2001 Comedy/Drama, rated PG-13, PG in Canada, runs 1 hour, 46 minutes
Written by John Gatins, based on the book by Daniel Coyle
Directed by Brian Robbins
Stars Keanu Reeves, Diane Lane, and 11 unknown kids
The DVD includes a featurette, three deleted scenes, a music
video, and a commentary track by Robbins and Gatins. The feature's
dialogue is available in English and French, and as English
subtitles.
I bought this movie on DVD because Keanu Reeves is in it.
I buy all of his movies. This one I'd never heard of, I don't
know if it was ever even in theaters (though I assume it was).
I just finished watching it, and was compelled to head straight to E2.
(I just finished watching it with the director's commentary.
He mentioned that the film was previewed in theaters on
September 10, 2001. The next day, he had a
meeting with the studio for a discussion about whether to release it
on schedule, which they decided to do.)
I had read the blurb -- down-on-his-luck, deeply indebted ticket
scalper with a gambling problem makes some money coaching a
kid's baseball league -- and thought, "Okay, it'll be sweet,
the kids will start out losers, but somehow they'll come from
behind and become the champions while the gambler is reformed."
The Bad News Bears. The Karate Kid.
There's even the unlikeable opponents. We've seen the formula before.
And it is all that. Reeves' fans will like it, as will many
others. Halfway through, it hadn't disappointed, but was nonetheless
an average movie, pleasing and forgettable. But later, the standard
movie recipe was put to the side in favor of an emotional roundhouse
from out of left field (if you'll permit me to mix sports metaphors) that just isn't supposed to happen in these
films.
I'm not going to give it away, but I assure you it puts this picture
in a different league than its presumed peers. Nobody ever
cried when The Replacements took the field, but there will be many a
non-dry eye during the climax of Hardball.
You want to see this movie.
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