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Cobb (1994)

tomatometer

66

Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 35
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 12

Tommy Lee Jones's searing performance helps to elevate Cobb above your typical sports biopic; he's so effective, in fact, that some may find the film unpleasant.

50

Average Rating: 5.2/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 5

Tommy Lee Jones's searing performance helps to elevate Cobb above your typical sports biopic; he's so effective, in fact, that some may find the film unpleasant.

audience

56

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 5,733

My Rating

Movie Info

What does a biographer do when the truth about his subject is far less pleasant than the legend? That is the moral dilemma at the heart of Cobb, which explores the lives of both baseball's premier hitter, Ty Cobb (Tommy Lee Jones), and the sportswriter assigned to set his story down, Al Stump (Robert Wuhl). Stump arrives at the Tahoe home of the dying Cobb to write the official life story of the first man inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame. He finds a drunken, misanthropic, bitter racist

R, 2 hr. 8 min.

Drama

Ron Shelton

Sep 2, 2003

Warner Home Video

Cast

All Critics (35) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (23) | Rotten (12) | DVD (3)

This is a messy movie, sometimes repetitive, sometimes too compressed and allusive. But that's like saying Ty Cobb was not a very good sport -- irrelevant in comparison to the horrific fascination of his story.

March 21, 2011 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's such a potent and courageous wreck of a movie that it's worth more than most 'successes.'

August 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
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It's unclear just how much sympathy we are to extend the unrepentant and bullying title character.

August 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
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Even allowing for the intentional excesses of such an episode, delicacy is a casualty here.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
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This histrionic portrait of the most celebrated cur in sports history comes across like a fly ball that thuds on the ground.

June 18, 2002 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
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Shelton's strong, stinging film -- one of the year's best -- wants to get at something ingrained in the American character: the irrational desire to make saints of sports heroes.

May 12, 2001 Comment
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie never equals the performance, but still fascinating to watch.

March 16, 2011 Full Review Source: Three Movie Buffs | Comment
Three Movie Buffs

Massively underrated.

August 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Director Shelton is a master at locker room drama, and helped by a towering performance of snarling egomania and drug-fuelled bitterness from Jones, he tackles the dichotomies of [Cobb] with engaging enthusiasm.

August 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Tommy Lee Jones is superb in the title role, but writer-director Ron Shelton unwisely chose to structure the film as a two-character piece, thus placing undue attention on the lackluster character of Cobb's biographer, Al Stump.

August 5, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Shelton's film is about the nature of truth and popular myth, about the single-minded pursuit of glory, and the horrors within. It's also very funny.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Tommy Lee Jones gives an uncompromisingly volcanic performance as the psychotic bigot, one of baseball greatest players, known for his aggressive conduct, racism, and sexism.

June 2, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Completely enthralling from first frame to last, Cobb is a fascinating, uncompromising portrait of a rage-filled, contradictory man fighting his own private war with the world.

January 26, 2006 Comment
Fantastica Daily

If you're looking for a sugary-sweet baseball hero story, this ain't it; but it is an entertaining story about a great ex-player who could make Albert Belle look like Mother Theresa.

July 5, 2005 Full Review Source: Bullz-Eye.com | Comment
Bullz-Eye.com

Completely uncompromising in a way that films, especially sports films, just aren't.

September 29, 2003 Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | Comment
Film Freak Central

Despite Jones' performance, it's a disappointing biopic

July 11, 2003 Comment
Lawrence Journal-World
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Cobb

Haven't seen it in a while, but I remember being quite taken with it.

March 6, 2009
FilmFanatik
Tim Salmons

Super Reviewer

I thought Shelton hit a Grand Slam at first, only to realize it was in a 45-12 blow out! This movie is okay, yet some will loath it at it's core.

September 23, 2009
EbertsLittleApprentice

Super Reviewer

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