richard-1787
At the risk of being obvious by starting with a baseball metaphor, this movie blew me out of the park - which I wasn't expecting. When I came here to review it, I was almost equally surprised by how low the overall rating given by reviewers is.I ordered this movie because I saw that it dealt with an older man trying to go back and do physically demanding things he had been able to do years before. Being 60 myself, that's an issue I can relate to, and I wanted to see how it was handled. I figured the situation would be played for broad laughs - the old geezer puffing and panting because he's out of shape. In other words, I expected some easy laughs, but nothing more.I was VERY wrong. This movie comes close to batting 1000 for several reasons.First, this script is no throw-away piece of easy comedy writing. There is no simple, clichéd arch: Stan is obnoxious, Stan is made to look foolish, Stan learns his lesson and becomes a wonderful human being. Yes, Stan starts to learn what he looked like to others, not with some TV sitcom big group hug, but by seeing the young star of the Brewers act too much as he did in his prime. And yes he gets humiliated, painfully, over and over again, especially by the particularly cruel sports commentators on TV. But if he starts to change because of all this, he backtracks and goes back to being the obnoxious old Stan on more than one occasion. He does finally learn humility, but it doesn't come in one easy moment. There is actually real character development here.While I found his relationship with the woman sports writer to be less interesting, it, too, was not written with broad strokes. Both of the characters have issues they need to resolve, and they find it can't be done quickly. The dialogue between them, once they started seeing each other, I found to ring remarkably true, and to be very intelligently adult. These are not two teenagers "letting it all hang out"; these are two intelligent adults who have things to figure out, and who know how to express different aspects of themselves with words, often carefully chosen. In general, the dialogue in this movie is written for adults, which may explain, in part, why this movie left some viewers - younger viewers - uninterested.For that matter, I suspect the ideal audience for this movie is older men, who have started to deal with what it feels like when, in one way or another, they can no longer do what their bodies once did. That's not the ideal demographic for a modern movie.But the script is not all serious character development. There are some truly remarkable comedy moments as well, such as when Stan gets the obnoxious runner on base out to save the young pitcher's career by secretly bringing the ball back from the mound. Or, of course, the last shot, when Stan does the Viagra commercial his earlier, obnoxious self had sworn he would never do.The other thing that makes this movie so good - and it is very good - is the acting, first and foremost Bernie Mac's. As I said, I've never seen him in a movie before, so I don't know what he's "usually" like. But here he acts like a pro. He understands that great movie acting is done often with slight modifications of the face, and he is very good at that. You can see hurt and pain in his face and eyes in a way that makes them far more powerful than any ranting and screaming would have been. Again, perhaps you have to be older to appreciate the hurt he feels, but he does a first-rate job of conveying it. He never appears to be acting. Because, in fact, I am not used to seeing him on the screen, I could - and often did - simply believe I was watching a 47-year old former baseball player trying to do what he had once been able to do, and hurting terribly when he could not.I indicated the spoiler alert above, but still, WARNING: HERE COMES A SPOILER. I spent much of the movie wondering how it would end. Would it be the cliché: at the last moment, he gets the hit he needs and all is well? No, the script was much better than that - and showed a real knowledge of baseball. He sacrifices his chance at a 3000th hit with a sacrifice bunt, so that the younger player can make it to home and win the game for the Brewers - a win that will not clinch the pennant, far from it, but will earn them a respectable 3rd place, better than the 5th for which they had seemed destined. And when he does that, the team does not all crowd around him, as they would in a clichéd movie. No, they crowd around the player who made it across the plate, as you would expect in real life. Only after that do they notice poor Stan.This is a movie made for real grownups, and that's a high complement. The movie teaches an important lesson, but it never preaches and it very often made me laugh. First and foremost, however, it thoroughly impressed me with the quality of the writing and then the quality of the acting that that writing allowed.Even if you have no interest in baseball, you'll enjoy this movie. It's something everyone involved can be very proud of.----------------------------------I watched this movie again tonight, after several weeks of watching movies about baseball. This is definitely one of the best, much better, imnsho, than Major League, or The Natural. It deals with real characters in real situations. A very powerful movie.
moviedude1
****************************** SPOILERS! ******* SPOILERS! ************************************* One thing I watch for during a movie to see how good it is, or even can be, is the chemistry created between the leads. Bernie Mac and Angela Bassett did exactly that: they created chemistry that was believable between their respective characters.Built as a comedy, this story does have a "little" substance. The people behind this story were creative, but I think they took creativity to a whole new level:What I can NOT believe is the arrogant attitude that Mac's character created (maybe it would have been more believable if he'd been from Philly, than south Chicago). Well, I can believe it, because I just saw it. But, in today's world, that kind of stuff just don't cut it. And his teammate's comments in the locker room would NEVER be tolerated! He'd be on the first bus to Cleveland, somewhere, because there's no way they'd purchase a plane ticket for him!But, then again, Paul Sorvino as a manager who just sits on the bench and says nothing...does nothing, is very unbelievable! Any manager who sat that much would be on that same bus to Cleveland!We all hear about the pro sports circles and how arrogant some of them MAY be, but this one takes the cake, and the only thing I could not believe is that the home town team would give someone like that another chance when he's already trashed everyone and everything in the media. Fans might forgive, but they don't forget, and, even if they do, there's always gonna be hosts on BEST DAMNED SPORTS SHOW PERIOD to remind everyone about it!So, overall, if you're looking for a comedy, sit back and watch, because, either way, this film is a joke. Built with laughs, or built with a laugh in mind. The weird part is that I sit here, and, reading this comment, you might think I'm trashing it, when, to be totally honest, I kind of liked it! 6 out of 10 stars!
