Marking the release of soccer sequel Goal 2: Living the Dream, Blockbuster.co.uk's Marshall Julius enjoys some big screen sporting action.

What I don't know about sport could fill Wembley, and I'm not just talking about the spanking new stadium. I mean the whole of Wembley. As a youth I showed no interest in football, cricket, tennis, boxing, athletics or any other exhausting pastime, and as a relative grown-up I can't say I've changed. Both as a player and a spectator I am entirely uninvolved. Partly because I'm lazy, but mostly because I couldn't be less interested. My dad was similarly bored by sport, serving as a further, welcome discouragement. The only exception to this rule, as far as I can tell, is the sports movie, in which normally tedious games are enlivened by comedy and drama, forced into my conscious mind by actors and directors with a passion for physical activity. Bless them.

Whatever I do know about sport I learned from the movies, but I'm not talking about facts and statistics, more the nature of competition, the spirit of champions, and how, at least on the big screen, underdogs always win. Or at the very least tie. Or possibly enjoy some sort of moral victory. Anyway, it's all good. Mostly, I'll admit, the sporting films I've enjoyed are more about the characters and their stories than the sport itself. But even sport can be fun, if appropriately edited, with a rousing musical score building it up from behind.

If a bunch of sweaty blokes running up and down a field is what you're after, by all means, watch football. But if you'd rather spend your time with a movie, try Goal! (2005) and Goal 2: Living The Dream (2007), available now to add to your list. Charting the rags to riches tale of gifted young footballer Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker), what with Goal 3 currently in pre-production, now's the perfect the time to get into this rousing, wish-fulfilling soccer saga.

If it's something sillier you're after, how about John Huston's Escape To Victory (1981), a smashing together of the war and sports genres starring Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone and Pele as Allies playing footie against the Nazis. I can go even sillier than that, if you like: how about Shaolin Soccer (2001)? The irresistibly wacky tale of Shaolin martial artists turned super-powered footballers, it looks more like a video game than a sporting event, and for that I'm eternally grateful.

American football mystifies me even more than our version, but I've always had a soft spot for prison-based comedy/drama The Longest Yard (1974), starring Burt Reynolds as a Burt Reynolds type who trains a team of inmates for a brutal game against the wardens. Often remade but never successfully, one of its imdb keywords is football-in-the-groin, an honour it shares only with The Simpsons (season six's A Star Is Burns).

When I was at school I played rounders once. In spite of myself I have decent hand-to-eye coordination, so I even managed to hit the ball a couple of times. The hitting I enjoyed, but the running ensured it was a one-time thing. Apparently, in America, they call the game baseball, and for some unknown reason, they're obsessed with it over there. The three baseball movies I've enjoyed in my life are Bull Durham (1988), which is really more of a romantic comedy than anything else, The Bad News Bears (1976), an underdog comedy about pee wee players, and Field of Dreams (1989), which has virtually nothing to do with the sport at all. Kevin Costner plays a farmer compelled to build a baseball diamond in his corn field to accommodate the ghosts of sporting legends. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder why all baseball games don't exploit the spirits.

As a lifelong fan of action movies, I can kind of get my head around boxing, the glorious art of smashing your opponent's face in before collapsing. Stallone's incredible, original Rocky (1976) remains the ultimate underdog sports drama, while Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980), detailing the tempestuous life and times of boxing legend Jake La Motta (Oscar® winner Robert DeNiro), is widely regarded as one of the best films of the Eighties, second, or possibly third, only to Robocop (1987) and Die Hard (1988).

For posh, period running drama, try Chariots of Fire (1981). For underdog basketball thrills, allow your emotions to be manipulated by Hoosiers (1986). To wallow in the dark underbelly of sport try Paul Newman in The Hustler (1961) and, to a lesser extent, Scorsese's sequel The Colour of Money (1986). If it's laughs you're after, park yourself in front of golfsploitation classicCaddyshack (1980) or hockey romp Slap Shot (1976). And that's everything I can say on the subject of sport, so I'll be off. I desperately need an isotonic drink and a long lie down.