Not Awful

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2015)

An aimless young man (Keanu Reeves) who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Keanu Reeves's performance in "Hardball" earned him a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actor (also for "Sweet November"), but he lost the award to Tom Green for "Freddy Got Fingered". Interestingly, I see "Freddy" as a misunderstood masterpiece... and hardly think Reeves is bad in "Hardball" (whereas "Sweet November" is just a bad movie).
One could complain that this film has the "white savior" problem, with a white man saving the lives (figuratively) of an all-black team. I did not have that issue. There are some familiar plot devices, but all in all it is an enjoyable movie... one that maybe should be re-examined.