Hardball (2001)

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Directed by Brian Robbins.

Starring John Hawkes, Diane Lane, Keanu Reeves.

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Television actor-turned-director Brian Robbins follows up Varsity Blues (1999) and Ready to Rumble (2000) with another sports comedy. Keanu Reeves stars as Conor O'Neill, an underachiever and inveterate sports gambler who needs a bailout loan from a friend to pay off his mounting debt. As a condition for receiving the necessary funds, Conor is saddled with coaching a corporate-sponsored Little League baseball team for underprivileged youth in Chicago's notorious Cabrini Green housing project. Reluctant at first, Conor slowly begins to enjoy his new authority role, especially when he makes the acquaintance of his players' attractive teacher, Elizabeth Wilkes (Diane Lane). Based on the real-life chronicle Hardball: A Season in the Projects by Outside magazine editor Daniel Coyle, Hardball also stars D.B. Sweeney and Mike McGlone. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

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Worst of 2001
by MovieBabe in MovieBabe Blog

hasn't rated it.

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"Did you hear about the blond couple who froze to death at the drive-in? They went to see Closed for Winter. What did the fish say when he hit a concrete wall? "Dam." The above jokes -- which make me laugh every time -- are an appropriate introduction to the year's worst cinematic disasters for the following reasons: (1) The first is my favorite movie-related joke, (2) both indicate that I'm easily amused, and (3) the punch line of the second has typically been my reaction when I learn of the films I've been assigned to review. It's been a dismal year at the movies, from disappointing summer fare (how do you make Pearl Harbor boring?) to so-so independents and foreign films that have been successful simply because people are tired of feeling so bad (Amelie? Cute, but about 20 minutes too long). Then there are the no-name, no-plot groaners that I get stuck with, this year's unusually high number of which is attributable to either frantic green-lighting during ... " [More]

Hardball - Two Can Play That Game
by MovieBabe in MovieBabe Blog

hasn't rated it.

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"Give credit to the makers of Hardball for their inspired casting: You know that life in the projects has got to be bad when their young inhabitants choose to spend their free time with Keanu Reeves. As Conor O'Neill, Reeves is a compulsive gambler who gets coerced into coaching an inner-city baseball team in exchange for a loan to pay off his debts. Though he proves his initial protest that he "ain't good with kids" and does nothing in the way of coaching besides showing up with equipment and uniforms, Conor quickly becomes a father figure to a crew eager to look up to whoever will make himself available to them, even a lunkheaded white boy. Hardball purports to be the story of a man transformed by his exposure to how the other half lives, but the movie is best when it's focused on the kids. Though their primary charm is apparently their propensity to swear like sailors and say things such as "You suck — just like my girlfriend," each one of these tweens is shown ... " [More]

Tags: tbs , housingproject , debt , friendship , gambling
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