How can you entertain a major segment of the American population during that lonely, empty winter weekend? You know the time I'm talking about. It's that off-week that falls between the final NFL playoff game and the full-day coverage of THE BIG GAME. Well, first of all, make it a movie that features football. Have real-life players in it. Maybe get a handful of them from one of the best teams to play the game, including their star. And make it a buddy movie too, featuring four classy, award-winning actresses that everybody recognizes. Have them engage in some good old-fashioned comedy, with some pensive and dramatic moments thrown in for good measure. This sounds as if it could be a winning strategy.

It started on a day in late September 2001, when four Boston-area friends gathered in a living room to watch television. They accidentally landed on a game being played between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots. They witnessed quarterback Drew Bledsoe getting injured, and rookie Tom Brady stepping in to take his place. He was young and handsome. And even though the Patriots didn't win that game, Tom had done OK and had survived, seemingly against tall odds. That was the moment when Trish (Jane Fonda), Betty (Sally Field), Maura (Rita Moreno) and Louella "Lou" (Lily Tomlin) became Tom Brady fans. And thus began their weekly game-watching traditions.

Fast forward to 2017, after the quartet had spent many more Sunday afternoons watching the Patriots play, from the comfort of Lou's living room. The team was now heading for THE BIG GAME, where they would face the Atlanta Falcons in Houston. The women had never attended an NFL game in person. They had never seen Tom Brady for themselves. Stirred up by a local ticket contest, the women decide to do their best to get to Texas. And they DO! The rest of the movie follows them through all of the celebrations surrounding the event. Each woman has her own talents and personality to show and to share with us. Naturally, there are twists and turns to the story. Everything can't go as planned. And that's what makes the experience all the better. For them and for us.

Naturally, Tom Brady DOES appear many times in this production. Patriot teammates Rob Gronkowski, Danny Amendola and Julian Edelman share a memorable locker room scene, too. There's enough football in this movie to appease diehard fans. And they will certainly recognize the passion and intensity of diehard fan behavior. As someone who HAS seen Tom Brady play a game in person, and as someone who has attended three induction ceremonies in Canton, Ohio, I can say that the game and its fans are portrayed realistically here.

When I first heard about this movie, I thought of the 2018 film Book Club, which starred Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Diane Keaton and Mary Steenburgen. Their characters were reading steamy romance novels, and they vowed to find more love and romance in each one of their own lives. Each woman had her own circumstances to go her own way. Their stories were a lot of fun to watch. I still think fondly of certain scenes from this movie. You could compare that movie to this one, in a number of ways.

As I watched one of the MANY promotional interviews for 80 For Brady, I was reminded of the fact that two of the actresses had appeared in another buddy movie, long ago. The 1980 film 9 to 5 featured the threesome of Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton. As in 80 For Brady, Tomlin's character served as the ringleader. In the case of the previous movie, the women DID gather for a common cause, but it wasn't because they were fans of somebody. Quite the opposite. It was because they hated their boss, played by Dabney Coleman, and they worked together to get back at him. You could make a few comparisons here with that movie, too.

Is 80 For Brady a game-winner? It sure got a lot of pre-release hype on lots of network programs. Everywhere we turned, we saw either TB12 speaking alone, or the four actresses lined up on a couch. Or we saw two of the original "80 for Brady" senior women that the screenplay was based on. If the film didn't do as well at the box office as its production team expected, then perhaps they overlooked a crucial, overriding factor. And that is, MOST of the football fans in this country HATE Tom Brady. And not just with mere distaste or apathetic dislike. HATE him. And that includes a fair number of folks from New England who didn't appreciate Tom's decision to move south.

When I saw this movie on its opening day -- in a theater in central New England -- I realized that I was sitting in a crowd that very much resembled the film's four main characters. And I guess that's OK, since I'm inching toward that demographic myself. Naturally, the home-town audience reacted positively to seeing Tom and the other Patriots together on the screen again, wearing their signature white jerseys. The movie was a surefire hit with the folks I saw it with that day.

For me, 80 For Brady is just plain fun. Keep in mind that I was a casual Patriots fan for a dozen years or more, and an avid fan of the sport, forever. Some scenes were like going home again. And the combination of that game culture paired with Jane, Sally, Lily and Rita makes for good comedy entertainment. No one should let their animosity for TB12 prevent them from sneaking a peek at this one. We won't tell anybody, if you do.