Ugh... Harry here with a pair of reviews... that represent about a dozen negative reviews I received tonight from the preview screening of FOR LOVE OF THE GAME, that was held at participating theaters around the country tonight. Over at C.H.U.D. ol Nick reviewed the film and liked it quite a bit... but mainly the response I'm hearing is a tonal cry of... lameness. I'll be seeing this film Monday night, so I'll let ya know what I think then...
Harry and Co.
Saw a sneak of Costner's new flick tonight and I disliked it enough that I thought everyone should have a head's up on it. (No pun intended)
Instead on going on and on about how bad it was, I'll list ten reasons that it didn't work.
1) Kelly Preston and Kevin Costner had zero chemistry.
2) This movie was completely void of suspense. Why should I feel suspense about whether or not Kevin Costner is going to pitch a perfect game? It's a Kevin Costner movie, so obviously he is.
3) The romance angle was lame. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Nothing new. Nothing fresh. Nothing inventive. The dialogue is lame and unimaginative.
4) The annoying little girl from STEPMOM is in this film. Need I say more?
5) This movie is two hours long yet it felt like four. I kept groaning out loud: Will it ever end? The Postman is a Tom & Jerry cartoon compared to this.
6) Kevin Costner utters line for line the Jerry Maguire speech at the end of the film to win Kelly Preston back. LINE FOR LINE! Cameron Crowe should sue.
7) There is a man sitting in an airport bar during the final third act of the film. He screams constantly at the TV. This man may be the worst actor of all time. The number of times they cut back to him shows a complete loss of judgement on the editor's part.
8) When the title of the film shows up on a baseball that Costner has written some important information on near the end of the film, it was as if he scrawled the phrase: "FOR LOVE OF THE GAME" on it for no reason other than to make the title of the film valid. It had no meaning or reason to be on the ball.
9) Kelly Preston plays a completely unlikeable role, leaving us to feel nothing but disdain for Costner's character for not giving her the boot half-way through the film. Plus her acting is really terrible.
10) Did I mention that the annoying little girl from STEPMOM is in this movie?
To even things out I will say there are two good things about this film.
1)Sam Raimi did a fine job directing it.
2)John C. Reily was excellent as always.
Nuff said,
THE SCRUBBING BUBBLE
And here is Lester Diamond's look at the flick...
Hi, Harry. Lester Diamond here. Love the site.
But something I didn't love was the new Kevin Costner film FOR LOVE OF THE GAME, which I saw tonight.
I think most people know what this is about, but just in case, Costner plays an over-the-hill pitcher who is about to choose to either be traded or retire and is trying to throw a perfect game as a last hurrah. During the baseball contest, he flashes back to key moments in his baseball career and relationship with girlfriend Kelly Preston. Their romance is on the rocks.
I went into this thinking it would be good, maybe even great. After all, it was directed by Sam Raimi, whose work I generally enjoy; and John C. Reilly, Reed Rothchild himself. I liked the other Kevin Costner baseball flicks. But as I walked out of the theater, I felt as if I had just watched ROCKY...made for TV. The whole thing just doesn't work. The biggest problem is that we never really know what is the subplot and what is the main plot. These flashbacks get old very fast, to the point where you say to yourself, "Okay, he's going to look to the sky and...flashback." A lot of the dialouge is corny as well. Costner actually says, "if life hands you lemons, make lemonade."
The direction is sadly run-of-the-mill. It is devoid of any style at all. The shot sequences are basically: shot of the real game, shot of the game on TV, close-up of Costner. Shot of the real game, shot of the game on TV... Raimi does capture a pitcher's focus and concentration on the mound well though. There are some nice pieces where Billy (Kevin Costner's character) tunes out to everything around him.
A moving and stirring score would have been quite beneficial to this, but Basil Pouledourris' music is formulaic and even annoying. The same guitar riff is used many times.
The acting is average. The two leads are flat. Preston's character is moody, and it is hard for the audience to sympathize with her. Costner is...what we've always seen of him. He doesn't do anything special here. Jena Malone, who I liked in STEPMOM, is pretty much window dressing. She does her best, but only exsists to add a history to Kelly Preston's character. John C. Reilly (He'll always be Reed to me.) is the typical comic relief. I think he handed in the best performance. Barry Cox is always underused, and is as the team's owner in this.
FOR LOVE OF THE CRAP is the second most predictable movie of the year. Second only to RUNAWAY CRAP. (Universal should put that quote in their ads.) I don't like to go into predictability because it is difficult to do so without spoilers. But let's just say that if you've seen four movies in your life, you know how this will end.
Maybe it's just me because the audience at my screening applauded a few times throughout and seemed pleased afterwards. If this sort of date picture is your bag, you might enjoy it. I'm giving it a grade of D.
