Not incredible, but rather emotional and enjoyable.

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2015)

Outside of the emotional ending, this movie isn't anything special, but I think it is a little underrated. On the surface, it's a sports movie and was advertised to be one, but there is actually not that much focus on the team as a baseball team. We only see about fifteen minutes of the team playing baseball in a couple of practices and maybe three games. The "ship" isn't even the climax of the movie and you don't even care that they win it, outside of that being expected by nature of the genre.
Most of the story centers on Conor O'Neill, whose life is not in great shape. He's deep in debt with people who probably don't have a great source of income themselves and seems generally miserable. He takes a job coaching a U-10 baseball team and eventually warms up to the kids and by the end he appreciates their situation. The couple of scenes were we see life in the kids' neighborhood, and they seemed pretty accurate- maybe a little over done at a couple points, but you hear about gang violence in the news a lot so it's probably spot on and I just have no experience to judge it on. Basically, the story is about Conor and the team giving each other hope, and this is all but stated outright over the course of the movie, so you don't have to go hunting for the theme. There are two subplots, one involving Conor's gambling habits and the other with the kids' teacher Miss Wilkes.
Conor is slightly reminiscent of Travis Bickle, though of course not as memorable, and is hardly what you'd call a model protagonist. Consequently, we have two foils for him: Miss Wilkes and Ticky. Miss Wilkes shows Conor's faults of not wanting to be as good a person as he can. Ticky represents Conor's former life of unsuccessful gambling and makes Conor's choice to break away from gambling a little more concrete. A couple of the players are examined more deeply to the extent that you'll probably know about half the players by name and have picked out a favorite by the end. There are a few minor antagonists in the guy from Smith and Stevens, the people Conor owes for his blown bets, and one of the opposing coaches coupled with the league administrators.
The acting is pretty good for the most part, even from the ten kids. As expected, Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane give the best performances, but certainly not their best showings. The script is well paced and feels realistic, which is all it needs to be. There's nothing special in terms of directing outside of G-Baby's funeral at the end, which was really well done and is probably the most emotional scene in any movie I've watched.
It's a very different role for Keanu Reeves, so don't expect him to have any action-hero moments like in the Matrix. There might be a few things that annoy you like the players trash talking each other or Miss Wilkes being shown as sort of a perfect character. Outside of that it should be mildly entertaining for any given viewer, so keep it on until you get bored with it. Overall Rating: 7.8/10