The Rookie

Plot synopsis:
The film tells the story of Jim Morris, the son of a career Navy man, who moves the family from Jacksonville, Florida to Big Lake, Texas, in order to maintain job security. Jim is shown to be a very skilled pitcher, though his father disapproves of Jim's dream of making it to Major League Baseball. It is later mentioned that the town to which Jim's family moved, Big Lake, has lost its love for baseball, preferring football instead. Thus, he was unable to play baseball in high school. He later gets a chance when he is drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers, but he tears up his shoulder, ending his hopes of achieving his lifelong dream.
Years later in 1999, Jim, married with three children, is a high school science teacher, as well as head baseball coach. His team, the Big Lake Owls, is very unsuccessful with many of his players skilled, but unmotivated, especially with very little community support. One day after practice, the team catcher offers to play catch with Jim. There it is revealed that Jim may still have his fastball, and it is soon displayed to the rest of the team. The Owls believe that Jim could possibly pitch in the major leagues and offer him a deal: If the Owls can win district and make the state playoffs, Jim will try out again, which Jim accepts. Furthermore, the team urges him to throw his fastball in batting practice, which immensely improves their hitting.
The Owls end up winning district and after their final win, the team tells Jim that, since they kept up their end of the deal, it is now his turn to do his part. After the Owls' season ends with a loss in the state tournament, Jim is told of a tryout nearby for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and Jim goes, without telling his wife, afraid that her fear of him re-injuring his shoulder would keep him from going. After his tryout, the professional scouts discover his ability to repeatedly throw a baseball at 98 miles per hour. The lead scout tells Jim that he could be signed to a minor-league deal. Jim's wife finds out after getting two phone messages from the Tampa Bay scouts and she is at first reluctant to let Jim go, citing his home responsibilities, but after seeing how Jim is inspiring their son, Hunter, she allows him to go. Jim tells his father, with whom he still has a cold relationship, of his situation, and his father once again tries to dissuade Jim from trying to achieve his dream again, telling Jim, "It's OK to think about what you want to do until it's time to start doing what you were meant to do."
He is initially assigned to the minor league Class AA Orlando Rays (now the Montgomery Biscuits) but quickly moves up to the AAA Durham Bulls. Concerned for his family due to mounting bills (the pay in the minor leagues being low) Jim decides to give it up and come home. But his wife Lorri talks him out of it, not wanting Jim to give up again. Jim gets inspired again when he watches a Little League game one night, remembering the same love for baseball he had as a kid.
In September, Jim is told that the Major League club has called him up, and that they will be playing in Texas against the Rangers. Jim calls his family, who in turn informs the town. Advising his wife of the dress code in the majors, Jim finds his sports coat, a necktie and his St. Rita necklace hanging in his locker. St. Rita is the saint of impossible dreams. His family, high school players and many townspeople go to the game. Jim impresses many of the coaches in warm-ups with his fastball, and late in the game, with Tampa Bay losing badly, Jim is called into the game to pitch to Royce Clayton and end the inning. Jim ends up striking out Clayton on three straight fastballs. After the game, Jim gets interviewed by the press, During the interview, Jim notices his father had also come to the game. Jim's father finally admits that he is proud of what Jim has done and also apologizes for never supporting him. Jim thanks him and gives him the ball with which he had gotten the strikeout, and the two finally repair their relationship. Jim then meets with his family and all the townspeople who had come to the game, applauding Jim on his amazing success story.
The final scene shows the Big Lake high school trophy case, which has Jim's Major League jersey prominently displayed. It is then mentioned that Jim would go on to pitch in the majors for 2 seasons before retiring and returning to teaching in Texas.

Tags: comedy, neo noir, murder, cult, revenge, violence, humor, suspenseful

Review:
Yeah, the dialogue is a bit crappy, especially by Pepe Serna's lines; he jitters while he talks most of the length of time of the movie!Well anyway, I thought it is a pretty enjoyable cop drama, due to the funny chemistry between Eastwood and Sheen, who do great Mel Gibson/Danny Glover impressions.
I though the action was good in this film, especially the opening car chase, and I thought Eastwood gave s good performance and was even funny at times.
Clint is perfect as a skilled and dried cop (just as in the '88 Dirty Harry series, 'The Dead Pool' - by the way, one of the best from the collection, maybe even better than 'Magnum Force'), and Sheen is good as a police neophyte.
Clint Eastwood's grip on police reality is completely gone here, and Charlie Sheen is just way out of his depth as a tormented rookie cop.
Not Too Bad. I stared at this movie on the shelf for about 4 weeks before I finally took a chance with it.Clint Eastwood who directed and starred in The Rookie, plays a cop who looses his partner one night on a bust.
Clint Eastwood starred in and directed this predictably low-rated film about an aged cop with a reluctance to accept a newly-recruited rookie assistant (played by Charlie Sheen) in his undercover police operations.
All these things seem to go over the top and there is also a bad cast and not even the likes of Charlie Sheen or the late Raul Julia (of Addams Family fame) could lift the gloom of this being the worst film but thankfully, the great Clint Eastwood only did few bad films and if I like violent action films, I watch Arnie in Commando instead..
If you want a great action movie with Clint Eastwood or Charlie Sheen, this is it.
Eastwood directs himself as a hard-nosed detective with little time for organised crime, teaming up with rich kid turned cop (Sheen) whose high society parents (Skerritt & Mitchell) have to bear the ignominy of his career choice which leaves them estranged.
Brazilian beauty Sonia Braga has a decent supporting role as Julia's most trusted enforcer, tackling well beyond her weight.It's formula stuff with no surprises, a sort of "Lethal Weapon" / "Dirty Harry" hybrid and a disappointing directorial effort by Eastwood, especially considering the substance of his other film projects made around the same time..
In 1990 Clint Eastwood was obviously more comfortable making films where he gets to shoot people rather than elephants, so it was no surprise, after the failure of 'White Hunter, Black Heart', to find him regressing to yet another formula variation of Dirty You-Know-Who. The plot has only been recycled ninety times before, but the familiar terrain was doubt reassuring to Eastwood fans, for whom character and credibility aren't as important as the number of cars that can be smashed together.
Quite a few are totaled in the spectacular opening chase, but after that the film settles into a routine cops-and-robbers caper, with nothing too surprising about it except the revelation that villain Raul Julia and his nympho-psycho-killer girlfriend Sonia Braga are meant to be German.
Even Clint Eastwood has done it before as Harry Callahan.So, if you like Clint Eastwood (starred and directed) and Charlie Shhen, then maybe this is worth your time.I tuned in for a chance to see Raul Julia and Sonia Braga.
It isn't Moon Over Parador or Kiss of the Spider Woman or The Burning Season, all of which got Braga and Julia Golden Globe nominations, and one actual win for Julia, but they are so good together, I just can't miss the chance to see them.So, I'll watch another veteran-rookie film where I know the ending before it even gets started.
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsDavid Ackerman (Charlie Sheen) is a young cop who has recently been promoted to the Grand Auto Theft Division.David is in fact a rich kid from a rich family but is quite apparently genuinely motivated to become a cop.But beneath this facade,David is motivated by a burning desire to convince himself he is not an evil person after,as a child,he unwittingly lured his younger brother to his death.He finds himself partnered with Detective Nick Pulovski (a 60 year old Clint Eastwood,in typical loose cannon form) to chase after Strom (Raul Julia) the criminal mastermind leading a gang of car thieves and the cold-blooded murderer of Nick's former partner (what an original angle).Chases,gun-fire,explosions and buddy-banter ensue.As I stated,Clint was 60 when this was made,and unlike fellow action star Chuck Norris when he appeared in the film The President's Man,truly looks his age,haggard and even slightly dishevelled,making him chronically ill-suited to the leading role.He might have been able to detract from his inevitable physical appearance had he been given a script which gave him some clever lines and puns to work with.Sadly,The Rookie also fails in this department,with one as bland and uninspiring as they come.Matters aren't helped by a similarly lifeless,unthrilling soundtrack,which fails to liven up the proceedings or go any way in making them more exciting.As for the action scenes,yeah,there are one or two nice touches as far as these are concerned here or there,but they're either far too predictable or must have occured at some stage too far into the movie for your interest to have been sustained any longer.With all these faults already piled against the film,it's also far too long for it's own good,the longer it goes on,the more of a rambling,disconcerting effort it ends up becoming.Put it this way.For a film running at just under the two hour mark,when you've switched off after what can't be any more than about three quarters of an hour in to it,you know you're in trouble.Best not to give it even that though.Just avoid the whole thing altogether,and give your time and money to something much more rewarding.*.
This is one of the low points of Clint Eastwood's directorial career:  A by-the-numbers action movie that is partly tongue-in-cheek, but only genuinely funny when Charlie Sheen tries to play the tough guy role and fails miserably.
The utterly ridiculous plot is stock cop/buddy/action movie formula with Eastwood as the gruff take-no-prisoners veteran  paired with a rookie (Sheen) who has a tragic past.
There's no reason at all, except for him to show the movie audience that he was wearing a bulletproof vest!Probably in response to the then-success of such macho action heroes as Stallone and Schwarzenneger, Eastwood pumps up the violence and testosterone to ridiculous levels, none moreso than when Sheen takes on a bar full of rowdy customers and ends up demolishing the place in an unintentionally hilarious sequence that depicts his transformation from uptight rich kid to macho supercop.
"The Rookie" takes me back to the early 90s when thrillers and action pictures were all set aside for Sunday night, and from time to time, I was allowed to enjoy the movie with my Dad. Give me a few seconds to embrace the nostalgia...And I remember when I saw good old Clint Eastwood in his car, watching carjackers loading a whole semi-trailer with their recent (and valuable) "purchases", I had but one certitude in mind: his partner would better have a last puff on his buddy's cigars because he'd soon become another "dead on duty" statistic.
and the next day, he's assigned a new partner, a young detective named David Ackerman.The set-up was predictable and the rest of the story was swimming in familiar waters: a tense relationship between the old street-smart cop and the sensitive rookie played by Charlie Sheen, bargains with snitches, television kicked by the bad guy, the sexy villainess, and the spectacular stunts.
But it was still good enough to deliver what was expected to an audience who knew what to expect.It could be better given its talented director and its set of villains, it's unfortunate that they had to put so much effort on the hardest part and not tried to densify the story a little, but I'll end with the same nostalgic tone that opened this review, "The Rookie" wasn't a theater film but the perfect movie to rent in VHS for a fun Saturday afternoon..
Sure, he's in Los Angeles instead of San Francisco and is working grand theft auto duty instead of homicide but otherwise it feels like a Dirty Harry film...especially when Pulovski (Clint Eastwood) has his partner killed early in the story.
Charlie Sheen is mean, moody and handsome and isn't really required to be anything else, the dad-son "You were never there for me!" scenes are an embarrassment to be perfectly frank and could well have been omitted from the film.The story is simple about a veteran cop and his new partner, Charlie Sheen going on the rampage in LA for car thieves while in the pursuit of revenge for the murder of Eastwood's partner early on film by the leader of the criminal gang.
My memory is a bit hazy- I remember through a cloud of smoke seeing The Machine( Charlie Sheen )talking to Dirty Harry but not in a good Dirty Harry movie, this is a piece of crap Dirty Harry movie, like I guess Dirty Harry got demoted cause he's working in the auto theft department, his partner still gets killed so its still a Dirty Harry movie but like Charlie Sheen keeps popping up getting a lot of screen-time, as if he were playing the role of a principal character, but that can't be right cause that would mean some one intentionally employed The Machine to act, and anyone who gives Charlie Sheen acting work is crazy, no, really man, I'm telling you, CRAZY.
This is a misfire by Clint Eastwood as he teams up with young Charlie Sheen in this buddy-cop film, a genre which was massive at the time.
Good that Charlie Sheen pays homage to the superb Blazing Saddles at one point, but definitely towards the lower end of the scale in Clint Eastwood Police films.
Continuing my plan to watch every Clint Eastwood movie in order I come to The Rookie (1990)Plot In A Paragraph: A veteran cop (Eastwood) whose partner is killed, gets paired up with a by the book rookie (Charlie Sheen) who has to be taught the rules of the street by the older officer.
Eastwood's ballsy buddy cop action programmer "The Rookie" starring alongside Charlie Sheen is considered to be one of his weakest efforts and I would have to agree.
In fact, given that he's strapped to a chair for half the film at the whim of not only Raul Julia (as a German?) but also Sonia Braga, I'd say that for die-hard Eastwood fans it should be worthwhile to watch at least once.
The Rookie is the kind of dumb Hollywood action show that I wanted to like more than I did, grimacing during the more uncomfortable scenes (i.e. Braga and Eastwood's "number" on the chair), and seeing at best some solid genre mechanics going on.
It's no surprise to see a formulaic, by-the-numbers action exploitation flick like this; the surprise is that even with Clint Eastwood in the directing chair, it ends up being completely pointless.
It's no surprise to see a formulaic, by-the-numbers action exploitation flick like this; the surprise is that even with Clint Eastwood in the directing chair, it ends up being completely pointless.
Raul Julia does a great villain, as always, but like Sheen and Eastwood, he's not good enough to save the film.
Raul Julia does a great villain, as always, but like Sheen and Eastwood, he's not good enough to save the film.
I recommend it to only to very big fans of one or more of the three lead actors, Eastwood, Sheen and Julia, and fans of exploitation action films.
I recommend it to only to very big fans of one or more of the three lead actors, Eastwood, Sheen and Julia, and fans of exploitation action films.
Clint Eastwood is great as the subtly brooding senior cop whereas Charlie Sheen just has the right attitude to play the title role.
Now, after 5 "Dirty Harry" films Clint Eastwood goes through another film that serves as a metaphorical transition: a tough as nails veteran cop gets partnered with a rookie.
Pun intended.As far as Clint Eastwood's body of work is concerned this is one of his more ridiculous and self-indulgent films; in particular the concluding act has some odd excess and the final action scene turns too cold blooded for its own good.
You know I can tolerate Clint giving a half assed 'tired cop' performance ever now and again after doing brilliant police roles like in Tightrope and Sudden Impact, and pretty boy Sheen always has a bit of a 1980's Yuppie nostalgia thing going on, but casting.........Raul Julia as a German car thief as the central villain?
Clint Eastwood and Charlie Sheen in a pretty good buddy cop movie..
In the end this film is just your basic buddy cop movie in the same vein as "Lethal Weapon" as Clint Eastwood plays the aging cop and Charlie Sheen a cop new to the job who is just transferring into the stolen cars part of the police force.
The film is nothing special as far as plot and such go, but it plays out nicely and Eastwood and Sheen make the movie better than it should be.
The end of the movie is is spectacular as well as humorous: the death of the bad guys and the final scene when a new rookie is introduced as partner of Sheen.
Anyway the film is as good as one can expect from one of the lesser known Eastwood 90's offerings.This was one of Raul Julia's memorable movies that I remember it, Raul Julia and Sonia Braga did a fine job as a team of criminals against two cops Clint Eastwood and Charlie Sheen.
This is interesting type of film in the way of that is slight in a pretense real powerhouse Clint Eastwood Academy Award-winner directing type of stuff in filmography, and Eastwood just play around in genre, he doesn't try to do anything groundbreaking or independent or any kind a big heavy one, you just have good old fun time watching this flick.
Fasten your seat belt.This is Clint Eastwood's last good action flick and even tough the movie was a flop in blockbusters in the 90's it is still fun film to watch and it is never boring.
Anyway this movie get's 9/10 out for me I still have enjoy it.The Rookie is a 1990 buddy cop film directed by Clint Eastwood and produced by Howard G.
Rookie, The (1990) ** (out of 4) Disappointing action picture has tough nosed cop Nick Pulovski (Clint Eastwood) getting stuck with a rookie (Charlie Sheen) while trying to bring down a German criminal (Raul Julia) who is running a variety of chop-shops around L.A..
The cast was excellent as well with Clint Eastwood, Charlie Sheen, Sonia Braga, Raul Julia, and Lara Flynn Boyle.
Buddy Cops, Clint Eastwood, Charlie Sheen, action, bad cop, good cop...how can it fail...but it does, it falls flat on his face and there isn't even anything redeemable about it which is amazing to me!!
To his dismay, Pulovski is given a new partner...rookie cop David Ackerman(Charlie Sheen).
Generally I am a huge fan of Clint Eastwood's work, but The Rookie was below par as Eastwood plays Dirty Harry in all but name( surely he could have thought of something more original) and the whole film is threadbare , with the plot, where Raul Julia plays the leader of a gang stealing expensive cars and who has murderous tendencies and has murdered Eastwood's partner, isn't too hot.
It's just The Rookie is flat, Braga and Julia are totally wooden( couldn't they hire some real Germans), Eastwood seems bored and his sub Dirty Harry wisecracks don't work in this, and Charlie Sheen as a rich boy who joins the police isn't very convincing..
The Rookie is set in Los Angeles where auto theft squad cop Nick Pulovski (Clint Eastwood) & his partner Powell (Hal Williams) are on the trail of the biggest car thief in the state, a German guy named Strom (Raul Julia).
The acting is a mixed bag, Eastwood is alright but he's been playing this cop on the edge role for decades, Sheen is a touch bland but does look & feel like a fresh faced rookie while Raul Julia is simply terrible!
Plot: Clint Eastwood plays a veteran detective who gets stuck with a rookie cop (Charlie Sheen) to chase down a German crook (Raul Julia.) This will probably go down as one of my favorite Clint Eastwood films considering I'm one of those people that likes Eastwood but don't love him as much as some people.
Both Eastwood and Sheen have really good chemistry with each other which is what a buddy film needs to make it work along with an engaging story.The rest of the supporting cast also does a good job especially Raul Julia(may he rest in peace) and Sonia Braga who brought enough menace to their roles that made them convincing villains.The action is very well done when it comes with some exciting stunt sequences that rival some movies today.
The only 2 problems that I have are the pacing being a little slow and of course the famous rape scene where Sonia Braga take advantage of Clint Eastwood although they don't linger on it too much unlike other films which helped.The Rookie is a fun buddy cop film with 2 really good performances by the leads, good villains, fun action, and a good story.
Disappointed that legend Eastwood and recent box office star Charlie Sheen turned out a pretty standard cop movie, critics were not kind to The Rookie.