Tom Brady joins three Oscar winners in a must-see comedy dropping on Netflix today

Tom Brady. Legendary NFL bloke, seven Super Bowl rings, and unmistakably not an actor. Now he wants to have a laugh with us apparently, because Brady has gone and produced a comedy film starring himself, three women who've all won Oscars, and a supporting cast list longer than the half-time show. The name? '80 for Brady'. It's just landed on Netflix in the UK today, in case you fancy something properly oddball for your next movie night.

Oscar Winners, American Football and Four OAPs

Here's the set-up: it's the story of four friends of a certain vintage—played by Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Sally Field, and Lily Tomlin—who are all diehard Tom Brady fans. They decide to head to Super Bowl LI to watch their hero, and as American sports fans love to remind everyone, it's the one where Brady pulled off that ridiculous comeback to beat the Falcons. Now, if you think this is just some made-up nonsense, think again. It's actually loosely based on true events. There's a real group of elderly Patriots fans out there called the 'Over 80 for Brady Club', and the film came about because the grandson of one of them pitched the idea. Not the sort of Hollywood origin you hear every day.

The Rest of the Team

• Jane Fonda (Oscar winner)
• Rita Moreno (Oscar winner)
• Sally Field (Oscar winner)
• Lily Tomlin (Emmy winner, and general legend)
• Billy Porter, Rob Corddry, Alex Moffat, Guy Fieri, Harry Hamlin, Bob Balaban, Glynn Turman, Sara Gilbert, Jimmy O. Yang, Ron Funches, Matt Lauria, Sally Kirkland, Andy Richter, Gus Kenworthy, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Marshawn Lynch, Patton Oswalt, Retta, Amber Chardae Robinson
• Cameos: Danny Amendola, Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski (all ex-Patriots, so you get your fix of NFL cameos as well)

Frankly the cast list is a museum piece in itself—why Guy Fieri turns up, I can only guess the catering truck wandered onto set by mistake.

Behind the Scenes

Kyle Marvin directed. The screenplay was written by Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern. As for Tom Brady, he's not just in front of the camera—he helped produce the film, his first venture in the movie business under his new banner, 199 Productions. He roped in Donna Gigliotti (she's produced films like 'Silver Linings Playbook' and 'The Reader') along with Fifth Season and Watch This Ready to handle the rest of the production work. All in all, the film cost $28 million to make and raked in $40.4 million worldwide: not a cinematic touchdown, but it didn't fumble the ball either.

If you're after a key quote, here's what the marketing bods want you to know:

"Four longtime friends embark on a rollicking adventure after scoring tickets to see their favourite quarterback – Tom Brady – play in the Super Bowl."

The critics weren't exactly bowled over, but audiences seemed to turn up anyway. If you're even remotely curious about what happens when American football culture meets a cast of Hollywood icons in full-on hijinks mode, '80 for Brady' is now streaming on Netflix.