‘Champions:’ a sports movie starring Woody Harrelson. Is it adorable? Empowering? Exploitive?

Champions faithfully follows a movie formula that began in earnest nearly 50 years ago. The basic premise is that a group of ragtag athletic misfits are led to life lessons and some form of victory by a coach seeking redemption — and frequently finding love with someone related to one of the players. When done well, you get Hoosiers or The Natural (where it’s a player seeking the redemption). When done less well, you get the remake of The Bad News Bears.

In Champions, the coach is Woody Harrelson, an ex-professional basketball coach sentenced to community service on a drunk driving charge — just like Emilio Estevez in The Mighty Ducks. His service: Coach a rec league basketball team of players with intellectual disabilities.

Unlike director Bobby Farrelly’s Dumb and Dumber films, the basketball players here are actors with disabilities, so the movie wins for its inclusivity. Where it loses is with its paint-by-numbers plot and the requisite easy laughs. One of the kids doesn’t shower and smells really bad, one of them talks about having lots of sex with his kinky girlfriend, one only shoots with his back to the basket, and the lone girl on the team is tough and sassy.

Is this adorable? Empowering? Exploitive? Your personal views will determine whether Champions works for you. As a sports movie, however, there is one major coaching problem: You have no idea why the team gets better. It’s established that Harrelson’s character has a brilliant basketball mind, but the only coaching he does is explain the pick-and-roll and get hit in the face with a chest pass.

But somehow, his players, who are banging shots off the backboard and clanging them off the rim when we first meet them, are soon swishing 20-footers and driving end-to-end for layups.

Harrelson’s relationship scenes with “girlfriend” Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and his former boss, played by Ernie Hudson, add depth, enough that they seem as if they belong in a different movie. The basketball scenes are disjointed but adequate. The puking and farting is unnecessary, but children, if they’re the intended audience, might find these moments hilarious.

The only surprising thing about Champions is that it’s nearly a scene-for-scene remake of the better 2018 Spanish film Campeones. Rated PG-13. Premieres Friday, March 10, in theaters.

There have been numerous versions of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, including one with the Smurfs. This latest German production — in English — puts a teen spin on a mash-up that mixes classical music with Hogwarts, dragons, The Wizard of Oz, and the Jackson 5. It all takes place at a prestigious music academy named for the composer and in another magical dimension in which his famed opera plays out.

Sometimes the multiple story lines mesh a bit clumsily, but the acting is solid, and the music is, well, Mozart. Jack Wolfe, who looks like a composite of all the guys in One Direction, is the teen star, and Niamh McCormack is the young woman who tries to get him to sing with more than his voice.

One full circle casting choice is F. Murray Abraham as the Mozart school master. Nearly 40 years ago, he won an Oscar for his role as Mozart’s jealous contemporary, Salieri, in Amadeus. An interesting casting choice is Iwan Rheon, who plays Papageno in the Magic Flute world. Fans of Game of Thrones may recall Rheon as the evil sadist Ramsay Bolton.

Like the opera it’s based on, The Magic Flute is about personal growth and finding love. In this case, younger filmgoers will also find Mozart. Not rated, nothing objectionable. Premieres Friday, March 10, in theaters.

The would-be victims of the Ghostface killer leave small town Woodsboro behind and head to the big city. Because when you want to get away from something scary, you move to New York. Starring Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Hayden Panettiere, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Courteney Cox. Rated R. Premieres Friday, March 10, in theaters.

After starring in the BBC TV-series about detective John Luther, Idris Elba returns to save London from a serial killer. With Cynthia Erivo and Andy Serkis. Rated R. Premieres Friday, March 10 on Netflix.