frenchie-16

Another baseball movie. How so many movies get made about the most boring sport on earth is beyond me, but there have been some good ones. The Natural, Bull Durham, and Field of Dreams are all great baseball movies, and this one tries. Told in flashback, an aging pitcher views his life while pitching what starts as a possible final game, and becomes a possible perfect game. While it conveys Ramis' obvious love of the game, there's no final punch which would give this movie the powerful ending needed to compete with the movies listed above. Kevin Costner is a great actor, though he has had some terrible flops. His character in For the Love of the Game is immediately likable, but difficult to empathize with. I was just happy there wasn't a little kid speaking like a forty year old in this one. You may love it if you can't get enough baseball, and I give the actors kudos for pulling off a pretty good movie.

Oh boy. Every review I've read has pretty much slammed this film for a variety of things. Well, I went to see it at 11 am on a saturday morning, and let me say this "Yipes". Had it been midnight, it couldn't have been any scarier. This movie, which has been besmirched by the catholic church, is a great flick. I loved it, and the people I was with loved it too. Though, if you're a choir boy, you might not want to see it. It took a very realistic possibility (the church trying to save itself, damn the truth), and made it a thriller with the most scary scenes, beautiful photography, and good acting. I'd give this film no lower than a 7. See it with an open mind.

I loved this movie when I saw it the first time a long time ago, and loved it again recently. Depardieu and Richard really are the Laurel and Hardy of french films, and this movie has a whistled song line that will not leave your head for years. A must see, especially if you saw the remake "Father's Day" which used the greatest comic talents in american film, and still didn't come close to the original.