The Comrades of Summer

Another one of those baseball movies that appear on movie channels in the middle of summer, "Comrades of Summer" is an enjoyable story. Sparky Smith, the successful player-manager of the Mariners, is released and ends up getting another gig as the coach of the Russian National team. Here, he must band together athletes from other sports. Eventually, somehow, they end up playing in the states in a battle for the pride of both team and manager. It's very predictable, it doesn't feature ridiculously awesome baseball action, and it's not particularly memorable, but it's very much an entertaining baseball film. Don't watch and expect "The Natural" or anything, but watch it like you would "Angels in the Outfield."

This film is not a great film. It's not high-quality. No effects, no fabulous camera-work, even the plot is fairly generic. But it works. As a TV movie, and one that is obviously not meant to be taken seriously, this film should not be judged in the same league as the great movies. This film is startlingly similar to Mr. Baseball (also released in 1992) but it has character that MR. Baseball lacks, and is much more funny. As well, Joe Mantegna far outpaces Tom Selleck, and the cast in general is much stronger. Joe Mantegna plays his character well; he adds a dimension to Sparky Smith that I'm sure wouldn't seem possible if I had read the script in advance. But he doesn't outshine the rest of the cast. This cast is made up of mostly no name actors, but they all do really well with a script that is hardly stunning. They create magic out of cornmeal. Especially Milo, who never ceases to make me laugh. All in all, don't watch this film for enlightenment, nor for high-calibre film-making. Watch it as brain-candy. If you don't take it seriously, and simply accept it as a fun and amusing flick, then you won't be able to help yourself! Cheezy but enjoyable, and at times *very* funny. Quality wise it probably deserves a five or six on ten, but considering its enjoyment value I rate it 8/10.

After a career ending accident, baseball player/manager Sparky Smith (Joe Mantegna) ends up in Moscow coaching the nascent Soviet Olympic baseball team, only to find out that his players are an ill-equipped, underfunded, and unenthusiastic grab-bag of rejects from other sports. The film follows a typical 'sports movie' trajectory: Act 1 is the 'fish out of water' shtick, as Sparky struggles with Russian culture and athletic priorities, Act 2 finds the team coalescing, learning mutual respect, and facing their first challenge as the threat of disbandment hangs over them, and Act 3 is the 'big game' (or series in this case) where everything has to come together despite insurmountable odds. Superimposed on this is an obligatory awkward romance as Sparky pursues Tanya (Natalya Negoda), a beautiful Soviet sports functionary who, needless-to-say, initially wants nothing romantic to do with the pushy American capitalist and, not unexpectedly, there's a montage midway to show how rapidly the team is coming together. None of this predictability takes away from the fun. The cast is fine, especially John Fleck as Milov, the Russian hustler who masterfully plays the black-market to obtain the sports-kit that the government fails to provide (how Sparky's Walkman was eventually traded for an entire baseball backstop, including installation (plus two Walkmen) is quite funny). The film is full of good-natured digs at sports management, professional athletes and their hangers-on, cultural and linguistic misunderstandings (Tanya has a book of inaccurate American idioms written in Moscow) and the post-glasnost Russian 'line-up' economy, and ends on the expected 'feel-good' note (or notes, the writer seemed to want to tack on a number of cliched final scenes). The film was a low-budget affair made for HBO and the 'late Soviet' era it depicts is long gone, but I found it to be a surprisingly entertaining entry into the 'sports comedy' canon. *Aka 'The Balls of Summer' but 'The Comrades of Summer' is the title under which I found the film on You-Tube.

It's funny: most users take this movie for baseball. Me, i take it for glasnot & perestroika. This kind of movie is actually dead because it was then unbelievable coproductions between US-USSR. After decades of cold war, Old west was discovering soviets and soviets were discovering the west. In that special period, Natalya Negoda was the most charming ambassador import export ever and the main reason i spent months tracking this movie. So instead of baseball, it could have been soccer or waterpolo, i don't care. It's true that the movie is not really good. The story and characters are not well stuffed and watching it is a bit painful. I found the bed scene between Natalya & Mantegna totally useless and totally misplaced. But americans are not more founding father and their mores have degraded. But Natalya has done so few movies that even a bad one with her is still a good one for me.

Saw this in the mid-90s and only rediscovered it 3 years ago. 30 years ago it was a strange, exotic beast. An adventure like Tom Selleck's Mr Baseball. But this, shows the good of sport. How it unites, improves and excites people.

It's an underrated little piece of moviemaking that has improved with time. This isn't a baseball movie, it was an attempt to show that the US is superior, but that the greatest patriot is more concerned with spreading the word of baseball than getting involved with politics. It's pure sport, with some funny gags.

Especially when Huck Finn jokes - "perhaps if it was a real world series". Anyone who loves sport, will enjoy this.