Conference bookie::movies

574.0. "Little Big League" by 65320::RIVERS (Stupid, STUPID rat creatures!) Mon Jun 20 1994 11:44

    It's summer and summer just ain't summer without a baseball movie or
    two.  I think we have a couple coming up (not counting the already
    released-and-out-of-the-theatres "Major League II").  One of which is
    "Little Big League", the story of a kid who inherits the Minnesota
    Twins baseball team and that nifty stadium that goes with 'em.
    
    
    Little Big League stars a whole lotta unknowns and a few familiar
    faces.  I caught it at a "sneak preview", trying to avoid the
    horrendous heat in my house over the weekend.  I figured paying
    $3.50 to sit in an air conditioned theatre for a couple hours, sucking
    down a soda and taking a chance on a movie with a fantasy premise was
    better than sweltering in a 100 degree house.  
    
	
    I like baseball, I like baseball movies (most of 'em), even if they do
    come off silly.  Little Big League came off sillier than most (due to
    its premise and gosh dern wholesomeness of the cast) but my bias
    towards baseball movies will probably show.
    
    As stated, the premise is that Billy Heywood, 12-year old Little
    Leaguer and baseball fan (he does know his baseball.  That's
    established early on), just loves the game. And he likes the Twins,
    who, in the movie, aren't doing so hot.  The owner of the team, played
    by the always affable Jason Robards gets on well with Billy and his
    widowed Mom.  So well that when Grandpa dies, Billy is willed the Twins
    and the stadium.   
    
    Billy's friends think this is really cool.   The team doesn't think
    it's so cool -- working for a 12 year old is a blow to their major
    league egos.  But wait, it gets better.  When the loud-mouthed manager
    of the team, an very antagonistic Dennis Farina (anyone else remember
    "Crime Story"?) gets himself fired by Billy, who does Billy nominate as
    a new manager?   Himself.  Yikes.
    
    We do have to remember it's a movie at this point.  :)   Naturally, the
    adults in the film take some umbrage at this, but Billy does know his
    stuff.   The players are aghast.  They will be the laughing stock of
    the leagues.  However, the suprisingly cordial general manager of the
    team goes along with it (the Twins could use the publicity) and the
    pitching coach thinks Billy can't do any worse than say, the last
    manager.
    
    The bulk of the movie concerns Billy's efforts to take yet another
    "worst team in baseball" and turn 'em around.  Win one for the Grandpa. 
    That kinda think.   We are shown all the expected hardships a 12 year
    old might encounter doing an adult job (pressure, player conflicts,
    etc.) and all the problems a 12 year old might experience being, um,
    1 (alientating his friends, balancing math homework and lineups, etc.).
    There's a gentle subplot concerning Billy's loving mom and the Old
    Veteran of the team, Lou, as played by Timothy Busfield (note: I've
    named everyone I would consider a "known" actor already :).  There's
    the struggle towards a possible pennant.  There's cameos by two Seattle
    Mariners (Ken Griffey Jr. and a really tall pitcher whose name slips my
    mind).  There's a brief glimpse of Fenway.  There's the goofy relief
    pitcher and the slightly crazed pitcher. There's the once-mighty star
    player getting a little too old for the game.  There's the team prima
    donna.  
    
    All the actors, including the kid who plays Billy, play their parts
    more or less likably enough.  In fact, once Dennis Farina's character
    is gone, there really isn't an unlikable person in the bunch.  (I'm
    sure ALL baseball players are such swell guys. :)  Even the scruffy
    sorts are just sorta scruffy in a whitebread kinda way and the whole
    movie smacks of gentle, family fare.  The Wonder Years Meets, oh, any
    movie about a major league losing team.  But, once you take a deep breath 
    and forget that there's probably a law against 12 year olds working the 
    long hours  one would expect out of major league managers (if not a law 
    against managing a team, period), and that "it's only a movie", Little 
    Big League does a  nice job of entertaining.  
    
    (my favorite bits: the statistician in the announcers box handing the
    radio announcer all these very extreme statistics.  "So and so is batting
    .345 against the Blue Jays when playing at home, on a Tuesday, when the
    outside temperature is over 80 degrees and the right fielder's name
    ends with an 'M'".   Not a quote but you get the idea. :)
    
    Not a *great* job. The movie tries to accomplish too much within itself. 
    Tries a little too hard to be "realistic" with Billy and his friends,
    while being unrealistic about the general premise. The Lou and Billy's
    Mom subplot is underplayed to the point of being an unnecessary
    complication.  The baseball action itself is somewhat boring.  You can
    see the plot lines coming a mile off.  There are times when things
    meander around and you're kinda waiting for the movie to pick up and go
    again.  There's obligatory morals cast about.  
    
    The whole thing reminded me of "The Sandlot", another family fare kinda
    movie that I saw on an airplane.  In fact, Little Big League can be
    best summed up as an airplane kinda movie. Inoffensive to everyone,
    bring out the cookies and milk and suspension of disbelief.  As
    baseball movies go, it was OK.  As quiet summer fare went, it was
    entertaining.  As "beat the heat, $3.50 movies" went, it was worth it.  
    
        
    **.5 out of ****
    
    
    kim
    

    
    	Was Dennis in "Crime Story"?  Or was that "Crime Wave"?
    
    	The last thing I saw him in was some movie where he and Leo
    	Rossi are in the process of swiping $.5M from the mob and
    	are trying to get away.  Forgot the name.
    
    							GTI
    
    

    
    Dennis Farina....
    
    In the original Hannibal Lecter movie "Manhunter" as..........
    ....forget.....the FBI boss.
    
    Also in "Crime Story".
    
    
    Derek.

    
    	The movie mentioned in .1 was "We're Talkin' Serious Money".
    
    
    							GTI