Three-Base Hit

Rating: 8/10 (30 November 2012)

If you live in London and read the Evening Standard best ignore what their s0-called critic said and read instead the great reviews on IMDb. It's clear that there was insufficient cgi, S&V, all-round gore and body count for the Standar's cretinous critic. Time the Standard deep-sixed this cat and hire someone who knows his ass from third base movie-wise. Don't get me wrong, this isn't going to be troubling the judges at Oscar time and/or the Festival circuit but then Robert Lorenz isn't Joe Wright; he's a first-time director who realises that most audiences want entertainment not pretentious dross. In short this is our old friend the feel-good movie, sadly in decline of late; if you want to BE pretentious you could call it a Rom-Com with attitude. It's less about baseball than about relationships, father-daughter, man-woman, and it delivers on both. I doubt if I've ever seen Amy Adams give a bad performance and she doesn't break the streak here. Eastwood too is ageing like Jack Daniel's. I'm not saying it'll hold up five, ten years down the line but right now it's a triple play.