What begin as a potentially funny and odd film just devolves into child abuse. Film or not, that's where I draw the line.
(PS - This has the stink of TV and poor writing all over it.)
Here's my breakdown:
STORY: This made me so angry that it may cloud my judgment here ...
A kids' baseball story ... what could be more wholesome and American? Right?
I don't care how grumpy Matthau can be, or any other actors, the amount of verbal and physical abuse, the constant substance abuse by adults and children ... what ??? What is wrong with adults???!!!
It could have been a nice story, even a bit spicy, but it just plummets deeper into depravity - for a kid's story.
ACTING: Acting was OK, but there were no stand outs.
How about a film with only kid actors?
ENTERTAINMENT: Low - moderate, depending on your temperament
TEMPO: Fine
CINEMATOGRAPHY: OK, but practically every scene is at the baseball field - really? (Ahh ... that TV smell ...)
MUSIC / SOUND: OK
DIRECTING / WRITING: Director: Ritchie's other directing work doesn't interest me or they're of low quality.
This is OK directing work, but just that. TV influence perhaps?
Writers: Lancaster only wrote "Bears" stories and "The Thing" (1982) which I thought was a poor flick.
Not sure why this guy (or anyone else) thought this story was / is acceptable for kids in anyway or form.
Bad judgment. Very bad.
Is it a good film? The quality is not bad, but the content ruined it for me
Should you watch this once? If you care about kids then no, watch something else
Rating: 4.0 (for the decent film-making quality)
(PS - This has the stink of TV and poor writing all over it.)
Here's my breakdown:
STORY: This made me so angry that it may cloud my judgment here ...
A kids' baseball story ... what could be more wholesome and American? Right?
I don't care how grumpy Matthau can be, or any other actors, the amount of verbal and physical abuse, the constant substance abuse by adults and children ... what ??? What is wrong with adults???!!!
It could have been a nice story, even a bit spicy, but it just plummets deeper into depravity - for a kid's story.
ACTING: Acting was OK, but there were no stand outs.
How about a film with only kid actors?
ENTERTAINMENT: Low - moderate, depending on your temperament
TEMPO: Fine
CINEMATOGRAPHY: OK, but practically every scene is at the baseball field - really? (Ahh ... that TV smell ...)
MUSIC / SOUND: OK
DIRECTING / WRITING: Director: Ritchie's other directing work doesn't interest me or they're of low quality.
This is OK directing work, but just that. TV influence perhaps?
Writers: Lancaster only wrote "Bears" stories and "The Thing" (1982) which I thought was a poor flick.
Not sure why this guy (or anyone else) thought this story was / is acceptable for kids in anyway or form.
Bad judgment. Very bad.
Is it a good film? The quality is not bad, but the content ruined it for me
Should you watch this once? If you care about kids then no, watch something else
Rating: 4.0 (for the decent film-making quality)