Earlier this month this forum had a thread on great baseball movies. Since Opening Day's almost upon us, it makes sense to thus roll out this beauty, which is exactly how a family film can be done right. While the plot is a bit absurd (for the record, the actual minimum age limit for MLB is 16), it doesn't matter in the least, for it's carried out beautifully by Daniel Stern, who shows beyond a doubt in his directorial debut that he's great at more than just casually relating to us about the Wonder Years or falling down stairs while screaming at the top of his lungs. And what a great cast. Thomas Ian Nicholas is fantastic in the title role (you kind of wish after watching it he'd done more of note), and he's got a great supporting group among Gary Busey, Dan Hedaya (now permanently enshrined for me after his great turn as Monk's father last Christmas), Eddie Bracken, and Stern himself among others. And oh yeah, not to mention a very familiar guy who somehow isn't listed in the credits but still manages to get all the best lines in the picture ("He's got a feeling; cancel the coffee and get me what Ernie's drinking." "Well that's going to bring Rocket's earned run average to around 300 or so. Which equals the attendence here today." "And he's heating it up like the days of yore, when men were men and...and...and that's another story."). The perfect treat for your children if you have any at this time of the year.
Agree with me?
Posted by JCWBobC (Member # 2525) on :
I love this movie and have probably seen it about 50 times. I used to manage a video store and we would always put this & Sandlot on as our Baseball double feature.
I also liked Little Big League but it just didn't have the same feel as the other two movies did.
