Les Angels

I'd switched on the TV because I couldn't sleep, and a film had just started. It was around 1am, and they don't usually show this kind of feel good movie around that time, so the film was very welcome.

I'd never seen James Edward Olmos in a film before this one, or I didn't remember him because I must have seen him in Bladerunner. So I didn't realise that he was such a decent actor. He's got such a common face, like a farmer, so this charismatic performance was surprising.

Anyway, it was a cute little film, and it is worth watching if you've got nothing better to do.

My review was written in August 1991 after watching the film on Paramount video cassette.

Paramount's baseball pic is an entertaining sport drama that the distributor tested in Florida last April with no further bookings. Pic will definitely please pay-cable and home video fans.

Similar projects have long been in the works. From 1980 through 1983, 20th Century Fox developed "The Scout" for Peter Falk to star as the discoverer of a Fernando Valenzuela-type pitcher. By 1989, that unrealized project had become a joint venture of Fox and Orion, to star Rodney Dangerfield and Sam Kinison, also never made.

This version takes a somewhat more serious tack, no surprise since filmmaker Robert M. Young and his frequent star Edward Jame Olmos favor pictures with something to say. Olmos is comfortably, non-ethnically cast as a scout for the California Angels whose job is being eliminated.

New billionaire owner of the club (oily Terry Kinney) is doing away with the tradition of field scouts to save money. Olmos' last chance is to sign a phenom and earn a front office job.

When his car goes kaput during a drive with girlfriend (and club exec) Lorraine Bracco, Olmos lucks into seeing a sandlot game in Idaho where 20-year-old Jeff Corbett is throwing amazing pitches. After a struggle with the boy's parents, Olmos takes him west to sign with the Angels.

Familiar story is as old as a Joe E. Brown baseball comedy or a boxing saga like "Kid Galahad", but Young invests the proceedings with infectious small-scale heroism. Evil Kinney forces the kid to immediately start in the majors as a publicity stunt. Olmos loses his cushy new job when he stands up for the boy's rights. Bracco quits in solidarity.

Film's climax is fanciful, but finale's clever irony sets it apart from more sentimental genre pics, such as the current indie release "Pastime". Olmos and Bracco do well with standard roles, as does tv star Jamey Sheridan as the equivocal buffer between them and the owner.

Corbett, who bears a striking resemblance to Paramount's recent wannabe karate star Jeff Speakman, is quite convincing as the fireballing pitcher. Tech credits are solid down the line.

One of the better movies made involving the scout finds the "phenom" and takes him to the majors. Olmos is superb in this little movie. He brings that aura that he had in Stand and Deliver. Good supporting cast for such a low budget.

What stood out for me was the first half of the film, which has collected a number of apocryphal baseball scouting stories (read "Prophet of the Sandlots" and "Dollar Sign on the Muscle" where some of them appear in print). Edward James Olmos is quietly effective as veteran scout Virgil Sweet, traveling across the country evaluating prospects in an assortment of the usual and unusual places. But the story becomes formulaic as Sweet finds the Holy Grail of scouting: a heretofore unknown pitcher with all the tools to become a superstar in the big leagues. Although Sweet is employed by the Anaheim Angels, the ending is all Hollywood. While not in the pantheon of great baseball movies, it is an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes.

I suppose I could be prejudiced in commenting on this movie, since I was a member of the cast ... however, my scene ended up on the cutting room floor (fairly typical) and since I was scared to death when I filmed it and was just shy of awful, I hope you'll cut me some slack! Edward James Olmos is good, Lorraine Bracco gave some zip to an otherwise marginal role. Using real-life location settings in my beautiful home state of Washington, as well as Cour D'Alene, Idaho, adds some spectacle and reality to what is, admittedly, a somewhat clichéd story. But then again, so is just about every other baseball movie I've seen, and yet I love 'em all. Perhaps the most cogent part of the story is the battle between corporate greed and the simple love of the sport, which Olmos portrays well. He is an excellent actor (and I'm happy he's found success with Battlestar Galactica.) This movie had a very limited theatrical release and was rushed to video shortly thereafter. If you really love baseball, and in particular if you dislike the way the sport (and many other sports, too) has been sullied by big bucks, I think you'll enjoy it. Oh, and Olmos was a real gentleman to the rest of the cast, something I'll always appreciate. You'll have to overlook plot devices (in that, it makes me think of "It Happens Every Spring") and you won't have the awe-making spectacle of "Field of Dreams." What you get is a mostly realistic depiction of the sport, and the hope that beats eternal that another "phenom" is about to make an appearance.