While Keanu Reeve's acting is hit and miss, this movie is not...

Rating: Null/10 (23 June 2004)

OK, so Keanu's career started with such films as the Bill & Ted duology, (was it originally supposed to be a trilogy but after the second everyone said WHY BOTHER??), and continued on with Point Break in recent years he's actually been known for attempting SOME acting (notably in my mind "A Walk in the Clouds" and the "Matrix" trilogy... though honestly it's mostly the action that kept us interested and the FX... NOT Keanu's acting prowess). Now with Hardball Keanu has attempted the thing that has seemed to frighten so many big name comedic and action stars... DRAMA.
Point... I'm surprised his character wasn't shot at SEVERAL points in the movie, but hey you can't kill THE hero til the end... if then.
Point... Keanu looks to be just about as Irish as Morgan Freeman (if you don't get this reference check out Shawshank Redemption).
But if you ignore these small points, you have a very good film. And it IS a work of fiction, meant to entertain, and it did that admirably.
It has the moral that to succeed... first you must SHOW UP.
Too many people give up and sit at home like a 50 pound of Idaho Potatoes watching Friends episodes and wondering why there was never a spin-off starring Lisa Kudrow, and Matt LeBlanc's characters (maybe called Where's My Brain??). But Oh, I don't mean to rant on about things I don't like, rather I wanted to share how much I DID like this movie. I'd put off watching it for a LONG time, usually fearing that it would be TOO heavy and preachy. But far from that it was engaging, light in areas that were spaced JUST right. Yes it was moving. When G-Baby died there were few dry eyes in the room. When Keanu said, "yes, I'm interested" in whatever Dianne had to offer it was moving. So I DID enjoy the movie... but first I had to show up (and rent it).