I was thinking: yeah, yeah, yeah. Another Sandra Bullock movie. Another sports film based on a true story. Another feel-good holiday flick intent on warming the icy cockles of our winter hearts. But at least there’s popcorn and Goobers and that enormous Coke I can never finish, so I’ll go. I’ll see what all the hubbub’s about.

I grab a seat and settle in and listen to Sandra Bullock teach me about the game of football in “The Blind Side.”

Sigh. She’s got a Southern accent, and this is going to be about as exciting as watching the Tiger Woods Family Man Christmas Special Live from a Vegas brothel. Or has that been postponed?

Leigh Anne Touhy (Bullock) and hubby Sean (Tim McGraw) are rich. They are also NRA members, conservative Republicans and hearty Christians. Their two children, young S.J. (Jae Head) and teenager Collins (Collins) attend an ultra private Christian school.

One fine day in la la land, as mommies and daddies and nannies drop off their privileged children at the academy, they see a 6-foot, 10-inch overweight black kid walking timidly through the gates. He is sloppily dressed, seemingly mute, and his name is Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron). Thanks to a friend’s father and a coach who dreams of a winning season, he will be playing football for the Crusaders. Problem is, he’s homeless.

The product of a broken home and the son of a promiscuous crack addict, Big Mike — as the students call him — collects leftover popcorn from the games for his meals. He sneaks his only shirt into someone else’s washing machine at the laundromat. He walks down the road without a coat, cold and confused about what he is doing on this side of town.

Lucky for Big Mike, Leigh Anne Touhy won’t take any crap, and she won’t take no for an answer when she wants to hear yes.

“Big Mike, where are you going?” she asks him when she sees him walking down the street one night.

“To the gym.”

“Gym’s closed. Why are you going to the gym? And don’t you dare lie to me.”

“’Cause it’s warm.”

“Get in the car.”

And that was that. The Touhys take him in. They shelter him, clothe him, feed him. They pay for a tutor (Kathy Bates) to help bring his grades up, train him for the arrival of his debut football season, and sign on as his guardians. They buy him a cell phone, a new truck and trust him with all they have.

I know. You’ve heard the story before. The orphan Annie scenario. The take-a-kid-from-the-ghetto-and-give-him-a-chance story. Yep.

But aren’t they great stories to hear? Don’t we all need a little reminding now and then of how just one of us can make a difference to someone else in need?

Some of you will say yes. Some of you will roll your eyes with cynicism. But I think we may all agree on this: “The Blind Side” is a good movie.

It doesn’t tell a new story or open our imaginations up to the inconceivable. There aren’t any vampires or laser beams or glitter people. But there is good acting. In fact, Sandra Bullock is the best I’ve ever seen her. She takes her flawless suburbanite wardrobe, her Stepford wife blonde hairdo and snaps her Memphis attitude around like she was born and raised with it. I actually forgot that I was watching Bullock.

And Tim McGraw does a great job of standing back in the shadow of Bullock and letting her go, rather than trying to keep up with her. Kathy Bates is steady as she goes, and Aaron is completely believable and adorable as Michael Oher.

The cameos of famous college football coaches doesn’t hurt either. Houston Nutt, Phillip Fulmer, Lou Holtz, Nick Saban, Tommy Turbeville and even player Lawrence Taylor add to the authenticity of the Oher biography.

There are a few funny parts, a few sad parts, and a few parts that don’t quite add up, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Director John Lee Hancock has taken Michael Lewis’ book “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game” and molded it to the big screen like a man with a moral mission.

So forget that the story has been done before. Forget that you don’t like sports movies or Sandra Bullock or feel-good flicks. You’ll change your mind after seeing this one.

Rated PG-13 for one scene involving brief violence, drug and sexual references and running at 128 minutes, “The Blind Side” wins with NFL player Michael Oher’s true story, and gets 4 bags of popcorn.