Hardball | | Cast : | Keanu Reeves, Diane Lane | | Director : | Brian Robbins | | Studio : | Paramount Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | September 14, 2001 | | DVD Released Date : | June 24, 2003 | | Language : | Unknown (Dubbed), English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | March 19, 2005 | | Summary | THE OLD BALL GAME | Content
 | In a recent MSN review of "Constantine," the critic says Keanu Reeves is one of the worst actors out there. In HARDBALL, Reeves tends to prove this critic wrong. Granted, Reeves will probably never see an Oscar on his mantelpiece, but he has shown considerable growth over the years. (See: THE GIFT, THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE for example). In this one, he takes a character who we immediately dislike and turns him into a guy we can root for. The main problem is it is hard to feel sorry for a guy whose life is crap because he can't seem to stop gambling; he doesn't have a job, it appears and he expects everyone to feel sorry for him. Sorry, dude....can't go there with you. His assignment to coach the ragtag bunch of lower class kids at first seems too contrived to be convincing, but as the movie goes along and Reeves becomes a heroic figure to these tragic children, we can see and feel more for both Reeves and the kids. HARDBALL is also smart enough not to become a "sports" movie per se; it has some charming moments such as the pitcher who needs the rap song to throw a dangerously fast curve ball. But in crucial moments, it doesn't drag out the game inning by inning, and the final two games are anti-cliche in the direction they take. The film has a surprising tragic twist at the end and it will work your tear ducts, but the movie ends on an upbeat note, and avoids the standard cliches involved.
Diane Lane has a supporting role, but it's not fleshed out enough to have an impact; John Hawkes as Ticky is good, as is Mike McGlone as the smooth Jimmy Fleming. The kids are all competent, and do what they are supposed to do. Reeves handles the funeral scene quite eloquently.
All in all, HARDBALL does what it set out to do and for that reason, is an entertaining movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 15, 2005 | | Summary | Touching Suprise | Content
| My wife and I watched this movie late one night on TV. We had not heard much about it, but saw that Keanu Reaves was in it, so we gave it a shot. The kids were perfect, they showed us the innocence that kids have... even though they acted "hard core" and had big mouths, their innocence shone through. Words and attitudes come from their upbringing, but the kids didn't mean anything by it. The unity of the team, and the quick forgiveness was great. Keanu Reave's character really evolved throughout the movie. At first you love to hate him, but at the end you love to love him. His turning point in the movie was hilarious and very well thought out by the storywriters. Towards the end of the movie, my wife cried her eyes out, and every time she started to ease up a bit, the movie threw another curve ball, and there she was weeping again. It was a good laughter through tears movie that really gets you thinking about the way the world is, and the way it ought to be. |
| Rating | | | Date | December 10, 2004 | | Summary | Yet Another MUCH Better Film Than The Critics Said | Content
| Why is it that a slightly-flawed Hollywood motion picture with great directing, great writing, great performances, and one of the best original film scores ever recorded never gets the credit it deserves? If this were a foreign film, the reviewers would be falling all over themselves to give it 5 stars.
Some professional reviewers overly dwelled upon the unexplained extraordinary talent of the young athletes in HARDBALL's story. I think that director Brian Robbins understated that on purpose. Not only is this over-sentimentalized in most sports movies about kids, but, more importantly, the often untapped talent in the impoverished inner city should already stagger the imagination if one just looks at adult black and Latino athletes in almost any sport and really thinks about how most of them "got to where they got." The answer is not just "they rose above dire circumstances" but more obvious, although still left unspoken by most Caucasians (and I am one of them), even on the Sports pages: The awesome and pervasive African-American and Hispanic talent in most team and many other sports today (like boxing, track, and dare I mention golf?) is genetic and had to rise to the top from somewhere. Enough unsaid, so why should Robbins bother to explain it?
However, the characters portrayed by Keanu Reeves and the terrific young actors in HARDBALL are only superficially developed. Although the Reeves character's gambling addiction is apparent, one does not get a full sense of his inner torment, other than his eventual desire to quit gambling by sublimating his energies into coaching a ghetto baseball team. And although his highly suspicious black team members obviously give him a break by letting him coach them, their motivations for wanting to play baseball in the first place - rather than more culturally-correct basketball, for example - are equally unclear.
That said, these are the only two flaws in the film. After that, the movie goes so far beyond the Hollywood banal norm, it can only be compared in deepness to one of the greatest films of all time, PAY IT FORWARD, another greatly-underrated Hollywood film. In its own understated way, HARDBALL touches upon, with grace and humor and heart, almost every important issue facing the inner city today. Only the most jaded, novocane-brained, MATRIX-overstimulated [...]tube watcher could not like this film.
And it is all tied together with an original score that can only be compared to Gustav Mahler. If the viewer wasn't listening to or didn't like Mark Isham's gut-wrenching score, then obviously he or she is one of the many unfortunates today in America who grew up in a community that cut back or completely eliminated music education in the public schools, an issue no longer limited to the inner city - try the so-called "rich" American suburbs as well.
How many films have you cried at during first viewing? I can name only three, and this is one of them. How many works of art or music were blasted by the critics - like Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" or Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim's "West Side Story" - only to go on to demand the highest price in art auction history or be deemed the greatest musical ever written? HARDBALL is another deep-sleeper.
The "gambling addiction redemption," "gang violence vs. sports alternative," and "doing what you love as opposed to what you have to do" themes are interwoven so subtly and beautifully in this movie, it makes you wonder what today's critics look for in a film. Perhaps they're not doing what they love to do and feel they have to take out their frustrations on Hollywood directors, writers, actors, and composers. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 08, 2004 | | Summary | Better than the Bad News Bears | Content
| The longer that you watch this movie, the better it gets.Conor O'Neill (played by Keanu Reeves) is addicted to two things - alcohol and gambling. As far as I could tell, he didn't have a day job -- instead he existed by placing bets with everyone from the barber to the bartender. In his spare time, he scalps tickets with his only buddy.
His bets go bad quickly and he ends up owing a lot of money. When he asks help from a childhood friend who works for a financial institution, he agrees to pay him $500 a week to coach a baseball team of inner-city kids.
My favorite scene is when Conor goes home with one of the kids. He asks why everyone is sitting down. The kid responds that it's too avoid the bullets. When asked what he does for fun, he responds, "Play baseball with you."
After that, Conor is a changed man and the movie keeps getting better. I've never been to the inner-city but I believe that this movie does a good job of showing us what it is like to grow up in that environment. |
| Rating | | | Date | September 05, 2004 | | Summary | Excellent Movie | Content
| this is one great movie.it deaqls with real life problems."One of the most important things in life i showing up.i'm blown away by your ability to show up) very emotional movie.but one of the best ones i have ever seen. |
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