The movie that should have never been made based on the book that should have never been written!

Rating: 1/10 (14 March 2005)

For those of you who didn't know, The Natural is based of a book by the same name, by author Bernard Malamud. The book was already mediocre, and the film found a way to sink lower. The story is about an aspiring baseball player named Roy Hobbs (Redford) who dreams of being the best ball player in history. In the first few minutes of the movie, Roy is shot in the belly as a teen and cannot go on and fulfill his goal for the next 16 years, which to me is just lazy writing. He then reemerges as a 35-year old man to try for his dream again. You would think that the star-studded cast would make the movie seem at least watchable, but even that doesn't help. Robert Redford gives the main character, Roy Hobbs, the personality of a block of wood. Even Glenn Close and Robert Duvall, who are great actors, still give boring and bland performances in this adaption of the novel. The only redeeming qualities of the film are that this movie features Michael Madsen in one of his very first movie roles and Joe Don Baker. Unfortunately, Madsen and Baker's roles are extremely short lived. I would not recommend this film to anyone and would happily pick Gigli or Hard Cash anytime over this embarrassment to novel-based movies.