Hardball

I want to start by saying that this movie was actually a pleasant surprise. Knowing that this was a movie based on a true story, made with Keanu Reeves and a lot of kid-actors in it, I honestly feared the worst. But after watching it I must say that it really wasn't all that bad.

Sure, the story is as predictable as you can get them in Hollywood. With a desperate white guy who is forced into coaching a children's sporting team from a rough black neighborhood, you already know perfectly what to expect and of course he will only keep doing his job because of a beautiful lady at first (the kids school teacher), but in the end he will learn the true value of these kids' will to win and to make something of their lives, so they can get out of the neighborhood. No the movie never gets far away from the stereotypes. But somehow it didn't bother me all that much for once.

This is probably one of the best performances I've ever seen from Reeves (except for his roles in "The Matrix" and "The Gift") and despite the fact that this movie isn't a comedy, the dramatic story is relieved with some nice humorous touches. I don't know anything about baseball and normally I don't care about movies with baseball as the subject either, but for once I kept watching.

As a conclusion I would like to say that if you are looking for an original movie, you better start looking somewhere else, but if you want to see a drama that exceeds the average Disney boundaries, you might want to give it a try. As I already said, I was pleasantly surprised by it and that's why I give this movie a 7/10.

When I first saw this movie, I watched it with my daughter who was 10 years old at the time. The language was kind of edgy but not too serious. I'm sure she hears worst from her friends at school (even though we try to ignore those facts). This flick had it all. From the coach struggling with his own morality, vices and (of course) romance, to the kids plagued by the daily atrocities of their neighborhood. Through these tribulations, however, we learn that "showing up" (coined from the movie) was the best way to face and overcome our problems. This applies to all of us across the board.

I read a few reviews that discouraged kids from seeing this movie and I wholeheartedly disagree. Why can we let our kids watch The Bad News Bears and The Mighty Ducks but discard a movie that gives us a taste of the reality of our inner city youth whom want to play "Hardball"? Yes they spoke more freely with there swearing than a kid from the burbs. But isn't that the point? They're not from the burbs. Yes there was a shooting scene but you didn't actually see the shot hit. But it's ok for our kids to see the Matrix where people are getting shot left and right. sheez. I hope that one day America can stop hiding the inner city from their kids and let them know how their less fortunate counterparts living (and dying). Maybe they will take less for granted and appreciate their situation more after seeing this flick. Maybe they will want to help solve some of the problems when they get older except ignoring them like their parents are doing because their parents sheltered them from the same things in the 70's & 80's. I'm not trying to sell this movie by saying it's going to change any social order or make your kid a better person. What I'm saying is... Let them watch it, talk about it and "YOU" will make your kid a better person through your dialogue and time. This movie is just to supplement your efforts.

this movie was good. the little kids were funny, keanu reeves was pretty cool. i also saw on the news the night before i went to go see this movie that there was some big black guy whining about the language used by the kids. he said that it was a "poor and grim representation of america's preseption of inner city children." um..im wondering if this man even HAS kids of his own, and if he does, he should hang out with them more often. the language of the kids was strong, but if u mean to tell me that the majority of kids living in the projects, or ANYWHERE ELSE for that matter, don't use that kind of language, get your head examined. anyway, this was a good movie and i enjoyed it.

Due to alot of negative reviews on this site I did not expect the movie to be as good as it was. However after watching it this evening I was delighted by the entire experience. While I agree that it goes along with the "ducks" formula it deviates from it by not showing us the final game with the final ten seconds for the team to win. It spared us that and just let us know with the final credits that the team won. I thought the performances in the movie were excellent, although even I (living here in the deep south) found the accents of the children a little difficult to comprehend. As for the overall effect of the movie it entranced me, completely, I kept having to rewind scenes to view them again and again. And, more importantly, if anyone ever doubted Keanu's ability to act then one should only view the eulogy scene to know that his critics have been simply barking up the wrong tree. Strong, emotional, sympathetic and completely believable... speaking as as part time amateur actress, do you know how hard it is to cry, and cry believably? Do you know how hard it is to make your chin tremble..? My conversion to Mel Gibson fan was watching him "cry" in Lethal Weapon... this has been my reconversion to Keanu fan..., to cry so believably in a movie is worth quids in my book and to be able to express emotion in such a way is worth any amount of praise. Wonderful movie. Go see it.

It never ceases to amaze me how people can have such widely differing *strong* reactions to a film. A number of negative reviews here, but let me add one more positive.

I loved this film, from beginning to end. I loved every aspect of it: the story, the acting, the plot. I expected just another "Coach takes over losing team and makes them winners" story. Those are fine stories now and then, and I was not expecting anything more than mild entertainment. But this film moved me. Now, I'm a middle-aged white boy, and while I've never been rich I've never gone hungry either, and I've never had to worry about getting shot on the way home, so maybe I don't really know what that "sh*t" is all about and maybe this film wasn't "realistic" in portraying all that; but it communicated to me, and that's what any film is all about. And sometimes in order to communicate, you have to go half way between where you are and where the other person is, and maybe that's what this film did. But whatever, I got it.