Rating: 
Summary: The Natural is supernatural fantasy.
Review: The Natural is one of the best examples of missed opportunities you are ever likely to see. It pits a baseball hero against all odds and nearly keeps you in suspense up until the ridiculous final third of the film. The whole plot falls apart when Hobbs becomes Superman, and begins skinning baseballs with his fantasyland bat. The climax, which involves a Grand Slam into the floodlights, is really silly, and would be better served in a Three Stooges comedy. A terrific buildup to a goofy climax. A real disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the greatest baseball movies ever made.
Review: A movie I watch 2-3 times every year right about spring training time to get myself into that baseball mood. It really gives you that feel for baseball and why people dedicate their lives to it- in whatever capacity. The color and camera work captures the feel of baseball in yesteryear. So much of this story is told without detailed dialogue- a sign of a great movie. And so many words of wisdom - trueisms, are uttered so casually that if you miss them, you miss so much of the very essence of this film. Redford is perfect as Roy Hobbs, as is Wilford Brimley as manager of the lowly New York Knights. But DuVall and Kim Bassinger play great supporting roles as well. A great movie with a great ending, that was almost reenacted in the 1988 World Series with Kirk Gibson's magical game winning home run in game one against the Oakland A's. A must watch for even non-baseball fans.
Rating:
Summary: My father's America
Review: Remember James Earl Jones' soliloqy in "Field of Dreams"? "The Natural" is what he was talking about. Every March since this flick came out, my son and I watch this movie. All-Star cast- Redford, Close, Duvall, and especially Wilford Brimley. Go to a ballpark and holler "I should'a been a farmer!", and watch the heads nod. Don't miss this. NEED THIS ON DVD!!!!!! NOW!!!!!!
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Summary: Biblical & More unforgettable lines than "Animal House"
Review: Watch it and: count how many times Iris says, "gotta go."; This movie is like the Bible - lots of little stories and one big one. Instead of spouting scripture like a couple of characters I know, I tend to preach the significance of "Pick me out a winner, Bobby." - "Greenest stuff I ever saw." - "You know. We have met before." - "I like the action." - "Think of all those young boys out there." - "You've got a gift, Roy." and the key to life: Iris: "You know, I think we have two lives." Roy: "Huh?" Iris: "The one we learn with, and the one we live with after that."And a quiz: Who is Sibby Sisti and why is this question in this review?
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Summary: A Classic Baseball Fairy Tale!
Review: This fictional 1920s fairy-tale-style film is about a guy named Roy Hobbs (played by Redford) who is a great baseball hitter... thanks to the bat which he made as a kid from a tree that was hit by lightning. Hobbs' career gets sidelined for about 15 years due to an "encounter" with a mysterious woman. The tragic results cause a dark spot in Hobbs' past. Now older, and considered over-the-hill by the baseball community, the sports press, and his soon-to-be manager (wonderfully played by Wilford Brimley), Hobbs unpacks his "Wonderboy" bat and proceeds to decimate ballfields at seemingly every at-bat! Filmed in a retro 1920s style, this is one of the best baseball films ever made. It's not a true story obviously, but you won't care. Was it his "Wonderboy" bat that made Hobbs a star?? Great music by Randy Newman too (high praise coming from me, since I can't stand Randy Newman). If you are undecided on purchasing this one, definitely rent it and check it out... you'll be coming back to watch this one again and again! A great film to curl up and watch with the kids too.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best baseball movies ever
Review: Watching "The Natural" with my father is one of our most favorite things to do together. When I was a kid, I had the opportunity to go to either "Ghostbusters" or "The Natural," both of which were released in the summer of '84. While most kids would have picked "Ghostbusters" in two seconds, I'm proud to say that my father convinced me to see "The Natural" and it's been one of my most favorite movies ever since. The fictional Roy Hobbs came back in the summer of '98 in the form of home-run icons Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, who, like Redford's character, are heroes on and off the field. "The Natural" is clearly one of the greatest baseball movies of all time. 'Nuff said.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Baseball Film Ever
Review: THE NATURAL, based on the book of the same name by Bernard Malamud, is probably the greatest baseball film ever produced. Why? Because it contains no magical realism, no "tricks," no "gimmicks." It's just a film about second chances and redemption, in this case, redemption through the game of baseball. THE NATURAL is not nearly as dark as the book on which it is based and it's not totally factual in its portrayal of baseball, but who cares? This film gives us something better than facts. It gives us the poetry and lyricism of the game, the magic that made baseball "America's Pastime." THE NATURAL is the story of Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford), a Midwestern boy who dreams of being "the best" in the world of baseball. Roy's dreams aren't just "pie in the sky." This kid has talent, talent like no one's ever seen before. But, as he's making the trip to Chicago to try out, he encounters Harriet Bird (Barbara Hershey), an enigmatic and dangerous woman, and Roy's life changes forever. Sixteen years later, though, Roy Hobbs is given what most people can only long for, a second chance. Yes, this second chance requires a stretch of the viewer's imagination, but not so much that it becomes an impossibility. I know many people didn't care for Robert Redford's portrayal of Roy Hobbs, but I thought he was perfect. He really makes us believe in Roy and in his dreams and in his principles. I can't think of any other actor who could have carried off this role and carried it off so perfectly. Wilfred Brimley is perfect as Pop Fisher, Hobbs' manager. Robert Duvall as Max Mercy is also perfectly cast as is a very young Kim Basinger as Memo Paris, the woman who wants to be Hobbs' nemesis "the second time around." I didn't particularly like Glenn Close as Iris, but that's just personal preference. Close did a very good job with her role but not quite as good as did Basinger and Basinger's was far more demanding. There are few mistakes in the continuity of this film. At one point, while playing for the mythical New York Knights at Wrigley Field, Hobbs' hits homeruns in the bottom of the ninth. What? He wasn't traded to the Cubs, so this has to be an oversight on the part of the production crew since the Knights, as visitors to Wrigley Field, would bat in the top of the inning. There are a few other such oversights, but I don't feel they're worth mentioning. THE NATURAL works, and works so well, I think, because it relies so heavily on mythology, most notably the myth of the Fisher King. It romanticizes the game of baseball. Sure, it's been romanticized before, quite possibly more than any other sport, but THE NATURAL does it so well that we do believe and we do root for Roy Hobbs and all he stands for. Make us believe? This film makes us believe like no other. Levinson has changed Malamud's ending considerably, but I feel that's for the best. Had there been no departures from the book, Hobbs wouldn't have been a sympathetic character and the film would have been too dark and contained too much despair. As it is, we're left with the promise of better things to come and hope for the future, just what baseball gave us in the "good old days." THE NATURAL may be dismissed as "hokum" by some but I think it's an American masterpiece and pure magic.
Rating: 
Summary: This is in my top ten of all time favorites movies.......
Review: and it works on so many levels.There is the sporting theme(baseball the American game, set in an innocent era,) The potential, and innocence of youth. Dreams that never die, as well as an indicment of the press(build em up to knock them down) but at the end of the day it is an enjoyable film. Would have given it 5, but you could say that the end is corny, but in the same way that you are caught up in the emotion, of say a Rocky film, this film leaves you with a warm feeling inside. Try it and see.
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Summary: The Triumphant Return of the American Hero
Review: I have not read Bernard Malamud's novel on which this movie was based; I will admit that I have no desire to do so, as I have heard how it differs from the movie, and I am convinced that this movie is the only correct way the story can be told.
In a big country like the United States of America, we need big heroes, bigger than life, Achilleus-like in scope, touched (or at least favored) by the gods. Fairly or unfairly, since the dawn of the 20th Century, we've tended to select such heroes from the world of sport, traditionally from baseball, a game which, due to such much of it having been played before the advent of mass (or even general) media coverage, seems better given to legendary, even mythic historical representation.
The heroes from baseball's past consistently shade those of its present; the names of Ruth, Williams, Mantle, Mays, (Walter) Johnson are men whose accomplishments seem more and more impossible as time leaves them further behind...and as their successors consistently disgrace their legacy by self-centeredness, greed, and scandal -with the notable exception of Curt Schilling bleeding most "Natural"-like as commented by Bob Costas on the pitcher's mound while pitching the Red Sox to victories in Yankee Stadium and the World Series in the 2004 postseason.
In "The Natural" we have a mythical story of a fictional team, the New York Knights, a moribund franchise seemingly based on any of three traditionally bad teams, the old St. Louis Browns, the Washington Senators, and/or the Philadelphia Phillies. This team has nothing going for it; their star player ("Kill Bill" and ESPN's "Tilt" star Michael Madsen) is a whining prima donna, their manager (Wilfrod Brimley) is believed to be "jinxed", and their owner has just signed a 36-year old (well...a hard-living 36 if Redford's wrinkles are to be believed) with the intent of finishing last in order to bilk the manager out of his ownership share of the team.
But Redford's Roy Hobbs isn't the has-been/never-was he is taken for; he is "The Natural", the one for whom The Game seemingly was created. From an early age he displayed an uncanny knack for the game, a "phee-nom" of a lefthanded pitcher who, upon leaving his childhood sweetheart (Glenn Close) becomes distracted by a mystery woman (Barbara Hershey) and nearly pays with his life, losing "The Way" and floundering in obscurity for the better part of the next two decades.
In America, we not only love our heroes, we love tales of redemption. And it is this aspect of "The Natural" that is typically overlooked. We see our hero losing his focus not only on the way to realizing his dream as a young man, but also once he seemingly has his dreams realized as a supposedly more mature man (perhaps understandably under the influence of Kim Basinger). And, in his reunion with Glenn Close in Chicago, we see him again find the path, "The Way" that restores his harmonious place within the game and the universe.
Look for particularly slimy and conniving performances as well from "A Christmas Story's" Darren McGavin ("Gus") and all-career actor Robert Duvall (sports hack -uh, writer- "Max Mercy"), generally cast against type in roles that really make you dislike them; this is further proof of their genius and it only serves to make the conclusion of the story that much more rewarding.
It doesn't hurt that, aside from the glaring casting faus pas of having Redford and Close play their characters as Midwestern teenagers as well as their mature "present day" selves, Barry Levinson just absolutely shot the daylights out of this movie. Major League Baseball had a marketing campaign a few years back called "Baseball Like It Oughtta Be", but Levinson has trumped them at every turn with the cinematography that is itself every bit as much the star as the actors. The scenes that take place off the field are beautiful enough, but the game sequences are just incredible. And the score adds as much to it as the more memorable efforts of Ennio Morricone do to Sergio Leone's epic Westerns; is that REALLY Randy Newman's work? Every time Hobbs connects with the ball, the grandiose theme and slow-motion photography (very reminiscent of NFL Films' best work for the game of pro football) give the viewer the unescapable impression that there is an element of the supernatural at work with "The Natural". The cyclical rise, fall, birth, death, and rebirth (recovering from a recurrance of his earlier injury in a maternity ward? Get serious!) of Hobbs is irresistible to the baseball fan and the period of the film and the "Old Hollywood" flavor of the storytelling and pacing should be attractive to the non-sports fan as well. Entertainment at the movies just doesn't get any better than this.
Rating: 
Summary: Huge disappointment
Review: I saw previews of this movie and thought it would be great. I love baseball and almost everything Robert Redford has ever done. After a very promising start, the movie just went way over the top and became almost a cartoon. Every time the guy hits a homerun the cover actually flies off the ball or he hits the lights, setting off fireworks or something else larger than life happens. I went into this movie with great expectations and left feeling like they blew it. If they hadn't tried to make everything so much bigger than life the movie could have been a believable story.
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