like Andy Dick, Will Arnett and Frank Caliendo, but only the most tolerant sports comedy fan will truly enjoy The Comebacks for more than half an hour. If you miss the Major League franchise or are upset they never made a sequel to BASEketball, then The Comebacks might work for you.

The Unrated DVD from Fox doesn't help with the frustration surrounding the comedy. The Comebacks is one of those DVDs where it looks like there are a lot of special features, until you notice that they're all about two or three minutes long. In one, you get to watch a cheerleader from the film do a booty dance for about a minute. We understand the desire to make a DVD "Crazier!" to earn the unrated title, but this is stretching it. Similarly useless featurettes number most of the extras on The Comebacks. It's as if all the behind-the-scenes filmmakers decided to just shoot the cast goofing off rather than anything remotely serious. The semi-serious filmmaking stuff can be found in an affable commentary by director Tom Brady. No, not THAT Tom Brady.