Eephus

This is bound to be an unpopular opinion, but, to me, fewer things in life are more boring than baseball - except perhaps for movies about baseball (with a few exceptions like "The Natural" (1984), "A League of Their Own" (1992) and "42" (2013)). And that foregoing assessment, in my view, is more than applicable to this positively dreadful debut feature from writer-director Carson Lund. This alleged comedy tells the story of two men's recreational baseball teams in a small Massachusetts town who embark on playing the last-ever game to be held at a local ballpark that's about to be torn down to make room for construction of a new school. The implausibly overlong matchup, brought about by a series of completely unfunny incidents that stretch out the length of the game, goes on from midday through the afternoon and into the crisp, chilly fall evening wherein the players try to continue competing in the dark (gee, now there's a load of laughs for you). There are also numerous talky, uninteresting conversations among the players in the dugout, along with views from the sidelines, where a handful of passing spectators offer their observations about what's transpiring on the field. These sequences do little to add to the film and serve only to pad an already-tedious narrative. The sad part in all this is that the premise truly had the potential to make for a fun and heartwarming picture. Unfortunately, though, the absolutely flat dialogue, lame plot elements and undercooked character development prevent that from materializing. While this offering admittedly features some impressive cinematography and a well-conceived production design, there's not much else to commend here. That is, of course, unless one compliments the creators on their fitting choice of title for the film: An "eephus," for those who aren't aware of what it is, is the name for an obscure form of curveball, one that's thrown deceptively slowly, almost to the point where it lulls the batter into a sense of mesmerized complacency, as if to put the hitter to sleep. And, on that score, the filmmaker has truly succeeded in crafting a picture that lives up to its namesake where audiences are concerned. All I can say is that I'm truly glad that I didn't pay box office ticket prices to see this one.

This film was so incredibly boring. I didn't find any of the dialogue funny and I didn't hear anyone else laughing either. I've never looked at the time so often in my life. Just couldn't wait for it to be over. I was very tempted to leave after the first 15 minutes, but I thought surely this must be leading to some kind of interesting development. Alas, no. This film might work for those who enjoy movies with inane dialogue, no plot to speak of, and ridiculous acting. The Fall New England scenery was nice (looking for something positive here). Honestly one of the worst movies I've ever seen..

Every day life is go go go... stimulation overload. Social media and the internet broadly are a constant dopamine rush. In chase of something bigger and better.

This movie, without the dramatic flare and with its every day 'common' plot/comedy, reminded me that the little things: community (even a rag tag group of misfits) and a shared purpose (even if a bland one) can bring true joy. It reminded me that by slowing down to appreciate what we have ... we can have fulfillment.

I'd recommend this movie for anyone who is ambitious. It will remind you to keep going AND that there is likely a lot to appreciate in what we already have.

This film has a lot of potential, but the characters weren't developed enough. The comedy had a couple laughs and different people laughed at different times in the theater (the funniest part for me wasn't funny for everyone & others were laughing during times when for me it was barely funny at all).

The beginning started out best, with the most potential and I was just waiting for the real connection to happen, to inevitably fall in love with who these people are, but it never came to fruition.

Not to say I don't appreciate rec leagues, and the hobbies that make our lives seemingly worth living, and the dreams we all have had that only a small percent are lucky enough to live out.

This film is an almost but not quite for me, that just got so diluted with no progression in the script that made the 98 minute run time feel more like 135 minutes. I found myself wishing for the end.

The acting was good for some, maybe even for most, but for others, their skills weren't big screen ready. People disappeared/appeared and showed/didn't show without reason throughout.

The characters should've been closer than they were. It was all kind of a let down for not only them, but audiences members alike.

Some of the random spectators in it were similar in that you really don't feel the connection with them nor with the other characters or script, either. But oh we were all trying to get there.

The end was anticlimactic and it seemed purposeful, but so was the middle, thus was the majority of the film. I mean who doesn't like a good climax?

With the right writing, this could've been so much more.

Movies storyline was great! Good to get a new perspective for a baseball movie It wasn't just a dream story. Background music was a little dramatic at some point, but overall a great entertaining movie showing something more realistic than the average baseball movie. Says minimum required characters were not met so filling in the extra characters with this. There should not be a minimum character amount. Or at least it should be lowered because this is a lot of writing. I don't know why there's a minimum character amount. Maybe someone should tell me I would definitely recommend the movie for everyone.