Les Angels

This movie is really low key throughout, slow with interesting characters (with the exception of the billionaire owner). Olmos steals the show as the scout, and Bracco is just wonderful as his significant other.

I found the movie compelling and captivating, more about character development than plot, and subtly and richly portrayed by the two most important members of the cast, Olmos and Bracco.

The climactic game and the ending are a bit disappointing, but still this movie ranks among my favorite sports films. One thing that really helps the movie is that Corbett has a believable motion and throws reasonably hard. The baseball scenes are pretty good. in large part because some of them were shot at actual big-league games and spliced in. That's better than having bad actors trying to play ball, I think.

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.

Do not understand baseball. This is a gem. Yes the scenario where Sammy is exploited by the major lague team owner is a bit hokey - but.....don't let that ruin the great job that this movie does of capturing the feel of minor league baseball and the struggle, even the most talented have, to make it to the big leagues and succeed. And the longing of Virgil to catch a major league pitcher is conveyed perfectly by Edward James Almos - anyone who has the longing to play baseball but not quite enough talent will get the lump in their throat. Much the same as another flawed but good baseball movie - the Rookie.

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.

The movie will satisfy baseball fans: the imagery is nice, the acting is good (especially by Olmos), and the baseball scenes are well done.

The main issues are that the movie is predictable, with tons of cliches (eg evil baseball team owners); certain parts are layered with unrealistic or downright impossible details (eg a pitcher with no professional baseball experience just jumps into the major leagues; and the movie leaves some areas undeveloped (like the lead character's baseball past). It's an OK movie, but not excellent.