Review – Hardball

Someday someone is going to make a movie about baseball that doesn’t end up being sticky sweet. However, it should pretty much go without saying that a baseball movie in which a down-on-his-luck white guy has to coach a team of black kids from the projects ain’t going to be the departure from the tried-and-true formula. Indeed, this plays like an inner-city version of The Bad News Bears. Plot twists are predictable, emotional manipulation rampant and tear-jerking overwhelming (especially toward the end). That notwithstanding, if you want to watch a sentimental baseball flick then you’ve come to the right place; this is a fine example of the genre. Mildly amusing