Hardball (2001)

A classic uplifting film for the human sprit

I remeber Hardball coming out of the week as 9/11 back in 2001 and at the time it was released it was just the type of movie, the country needed. Hardball is a uplifting movie that makes one feel good inside. Keanu Reeves shows some of his best atcing since River's Edge. Diane Lane is very good in the female lead also. The kids on the team are all also veyr good actors , many of whom make a apperance for the first time on screen. The film will make you laugh and cry and I 'm proud to have it in my DVD collection. I give it *** out of ****. September 14, 2008

This movie is so touching. I had to cry.

I had watched this movie years ago and wanted to see it again and own it. Of course, I love Keanu Reeves. That's a given. But back then I didn't allow my kids to see it because of all the cursing from the kids in the movie. But I thought they would like the storyline. Now that they were older, I let them watch. They too thought it was good, but there's a really sad part toward the end, and my younger son, who tends to be sensitive, regretted seeing the movie just because of that one scene. Still, it was entertaining and emotional. May 18, 2008

Too many storylines and not enough time

"Hardball" is another of many movies about which I have to say, "I wanted to like it more than I did;" at best, it may be worth watching once. Other reviewers have covered the fact that there is a bit too much cursing in the movie at times, especially by the kids in the movie, and this is one reason why it won't get any repeated viewings or more than a three-star recommendation from me.

Beyond the cursing issue, however, lie some other problems. This movie tries too hard to follow too many formulas: 1) Man coaches underdogs to championship; 2) Man meets woman, loses woman, regains woman; 3) Man turns over a new leaf and finds redemption (of sorts); and 4) Life in the ghetto is hard (and often short). It's difficult to pull together so many divergent story lines in 1 hour and 46 minutes of film time, and "Hardball" leaves you with some blanks that you wish had been filled in.

Far too much time is spent on showing us how low Keanu Reeves' character has sunk. The viewer understands that he is down and out and desperate after the first few minutes, so more time could have been spent on the coaching or romantic storylines.

The kids on the baseball team, in spite of the fact that their cursing isn't as adorable as the filmmakers apparently thought it was, are the best thing about this movie, and the viewer can't help but root for their team to become winners. The problem is that we don't get to see how this happens. In spite of the facts that they are horrible in their first game and that Reeves doesn't seem to know the first thing about coaching baseball, they go on an improbable championship run. As I said, more time could have been better spent showing the interactions and growing relationship between Reeves and the kids.

We also don't see much of the relationship between Reeves' and Diane Lane's characters. They are antagonists at first, and their first `date' (if you could call it that) certainly doesn't bring them closer together. Yet, by the end of the film, they appear to have grown quite close. Again, the viewer just has to accept that this has happened since it is not shown.

By the end of the film, Reeves' character has a changed attitude and approach to life, and he truly cares about coaching the kids. The shooting toward the end of the film hammers home the `life in the ghetto is tough' theme and definitely stirs up the emotions of the viewer. The final outcome of the championship game is predictable and clichéd, but it couldn't have ended any other way after the shooting and it does leave the viewer feeling somewhat fulfilled (in spite of all the gaps contained in the film).
February 24, 2007

Mo' Keanu, mo problems...NOT!

Wow! Rented this one about 2 years ago, and it always stuck in my head as a great film! I loved it! I don't know why I love it so much. I guess it's because it's about baseball, and it made me cry, at the end, when Baby G lost his life.

I think I only cry during sad "sports" movies. I didn't cry when "old yeller" died. Didn't cry when Scarface died at the end. But when it comes to Sports movies, I'm a big softie.

My buddy, Bobby Asslong, who's normally right on, when it comes to modern day movies, didn't like this one! Can't understand why. Maybe it's because the main character, the Keanu Reeves' character is a big time gambler and loser, and this hits a little bit too close to home? Perhaps, he's a bit jelous of Keanu's boyish good lucks, and husky voice.

Anywho, I recommend this one. I think it's totally off the hook!

MC White said: I love it when you call me Big Poppa! Two thumbs WAY up! December 14, 2006

Hitting Close to Home

As a Christian, I didn't like the foul language in the movie "Hardball". But sometimes, the world isn't perfect, and kids raised in the projects don't tend to talk the way kids from the suburbs talk.

For four years, I worked as the Management Information Systems Specialist for YMCA Child Welfare, a division of the Chicago YMCA which managed the cases of numerous foster children. (When I first started that job, we were managing the cases of about 950 kids, most of whom were African-American.)

For the first year or more, our offices were located in a long two-story cinderblock building just a block south of the ABLA housing projects, where "Hardball" was filmed. I didn't drive to work, I took the Roosevelt Road bus, and then walked the rest of the way. So I had plenty of chances, five days a week, to observe the kids who lived in the ABLA projects. And I have to say that I think that the movie portrayed them pretty accurately. If anything, it may have portrayed them a little bit too sympathetically.

Of course, I may be slightly biased on account of my experiences. One time, when walking to the bus stop after getting off work, I passed by a large group of ABLA kids, who were playing in the water from an open fire hydrant. (No, it's not legal for them to do so.) Naively, I thought they'd leave me alone. Instead, they surrounded me and started throwing buckets of water at me. Innocent fun, if I had been wearing a swimsuit at the time. Not so innocent, since I was dressed in my work clothes, and I had my bookbag of papers with me, and I was on my way to my second job at the time. (I had to call my boss at that job and tell her I wouldn't be able to make it to work that night.)

And then there was the time several little kids decided to start throwing rocks at me as I walked home from work one day. I wanted to remind them that rocks can do serious harm to people. (Just ask St. Stephen, the New Testament Christian who was stoned to death.) Fortunately, their aim was lousy, and none of their rocks hit me.

I'm a white man, and I think that it's pretty rare for kids in that neighborhood to see white guys, particularly white guys who are walking through their neighborhoods rather than driving. That may have made me seem like an attractive target.

CHA projects in Chicago are not typically good places to raise kids. When kids are surrounded by adults and teenagers who are involved in gang activities and other forms of antisocial behavior, it tends to rub off on them as well.

Hardball is by no means a great movie, but it seems to me that it's a pretty accurate depiction of what life in the projects is like for children. April 27, 2006

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