On F List of Movie Reviews

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For Love of the Game (1999)

Rate: 4
Viewed: 11/25

11/25: Remember the greatest 12 of all time in Tin Cup?

That's how it feels while watching Kevin Costner pitch a perfect game in For Love of the Game. Unfortunately, everything else sucks although the editing works. Why can't the announcers shut up? They're beyond awful, the very reason why I mute the TV whenever a game is on. Ditto for the fans, most especially the barfly.

Looks are never enough. There has to be compatibility. Jane Aubrey isn't right for Billy Chapel. It's been a doomed relationship right from the start. After all, how is that he has stayed single for so long? Jane's issues are easy to figure out: she talks like a high school girl, writes for fluff magazines, and is therefore a shallow person overall.

A lot of people have dissed Kevin Costner for his acting, but he's been fine for the most part. I agree that his performance feels like Bull Durham all over again, making this one a suitable sequel, but the cringy self-talk on the mound has to go. As for the flashbacks, that's really Kevin Costner and his father.

How tough is it to achieve a perfect game? By the time For Love of the Game was made, it had been done only sixteen times since 1876. Ironically, three of them were longer than the movie. That should have been a signal to everybody: hurry the fuck up. Recall the scene when the baseball bounced off Mickey's head and into the park for a home run? That happened for real to Jose Canseco in 1993 while playing for the Texas Rangers which was the funniest thing I ever saw.

All in all, Hollywood thought it could go three for three with For Love of the Game but not this time.

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