I'm still trying to figure out why this was labeled a comedy. This movie is a drama; light-hearted perhaps, but a drama nonetheless. Calvin Marshall, with turn-of-the century legend Honus Wagner as his sports idol, somehow or other ekes his way onto the junior college baseball team on grit and enthusiasm alone. Well, that and perhaps a bit of pity from his coach, who referred to him once as the "mascot." He meets and falls in love with the freshman volleyball star, who is having to cope with the failing health of her mother. Steve Zahn was great as his coach, and should have received second billing in this movie, IMHO.
This is not one of those corny underdog movies where you'll see Calvin step in for an injured player in a crucial championship game and hit a dramatic home-run in the bottom of the 9th with the crowd going wild. Nothing like that at all. In fact, about the only time you see Calvin play, apart from tryouts and practice, is on his recreational softball team.
This movie is about relationships, and making tough life decisions, not only for Calvin, but for his girlfriend Tori Jensen, who is talented enough at volleyball that she is receiving scholarship offers from Universities around the country.
The ending was decent... simple, yet believable and solid. Again, nothing corny, nothing comical, nothing over-the-top.
One minor complaint was that I didn't find out until 2/3rds of the way through that this movie was set in 1986, not the present. Perhaps it was mentioned early on in the movie, but if so, I missed it. That's a good 23 year time difference from when this movie was made, which is significant, so it seems that this could have been addressed at the beginning.
Moderately entertaining. I wasn't disappointed.
This is not one of those corny underdog movies where you'll see Calvin step in for an injured player in a crucial championship game and hit a dramatic home-run in the bottom of the 9th with the crowd going wild. Nothing like that at all. In fact, about the only time you see Calvin play, apart from tryouts and practice, is on his recreational softball team.
This movie is about relationships, and making tough life decisions, not only for Calvin, but for his girlfriend Tori Jensen, who is talented enough at volleyball that she is receiving scholarship offers from Universities around the country.
The ending was decent... simple, yet believable and solid. Again, nothing corny, nothing comical, nothing over-the-top.
One minor complaint was that I didn't find out until 2/3rds of the way through that this movie was set in 1986, not the present. Perhaps it was mentioned early on in the movie, but if so, I missed it. That's a good 23 year time difference from when this movie was made, which is significant, so it seems that this could have been addressed at the beginning.
Moderately entertaining. I wasn't disappointed.