big time strikeout!

Rating: Null/10 (30 August 1999)

As a die-hard baseball fan I'll probably pick this apart more than anyone else. Yes, the storys not about baseball really, but I must point out the glaring mistakes. As far as the story its one we've seen before: obsessed loony follows and spies on a stranger. Knife salesman (ooh, scary) DeNiro has a thing for Snipes, a ball player who just signed a big deal with the S.F. Giants. After all the usual threatening and psychotic behavior, theres a big confrantation in a rain soaked game where DeNiro wants Snipes to homer so he can have his kidnapped son back. At one point Snipes just comes out and asks (more like screams) "what do you want from me?!" To which DeNiro replies...nothing! He doesnt say a word. Thats when you know the film is a total waste as he doesnt even have a reason for his behavior. Another annoying aspect is how Tony Scott shoots EVERY scene in close-up it seems like. Every characrter is right up in our face in virtually every shot and it makes the screen so claustrophobic like youve been crowded into a room with bodies shoved up against you. And now for the baseball scenes, so unproffesionally put together. I mean a player wearing a visiting uniform hits a ball to the outfield...in his home stadium! Now all of a sudden hes wearing a home white uniform as he runs the bases. Or a ball is pitched in Candlestick Park and after its hit the outfield becomes that of Coors Field. Or fans doing the wave in every shot, or the final game played in nearly hurricane like conditions. Oh, what a mess. What can you expect of a British born director? Big surprise that DeNiro would take this.