Beat This Film With a Baseball Bat.

Rating: 1/10 (6 October 2015)

Hardball (2001): Dir: Brian Robbins / Cast: Keanu Reeves, Diane Lane, D.B. Sweeney, John Hawkes, Michael B. Jordan: 80, 000, 000th sports baseball movie about the hardened lives kids endure. It stars Keanu Reeves as a drunken gambler thrust into coaching an urban kids baseball team by a friend who will pay him $500 a week to do so. He figures that the money will pay off debts but he never factored in the behavior. This all leads to a happy ending for all save for the audience. Director Brian Robbins is responsible for Varsity Blues, as well as such crap as Good Burger and Ready to Rumble. He lets the material get away on him like a bunch of kids at an amusement park. It has no originality and characters say lines like, "I'm blown away by your ability to show up." I am blown away by his ability to say that with a straight face. Reeves makes little impression playing a role that has been done fifty times over. Diane Lane is basically a romantic prop for when Reeves has a free moment. Are we to be surprised when these two hook up? D.B. Sweeney plays Reeves's crime pal, although being in this film is perhaps his biggest crime. This is the kind of film that you line up and bat baseballs at just to see if one can smash a dent in it. It is one of the worst sports films ever made. Arguably about inner city kids seeking opportunity but the formula has been done so many times that it hits too many foul balls. Score: 1 / 10