I’ll be seeing Ivan Reitman‘s Draft Day (Summit/Lionsgate, 4.11) a second time this evening. I caught it for the first time at Cinemacon a couple of weeks ago. It’s not bad — a reasonably complex, adult, character-driven Kevin Costner sports movie about the travails of a Cleveland Browns general manager as he tries to land the best players during the high-stakes draft process. But it’s basically aimed at the people who want their sports movies to be more emotionally rousing and on-the-nose than Bennett Miller‘s Moneyball, one of the smartest, most intimate and spiritually profound sports films of all time. That movie made me tingle; Draft Day made me slump in my seat. Outside of Stripes and Meatballs Reitman has always been a right-down-the-middle square, and all the older, not-that-hip types will probably love this thing. It’s a by-the-numbers ensemble piece, in some ways like the old Airport movies of the ’70s, in which all the issues get settled by the end of Act Three and the big star gets vindicated and also the girl, and all the shitheads get their asses handed to them on a plate. It’s nowhere near as authentic or well-made as Moneyball, but it’s a good Hollywood popcorn movie as far as that goes. It’s quite stodgy and formulaic in the way it wraps everything up and lets Costner be the big operator who out-maneuvers the competition. Hitfix‘s Drew McWeeny gave it a total pass for some reason. The after-vibe was complacent and relaxed among the exhibitors who saw it at Cinemacon. It’s probably be a hit among the over-40s, but the hardcore football types are going to come after it for being a bit of a hokey-dokey confection.