Tiresome and poorly-made, an overrated "feel-good" bore.

Rating: 2/10 (20 May 1999)

Far from being the wryly amusing yet heart-warming tale it claims to be, this is an annoying and embarrassing mess, and seemingly aimed at particularly dense 9 year-olds. Cruise is neither charming nor sympathetic in this movie, he's just boring. Cuba Gooding Jnr isn't boring, but that's just because he's prodigiously irritating. Whatever happened to those fantastic sports comedies they used to make like SLAPSHOT and THE MEAN MACHINE (aka THE LONGEST YARD)? Superficial rubbish like this should go straight to video, and certainly shouldn't be depriving far, far better films of Oscar nominations.