# Ed (film)

Ed is a 1996 American sports comedy film starring Matt LeBlanc about a talented baseball pitcher and his friendly ball-playing chimpanzee as his team's mascot.
The film received negative reviews from critics, with a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes.

## Plot

In Santa Rosa, California, Jack "Deuce" Cooper (Matt LeBlanc) is a farm boy who arrives at an open tryout for the Santa Rosa Rockets minor league baseball team. He makes the team after blowing away the scouts with his 'rocket' arm as well as having a strong training camp. Deuce also befriends a chimpanzee, 'Ed,' after being told the chimp is his new roommate/teammate. After they move into their apartment, Deuce develops a relationship with his neighbor, Lydia. Also, Ed becomes very close with her daughter, Elizabeth. Deuce's game really begins to take off as well as Ed's and the team becomes a league contender. Deuce's coach, Chubb, thinks Deuce can be an MLB starter if he keeps his head on straight. But after the owners sell Ed to make a buck, Deuce takes matters into his own hands and goes to find Ed only to see him being tortured by a pair of goons. Deuce saves Ed but Ed escapes and finds a truck of frosted bananas and does not realize he is stuck inside the trailer, which is ice cold. Ed ends up in the hospital after almost freezing to death before the final game of the season and Deuce questions his own ability to continue playing without his best friend. Deuce ends up playing and struggles right off the bat. But when Ed, Elizabeth, and Lydia arrive at the game together, Deuce turns up the heat and the Rockets take the championship. Deuce eventually gets called up to the Dodgers. In the end, Ed, Deuce, Lydia, and Elizabeth then become a family and live happily ever after.

## Cast

* Matt LeBlanc as Jack "Deuce" Cooper
* Jay Caputo and Denise Cheshire as Ed
* Jayne Brook as Lydia
* Doren Fein as Liz
* Jack Warden as Chubb
* Bill Cobbs as Tipton
* Jim Caviezel as Dizzy
* Jim O'Heir as Art
* Steve Eastin as Shark's Manager
* Brad Hunt as Carnie
* Sage Allen as Cooper's Mother
* Stan Ivar as Cooper's Father

## Production

In May 1993, the film was announced to be in development under the title You Should See Them Play and was one of three active monkey/ape films announced to be in development along with Dunston Checks In (then known as Prime Mates) at 20th Century Fox and Monkey Trouble (then known as Pet) at New Line Cinema. Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry competed for the lead role of Jack "Deuce" Cooper with LeBlanc winning out over Perry. The titular Ed was brought to life through a mixture of animatronics made by David Nelson and Norman Tempia while gymnasts Jay Caputo and Denise Chesire would play the role in full make-up when more fluid actions were needed.

## Reception

The film was a box office disappointment. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 6% of 17 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 2.7/10. It received four Razzie Award nominations for Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay (David M. Evans), and Worst Screen Couple (for LeBlanc and Ed the chimpanzee), losing all of those categories to Striptease starring Demi Moore. LeBlanc was also nominated for Worst New Star for his role, but "lost" to Pamela Anderson in Barb Wire. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 25 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B+" on a scale of A+ to F.