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I hate "Hardball" for making me like it. I hate "Hardball" for making me like a Keanu Reeves performance. I hate "Hardball" for making me like a Brian Robbins movie. I hate "Hardball" because my life will never be the same again after Reeves delivered a "gipper" speech that nearly made me cry while watching a movie for the first time in several years. I HATE YOU "HARDBALL" I HATE YOU.
This story was so cliche but for some reason the kids were so endearing that when the inevitable happened, it choked me up a bit. It's actually less about a Bad News Bears- type baseball team than about a guy with a really bad gambling problem and how the team he's forced to coach becomes his "cure." What made this BNN ripoff work where as many others failed is that there was almost no concentration on the dynamics of baseball whatsoever -- no real explanation given for why the team turns it around, no real coaching instruction, none of that other sports movie crap. It was about the people whose lives were connected by baseball, not about baseball. And as such, it succeeded. Also, Mr. Robbins made some strong cinematography decisions most definitely not evident in any of his three previous "masterpieces." The kids were probably just playing themselves, but although Reeves sucked really hard as usual toward the beginning of the movie (even if he was playing the type of character he was probably meant to play), he got it together by the end of the movie and when he made his big speech, it seemed genuine as hell -- nearly every woman (and a few men) at the screening was reaching for the hankies. Congratulations, Keanu -- you made an audience cry for a GOOD reason.
"Hardball" could easily be this fall's "Remember the Titans" (although I think it's twice as good as "Titans"), but I have my doubts Reeves can deliver the audience this film needs, unlike Denzel. So it will probably receive some more critical appraise but most likely it'll be a miserable box office failure. The fact that it's the most profane PG-13 movie I've ever heard (the editing down from an R didn't help that much) and some parents took their kids out of the screening because of that doesn't help. And I don't blame you if you don't believe me when I say it's a good movie. I don't believe me either.
I don't know what to say. If you guys want me to turn in my critic's license over this, well, if that's the way it's going to be...
(Been meaning to post this for a week -- gee, I wonder how it kept slipping my mind?)
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