| Overall Grade: |
A+ |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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The Best Sports Movie Ever
by Bronco Joe (Semifero) (movies profile)
Feb 4, 2007
5
of
6 people found this review helpful
Pure and simple, this is the best sport movie ever. What makes this movie the best? It is because it is a movie about life as much as it is baseball. It is accurate in its portrayal of minor league baseball. And its characters are real life, not fictional accounts of athletes-on-a-pedestal that so many sport movies portray. Add to that great acting and writing, as well as some great comedic moments, and you have a movie that is entertaining as well as actually being thought provoking at times.
Kevin Costner plays Crash Davis, a catcher traded to an A ball minor league team to help mature a green "bonus baby" pitcher headed for the majors, Nuke Laloosh, played by Tim Robbins. Susan Sarandon plays the community college lit teacher and devotee of the Church of Baseball, Annie Savoy, who has assigned herself the same role - getting Nuke to the majors. She educates him about life and love. Crash educates Nuke about everything he can about baseball from how to keep a pitcher off balance to how to talk to reporters.
As Nuke grows and learns, so does the relationship between the three characters. The characters are people you can really like and relate to. Crash is just looking to finish out the season and wants to just go to the park every day to play. Ever been asked to do something at work you really didn't want to do but knew you didn't have any other choice? That's Crash. He's always trying to get better like when he watches his swing in the reflection of a store front window or when he is talking to himself in the batters box. Nuke is that guy you love to hate. He has all the ability but none of the common sense and is satisfied to just coast along.
There are a ton of great quotes from the movie, too. Some of my favorites:
"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes, it rains."
"Relax, alright? Don't try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring, and besides that they're fascist. Throw some ground balls. They're more democratic."
"How come in former lifetimes, everyone's somebody famous?"
"I believe in the Church of Baseball. . . . . There are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary. And there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance."
Bull Durham is a wonderfully entertaining movie you can watch over and over and enjoy on many different levels. I encourage you to add it to your list of movies you must see. |
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