Do you want to see ‘Cobb’?

Cobb (1994)

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All Critics
Top Critics

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.

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.

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Average Rating: 3.2/5
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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

Directed By: Ron Shelton

Written By: Ron Shelton

In Theaters: Dec 2, 1994 Wide

On DVD: Sep 2, 2003

Warner Home Video

Cobb Trailer & Photos

Cast

Tommy Lee Jones
Ty Cobb
Robert Wuhl
Al Stump
Lolita Davidovich
Ramona
Lou Myers
Willie
Stephen Mendillo
Mickey Cochrane
William Utay
Jameson
J. Kenneth Campbell
Prof. Cobb
Rhoda Griffis
Ty's Mother
Allan Malamud
Mud
Ned Bellamy
Ray
Jimmy Buffett
The armless guy
Scott Burkholder
Jimmy
Bill Caplan
Bill
Eloy Casados
Louis Prima
Michael Chieffo
Young Doctor
Reid Cruickshanks
Pie Traynor
Ernie Harwell
Hall of Fame MC
Dana Hill
Wife at Motel
Don Hood
Older Doctor
Jeanne McCarthy
Nurse
Reynaldo Rey
Clive Rosengren
Hall of Fame Director
Bradley Whitford
Process Server
George P. Wilbur
Casino Security Man
Bill Wittman
Newsreel Narrator
Grace Zabriskie
Artie Butler
Harrah's Bartender
George Rafferty
Teammate
Michael H. Moss
Lover
Fred Lewis
Philly Fan
Steven Brown
Husband at Motel

Critic Reviews for Cobb

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

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Richard Schickel

TIME Magazine

Top 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

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Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

It's unclear just how much sympathy we are to extend the unrepentant and bullying title character.

August 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety

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Leonard Klady

Variety

Top Critic

Even allowing for the intentional excesses of such an episode, delicacy is a casualty here.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times

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Janet Maslin

New York Times

Top Critic

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

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Peter Stack

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

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

Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

Top Critic

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

March 16, 2011 Full Review Source: Three Movie Buffs

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Scott Nash

Three Movie Buffs

Massively underrated.

August 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine

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Kim Newman

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

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Film4

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

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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

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Time Out

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

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

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

Chuck O'Leary

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

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Mike Barkacs

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

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Walter Chaw

Film Freak Central

Despite Jones' performance, it's a disappointing biopic

July 11, 2003 Comment