Mr. Baseball

Rating:
Summary: Mr. Baseball? More Like Mr. Boring!
Review: Mr. Baseball starring Tom Selleck is one of the most boring and bland films I've ever had the displeasure of watching. The story is basically about an older baseball player (Selleck) who is getting stale and unfit to play for his American Baseball team. Because of this, his team trades him over seas to a Japanese baseball team. Most of the humor from this often humorless flick, comes from Selleck's goofiness in trying to understand and comprehend Japanese traditions and ways of life. Somewhere in there, they toss in a love story between Selleck and a young Japanese woman. I couldn't really recall because I was falling asleep due to boredom. As with most baseball movies of this kind, it follows a very simple formula of slapstick comedy and ridiculous acting. I doubt I could stand another sitting of this movie and it has little to no replay value whatsoever. Booooo!

Rating:
Summary: Fun
Review: This is a fun, off-beat movie about a gaijin (foreign) baseball 'has-been' hired to play for the Chunichi Dragons when no one wants to sign him in the US. The hot-dogging American begrudgingly flies to Japan and is almost instantly overwhelmed by a completely different culture which does not value hot dogs (at least not the human kind). Cultures clash as he slowly realizes that baseball is a team sport!

This is a thoroughly enjoyable movie, not only from the perspective of baseball, but from the culture-shock element. Of course the Japanese are somewhat stereotypical, as is Selleck's American superstar, but that's why this is a movie and not a documentary.
Interestingly, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation has quite a few similar elements in it, including the insomnia and late-night television watching, as well as the bewildering experience of trying to understand Japanese ads! Selleck, like Murray, is made to perform in an ad, although Murray's "rat pack" imitation is far more suave than Selleck dressed as a sumo wrestler.

A fun watch!

Rating:
Summary: mr baseball
Review: This movie is very interesting.Of course the culture or tradition of Japan is exaggerated and described as very stereotypical (it is all the more fun to us), but it more clearly tell the Japanese many faults we have to change.That is we Japanese have to be independent, or had better have a fun in playing.And not only the Japanese but also the American will learn the good aside of the way of opposide country, accepting or uniting.Whether you are Japanese or American, this movie median between us will case good effect to you.You'll laugh and learn because there are extreme different cultures.

Rating:
Summary: from Aizu high school
Review: This movie is very interesting.Of course the culture or tradition of Japan is exaggerated and described as very
stereotypical (it is all the more fun to us), but it more clearly tell the Japanese many faults we have to change.That is we Japanese have to be independent, or had better have a fun in playing.And not only the Japanese but also the American will learn the good aside of the way of opposide country, accepting or uniting.Whether you are Japanese or American, this movie median between us will cause good effect to you.You'll laugh and learn because there are extreme different cultures.

Rating:
Summary: Mr. Baseball...Mr Lameball!!
Review: Tom Selleck modestly claims that he has no big screen presence and proves it again in this film. MR BASEBALL is not only a bad baseball movie, its a bad movie all together. When this film was finally released on video after it's VERY SHORT theatrical release in 1992, at the video store that I frequented, it ended up on the shelf that stated "RENT FOR FREE - IF YOU DON'T LIKE THIS VIDEO, YOU DON'T PAY THE RENTAL FEES!" The story of an aging baseball veteran going to finish off his career playing in the Japanese big leagues should have been a great movie. However, again, as in all movies involving asians, the Japanese are given the cartoony stereotypical treatment along with the lame love story involving the attractive asian girl (And surprise!! She happens to be the Japanese Manager's daughter!) with the foriegn caucasian newcomer. Why do they always do that? There is an underlining message of the differences of Japanese and American baseball. In Japanese baseball, the whole team is more important than the individual accolades. Well, there was too much of it in this film (I learned more about that in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, than in this movie). Then, also trying to teach Selleck's character (Jack Elliot) about respect to everything Japanese wore thin as the movie progressed. At the same time he's teaching the team about being Americanized and that was lame also. The film is very boring, the direction and cinematography did not do Japan justice, the characters are predictable, the love story is a death scene short of the film SAYONARA, and the baseball action is generic and not very exciting. Overall, not a very good tribute to the American Pastime, but more of an insult to the Japanese pastime. If you want to learn more about Japanese baseball, read YOU GOTTA HAVE WA by Robert Whiting. It's more entertaining than this drivel. And anyway...Bob Uecker is the real Mr. Baseball. Note:Look for Dennis Haysbert as Max "Hammer" Dubois in the film. He played the hilarious Pedro Cerrano(the voodoo practicing baseball player) in the superior baseball comedy film MAJOR LEAGUE.

Rating:
Summary: Worlds collide, no one leaves unchanged
Review: Tom Selleck plays Jack Elliot in this funny and insightful comedy about an American baseball player 'demoted' to the Japanese league. It has all the cultural in-jokes that you'd expect including "Taking a bath before washing", "Wearing shoes indoors", and "You say one thing, the translator will make it sound nice".

But at the heart of the movie, the story is all about accepting foreign culture. Jack butts heads with Japanese culture. He is loose, relaxed, and immature. The Japanese are tight, uptight, and very serious. As long as everyone sees him as an outsider, they will respect him in public but doubt him in private, and he will never truly fit in.

After a series of humiliating losses, he finally reaches the point where he realizes that his strength and skill are not enough to defeat his problems and he turns to the coach and Japanese culture to help him overcome his ego. The coach admonishes him to stop feeding off of his past successes lest he eat all those successes away, look only to the future in other words. He does so and the rest of the movie shows Elliot becoming stronger in the stadium and spiritual world. By embracing the Japanese Way, he becomes a better person.

However, the flip side to this movie is that the Japanese Way has led to a failing baseball team. Despite the coach's best efforts to harangue the players into playing well, they are too gunshy to play their best. It isn't until the coach accepts that the softer method of coaching based on encouraging the players and fostering a team spirit that the team's slump ends. Jack Elliot made his own mark on the team by bringing trademark American-style attitude to the team.

In the end the message is clear. At the micro-level, the Japanese style of living with its emphasis on detail, cooperation, and austerity is beneficial, and the American style emphasizing laziness, freedom, and individuality is detrimental. At the macro-level, though, the message is quite the opposite. Success is brought by each individual's freedom to make mistakes, being relaxed, and not having an oppressive culture looming above.

It's a fun movie with a lot of insight into the Japanese culture as well as insight into American culture. Well worth renting at least once.

Rating:
Summary: Worlds collide, no one leaves unchanged
Review: Tom Selleck plays Jack Elliot in this funny and insightful comedy about an American baseball player 'demoted' to the Japanese league. It has all the cultural in-jokes that you'd expect including "Taking a bath before washing", "Wearing shoes indoors", and "You say one thing, the translator will make it sound nice".

But at the heart of the movie, the story is all about accepting foreign culture. Jack butts heads with Japanese culture. He is loose, relaxed, and immature. The Japanese are tight, uptight, and very serious. As long as everyone sees him as an outsider, they will respect him in public but doubt him in private, and he will never truly fit in.

After a series of humiliating losses, he finally reaches the point where he realizes that his strength and skill are not enough to defeat his problems and he turns to the coach and Japanese culture to help him overcome his ego. The coach admonishes him to stop feeding off of his past successes lest he eat all those successes away, look only to the future in other words. He does so and the rest of the movie shows Elliot becoming stronger in the stadium and spiritual world. By embracing the Japanese Way, he becomes a better person.

However, the flip side to this movie is that the Japanese Way has led to a failing baseball team. Despite the coach's best efforts to harangue the players into playing well, they are too gunshy to play their best. It isn't until the coach accepts that the softer method of coaching based on encouraging the players and fostering a team spirit that the team's slump ends. Jack Elliot made his own mark on the team by bringing trademark American-style attitude to the team.

In the end the message is clear. At the micro-level, the Japanese style of living with its emphasis on detail, cooperation, and austerity is beneficial, and the American style emphasizing laziness, freedom, and individuality is detrimental. At the macro-level, though, the message is quite the opposite. Success is brought by each individual's freedom to make mistakes, being relaxed, and not having an oppressive culture looming above.

It's a fun movie with a lot of insight into the Japanese culture as well as insight into American culture. Well worth renting at least once.

Rating:
Summary: TOM SELLECK'S NICE AND HAIRY
Review: Tom Selleck would seem to a good choice to play the big, strapping major-league star who's sent to play baseball in Japan, land of short people. But while Selleck's physique works, his personality does not. The story is supposed to be about an arrogant "jock" who gradually learns the values of teamwork and humility while stuggling in a foreign environment, but Selleck comes across as such a nice guy, (even in the early scenes where he's meant to growl and snarl), that there's no real sense of transformation.

However, the movie doesn't take itself too seriously amd Tom has several chances to take off his shirt and thus display that hairy chest of his. (If there were a Mount Rushmore for hairy chests, Tom's would be right up there along with Sam Elliott's, Clint Walker's, and Burt Reynolds'.)

Rating:
Summary: Not just a baseball flick
Review: You don't have to be a baseball fan to love this movie. The comedic backwash of two completely opposite cultures clashing drives this movie and Selleck and crew work it magnificently without being demeaning to either. It is really a satisfying movie and can be enjoyed by all ages. Remember, you don't have to be baseball fan to love it.