The Worst Film Ever

Strong and Moving!

A Masterpiece!

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Local boy Ryan Dunne (Freddie Prinze Jr.) has been mowing lawns and baseball fields for his father Sean (Fred Ward). It's an important time for summer Cape Cod Baseball League as college kids like Billy Brubaker (Matthew Lillard), Miles Dalrymple (Marc Blucas), and Mickey Dominguez (Wilmer Valderrama) come to show their skills to major league teams. It's the first summer that Ryan is going to play despite any distractions from Dede Mulligan (Brittany Murphy). However he has a tendency to self destruct after the death of his mother. John Schiffner (Brian Dennehy) is the coach. One of Ryan's job is for the rich Parrishes with daughter Tenley (Jessica Biel). His big brother Mike (Jason Gedrick) missed his chance and is now the local bartender.It's suppose to be funny but it's just stupid. Everything is a joke to these characters. If they don't take it seriously, then why should the audience. Freddie Prinze Jr. is annoyingly brash. In the first ten minutes, he shows himself to be a whiny idiot. With his big chance on the line, he's got one girl and then chases another. Jessica Biel doesn't have much heat or any chemistry. She's got a beautiful body and that's the only thing on display here. She has one of the cheesiest lines. They get together right away losing any courtship heat. Brittany Murphy has more energy and it would have been interesting for her in the lead. I know it's a rom-com. The problem is that the rom is a bore and the com is pathetic. The jokes are basically hot guys strutting around in a thong. There is also a bad baseball faux-pas when coach Schiffner commented that he's pitching a no hitter. It's just one more thing that annoyed me.

This isn't the worst movie ever but it has nothing going for it. It is weak as a baseball film and it is weak as a boy meets girl chick flick. The characters are stock, the acting is uninspired, the plot is predictable, and there is just nothing about this film that draws the viewer in. It passes the time. It fills a void. Others have probably said it better than I have above, though.I just want to point out that as any baseball fan worth his weight in pine tar knows any young man who throws left-handed and can reach 96mph on the gun is going to get repeated opportunities in professional baseball. Even an organization with the most pessimistic view of his prospects would wonder if they could turn him into a LOOGY.It's a small issue but the movie is full of things that make it crappy. This silly detail about his ability to throw hard is just the cherry on top of the sundae for me as a baseball fan.

Enjoyable. Yes.Predictable. Yes.Nothing much here but a nice little movie about baseball. Yet another film that looks and sounds like it was supposed to be a made for TV movie. The movie's saving grace is "eye candy" Freddie who looks great in - and out - of uniform. Make this film a drinking game: down a shot every time the writers find another way to get Freddie naked, shirtless or running around in his underwear.Lots of minor characters with uninteresting story lines. The trailer makes this film seem like another teen sex romp but it really is more focused on baseball.

A few minutes into this movie, we see Freddie Prinze prancing through water sprinklers wearing Brittany Murphy's thong and we know what kind of movie this is going to be and the empty-headed audience it takes aim at. The slow motion scene of Jessica Biel's swim suit bottom confirms this. There are two cute kids, one poor and one rich, who are going to fall in love despite the usual complications of class distinctions, parental control, and confusion about what each other wants in life. The film is fairly predictable and boasts a strong supporting cast, which actually makes the film watchable. Brian Dennehy is Prinze's hard-nosed coach. Fred Ward is his working class dad, and Bruce Davison is Biel's controlling dad. Matthew Lillard provides much needed comic relief and Curt Gowdy is on hand as the press box announcer. John C. McGinley appears as a pro scout, and Beverly D'Angelo has a funny cameo as a sex-starved house mother hosting the Wilmer Valderrama character (in his film debut). Director Michael Tollin utilizes his beloved Philadelphia Phillies in a brief bit at the end. Former baseball players Hank Aaron and Dick Allen have cameos as pro scouts. Allen's appearance may be an inside joke, intentional, or ironic because he had a troubled career, or it may be simply because he's identified as a former Phillies player. Ken Griffey Jr. appears at the end. Innocuous teen fare. ** of 4 stars.