Stream it:
|
Own it:
|
With: Dennis Quaid, Rachel Griffiths, Jay Hernandez, Brian Cox
|
Written by: Mike Rich
|
Directed by: John Lee Hancock
|
MPAA Rating: G
|
Running Time: 128
|
|
Date: 03/26/2002
|
|
|
|
Grand Slam
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
One of my all-time favorite baseball movie is The Rookie, starring Dennis Quaid in a perfect, deeply-felt performance as Jim Morris, a real-life pitcher with a hurricane fastball who belatedly made his way to the big leagues while in his mid-30s, playing just a few games for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1999 and 2000. Though the movie has all the warning signs of sappy Disney mush, like a 'G' rating, and a 128-minute running time, the movie delicately avoids pitfalls and presents a strikingly lean and touching baseball story. Rachel Griffiths plays Jim's wife, and Brian Cox plays his father. Morris himself has a cameo as an umpire. Director Hancock had written the screenplays for Clint Eastwood's films A Perfect World and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
|
