The Slugger's Wife (1985)

When a young power-hitting baseball player falls in love with a beautiful rock singer it seems like the perfect combination of two of America's favorite pastimes... or is it? Michael O'Keefe stars as Darryl Porter an outfielder for the Atlanta Braves whose career is altered radically for the better when rock singer Debby Palmer (Rebecca De Mornay) enters his life and inspires him to greatness. But all is not rosy as Debby finds that the more time she spends as "the slugger's wife" the more she misses her other true love - her music. Debby torn between her love for Darryl and her career decides to return to the stage. Her decision causes Darryl to fall into a batting slump that threatens the Braves' change at winning the pennant and also threatens their marriage.System Requirements:Run Time: 104 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396103351 Manufacturer No: 10335 Product Description

Forgotten 80's romantic comedy is a guilty pleasure

These days, 80's movies are much-maligned. And watching movies like The Slugger's Wife, you gotta admit, a lot of stuff from back then is hard to watch. But I think this one holds up reasonably well. Movies based on Neil Simon plays were popular in the seventies, but were a bit hit-and-miss by 1985 (see also: Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues). Anyway, the prime reason to catch this one--or at least it was the prime reason some two decades ago--is Rebecca DeMornay. Although it would be a stretch call her a great actress, the title role her suits her talents. And yes, that really is her singing (I'm a little ashamed to admit I have the soundtrack on cassette somewhere). As someone else has pointed out, the keyboard-heavy soundtrack does hopelessly date the film.

But if you long for a simpler time, when movies wanted nothing more than just ENTERTAIN you for a couple of hours, you could do a lot worse than The Slugger's Wife.
February 8, 2008

Not a baseball movie...But a definate 80s classic...

The first time I saw this movie I was probably either 5 or 6. This movie, along with many other 80s movies (Breakfast Club, Terminator, Weird Science, etc.) has been one of those movies that has stuck with me almost my whole life...Of course it's not the greatest movie...I agree with a lot of reviewers about the cheesy music...But it was the 80s...However the story itself is really good...
Now one thing that got to me was that they didn't release a widescreen version of the film...Instead we get this lame a** fullscreen crap which is why I didn't buy it...But luckily man created DVD Recorders and they played this movie on tv in HD and widescreen and I'm recording it as we speak so now I can enjoy this classic the way it and all movies should be enjoyed in...widescreen... April 11, 2007

Master OF The Rare LASERDISCS Movies.

I have The Slugger's Wife [ 1985 - NEIL SIMON] on Laserdisc,'tis a great Movie and A MUST SEE :p
July 12, 2005

Not A Baseball Movie

For those of you renting this movie or watching it on HBO or whatever, and you're expecting this to be a baseball movie, of course you might be a bit disappointed. It's not realistic as a baseball movie, it's supposed to be a romantic comedy...the baseball player falls for a singer and marries her, only to smother her with too much love. At the end, they don't get back together, which is fitting, because the door is left open for that to happen. I've seen other reviews for this movie, and I'm sorry that you didn't like it, but I thought this was a very funny, very cute movie that happened to have some baseball elements in it. Give it a break. January 6, 2005

Worst Sports Movie EVER!

I spent 2 hours of my morning watching this on HBO Signature and this is anything but good. The music in this movie is terrible, and I was cringed while I listened to it. This movie does not resemble baseball. Superstar athletes are inspired by others, but definately not to the point of this movie's main character. What bothered me the most was really a, if you think about it, an embarassment to Braves fans and baseball fans. In the last game of the season, when the player hits HR #62 you barely see the ball go over the fence. You could see empty seats all over. In addition, if the Braves won they would enter the playoffs. In real baseball, all 30 teams would have packed stadiums filled, with the probable exception of Montreal. This is the worst sports movie EVER. The romance is tolerable, but these newlyweds seem to hate each other. The wife doesn't want her own HUSBAND to see her. Doesn't sound like love to me. Don't waste your time on this piece of trash. July 24, 2003

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