Rating: Summary: a great baseball movie Review: If somebody asked me about great baseball movies, this movie would be the first one that I would mention. Anybody could watch this movie. Both baseball fans and non baseball fans would equally enjoy it! I was not a baseball fan when I saw it on the 15th birthday in 1992. However, the movie made me laugh so hard! Jon Lovitz, Tom Hanks, the little boy, and everyone else in the cast were so funny. They had me rooting for the Rockford Peaches!
Rating: Summary: Enjoyable Review: It's funny that this movie is sexist, because the whole point of it is that women got to do a really big thing. But, aside from the ball players in the movie, all the women are portrayed as mockable characters. It's very annoying. But, the plot is entertaining, and the ballplayers are great characters. I especially liked Mae (Madonna's character--she's hilarious!) and Kit. As far as I know, this is an accurate account of what happened when the men were off at WWII and people formed all-women baseball teams--but the women were required to be "ladies," too, which meant playing in short skirts, taking etiquitte classes, and wearing make up. I liked this movie. It's funny and the ballplayers are entertaining. Even for people who don't have a clue about the rules of the game (like me), it's enjoyable. Watch it; but for all you feminists--beware that it's not an entirely feminist movie.
Rating: Summary: Worth a look Review: This movie is famous for Tom Hank's character Jimmy Dugan(Rockford Peaches coach) saying "There's no crying in baseball." And that would be right if we weren't talking about the women's baseball league. I thought that this movie truly was interesting from a historical perpective on the women's game and also a movie that made you both laugh and cry. It was an amazing story of struggle, love, sorrow, and joy. I would recommend this movie to those who want to laugh and cry and basically if you are curious about what women in baseball was all about. My hats off to the real athletes for paving the way for my generation and what a great tribute.
Rating: Summary: One of the best movies I've ever seen Review: A League of their Own was one of the best movies I've ever had the pleasure to see. I had seen it years ago and recently bought my own copy of it. This movie is one of the best that Penny Marshall has ever directed. The casting was superb. Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell were perfect as street-wise, but loveable May and Doris! Geena Davis did a wonderful job playing Dottie Henson, who had a genuine love for the game, yet had responsibilities and priorities that were more important to her. Lori Petty was great as Kit, Dottie's little sister who fought so hard to get out from under her sister's shadow. Marla Hooch, what a great character!! Evelyn and her little boy Stillwell "Angel" will keep you in smiling all the time you want to bean him with a baseball bat. Ellen Sue, Helen, Betty Spaghetti, I feel like I know them all!! And Tom Hanks plays one of his best roles ever, as Jimmy Duggan, an ex-ball player turned coach. Not too thrilled with the job of coaching "girls", he accepts the job and finally comes to respect them as a team and as baseball players. I think one of the best parts of the movies is when the ball players reunite after 40 years and the casting of the older woman to play the parts of the aging ball players is a masterpiece. It is remarkable how these older "look-alikes" were all brought into this movie. This is a movie worth watching, owning and recommending. Very few come along in a lifetime that provide so much good, positive entertainment, but this movie has it all. I recommend it highly!
Rating: Summary: Belle Durham....Another idealization of our national pastime Review: The little known AAGPBL is given it's due (like the Negro Leagues) in a time where activities such as Professional Baseball belonged in the arena of White Males.The movie is shown as a Hollywood glamor style, glorification of our national pastime, such as "the Natural" and "Field of Dreams". The weight of the movie is dependent on strength of it's characters and those actors who play them, and it is mostly successful. Penny Marshall gets great performances from Tom Hanks, Rosie O'Donnell, Maddonna, David Straithern and the rest of the team. However, Geena Davis gives a detached performance and this is not good for the main protagonist. You get the feeling that her character Dottie loves baseball, but doesn't really want to be there. Her sister, Kit, played by Lori Petty is annoying, but as the role was written, Petty does a good job. The story on the other hand is pure standard soap opera cheese. This puts the challenge on Penny Marshall's shoulders. While she does not shy away from the sappy cheese, but she keeps the movie from becoming derivative. She gives us interesting characters, whether it's first billed "All the Way" Mae (Madonna) or secondary characters like Betty "Spaghetti", played by Marshall's daughter, Tracy Reiner. And the ending, while a little bittersweet, and totally coated in sugar, never feels contrived. I have a feeling, when I reach their age, I will look at photo's of my glorified youth with the same reverence as these ladies. I especially liked the baseball game at the end. A League of their own is a movie the whole family can watch (even though it has some questionable language) and feel good that America so quickly accepted women as players in a sport that achieves religion with many people. Rating: B+ Note: Get the widescreen version, the pan and scan moves around too much.
Rating: Summary: Modern Day Classic Review: I just finished watching this film for the umpteenth time and it occured to me how special this film is. Not only did Penny Marshall give us a fun heartfelt sports film, she gave us one of the best movies in the last few decades. It is a shame that most people just regard it as a feel good sports movie, and not one of the best pictures in recent history. Not a single acadamy award nod was given to this film, which is a great shame for such a wonderful picture. The casting was dead on from Geena Davis to Madonna, everyone made their part believable, but it is without a doubt that Tom Hanks gave the movie it's brilliance. He is undoubtedly one of the silver screens greatest actors and can portray any part given to him. The story is based on the real events of a woman's baseball league during WWII. Though not a documentary, it is very realistic and believable. You get plenty of laughs and cheers, as well as a few tears in this modern day classic. Definatley one of the 50 best films ever made.
Rating: Summary: i named my car after a character. yes, it's true. Review: i am a woman from a family with a deep, deep love for the game of baseball. baseball is, in many ways, my patriotism and my religion; it is, to me, how god blessed america. so now you think i'm a nut. that's okay; i'm fairly resigned to the idea that only cooperstown and w.p. kinsella may really understand what i mean. but i wanted to give a frame of reference for why i love this movie so much. this movie was a realization of many childhood dreams. when i was 11, i could sock that ball. and it was the best feeling in the world, next to the feel of wet grass in your nose after making a diving outfield catch. but like many girls, baseball is a dream deferred for me. i was relegated to softball, a great game in its own right, but not quite it. so seeing women play baseball, and bringing to it all the magical realism that i love about the game, gave me a good helping of vicarious pleasure. the film's story also takes place during a particularly nostalgic time in american (and baseball) history; when many of the most legendary players of modern times were sent away to fight in the war. the intersection of history and folklore really won me over here; it's sweet without rotting your teeth. if you share a deep, abiding love of baseball, family, and magic, this movie will hit you in the sweetest part of the bat.
Rating: Summary: The greatest movie Review: I love this movie, it is the best. I love Rosie O'Donnell. This movie is great, its a wonderful movie about womens baseball. It has a really good story and its funny and depressing. This movie makes you realize you should love your loved ones no matter what, and treat people equally. Its great, and its my favorite movie. Tom Hanks, Madonna, Lori Petty, Geena Davis, and Rosie O'Donnell all make this film a really great movie. Excellant acting!
Rating: Summary: Simply Brilliant! One of the Decades Best! Review: When I heard that they were releasing a comedy about the wemon's baseball league in the 1940's I instantly wanted to see it. Along with most of my family I went to the drive-in (a normal family outing) and watched this movie enjoying every brillant moment. The story is about two sisters, Dottie & Kit Hinsen (Geena Davis & Lori Petty) who play softball in a league for their small Oregen town. When a baseball scout (John Lovitz) spots Dottie in a softball game he decides to pick her to go to the tryouts. When Dottie refuses & Kit explodes at the offer he makes a deal if Dottie goes Kit can too. After begging her sister to go the two get on the train to go to Chicago. Both girls are picked for the Rockford Peaches who's manager is a former home run king who's career spireled downward because of drinking. Some of the sister's teammates include Doris (Rosie O'Donnell), Mae (Madonna) called All the Way Mae by her teammates, a former Miss Georgia, & Betty (called Betty Spaghetti). The final scene has had some arguing over the past few years but you have to find out what happened for yourself. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was because it's on TV so annoyingly much.
Rating: Summary: See it before you forget! Review: There's a movie I'd strongly suggest you see before you forget, because it'll change your way of thinking: it's called A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN. It's 1943, and the baseball stars are fighting in the war, causing the whole US to believe that baseball has to be closed down for the duration of the war, and so it's about to unless Ira Lowenstein, the wiz kid at Harvey Chocolates, can find a way to save it. In Oregon, married and superb baseball player Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) and Dottie's spunky but failing baseball playerkid sister Kit (Lori Petty) are playing for the dairy girls' team, unbeknowst to what is coming their way. Baseball scout Mr. Capadino (Jon Lovitz) is watching a game, noticing how good Dottie is... and how poor Kit is at batting. What follows is the road to the A.A.G.B.L (All American Girls Baseball League), where they're about to make their dreams come true. All of this is being reflected on by older Dottie, who's about to go to the fiftieth anniversary of the A.A.G.B.L and is nervous out of her mind. She hasn't seen Kit for years now, and nobody's about to remember her. Well, she's wrong. A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN is a movie to triumph. See it.
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