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Field of Dreams (1989)

tomatometer

88

Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 49
Fresh: 43 | Rotten: 6

Field of Dreams is sentimental, but in the best way; it's a mix of fairy tale, baseball, and family togetherness.

50

Average Rating: 5.4/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 5

Field of Dreams is sentimental, but in the best way; it's a mix of fairy tale, baseball, and family togetherness.

audience

85

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 171,130

My Rating

Movie Info

"If you build it, he will come." That's the ethereal message that inspires Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) to construct a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. At first, "he" seems to be the ghost of disgraced ballplayer Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), who materializes on the ballfield and plays a few games with the awestruck Ray. But as the weeks go by, Ray receives several other messages from a disembodied voice, one of which is "Ease his pain." He realizes that his

Jun 1, 2004

Universal Pictures

Cast

All Critics (49) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (46) | Rotten (6) | DVD (19)

Despite a lovely cameo turn by Burt Lancaster, Field of Dreams is the male weepie at its wussiest.

March 16, 2011 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comments (2)
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The life-equals-baseball masterpiece still packs an unexpected kick.

November 3, 2007 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment
Denver Post
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Field of Dreams sustains a dreamy mood in which the idea of baseball is distilled to its purest essence: a game that stands for unsullied innocence in a cruel, imperfect world.

March 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
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The conception is sentimental, but the storytelling remains assured and effective.

March 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
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It seems much easier to fall into Field of Dreams than to resist its warm, intelligent, timely appeal to our most idealistic selves.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
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[A] gooey fable.

May 13, 2001 Comments (8)
Rolling Stone
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Too idiosyncratic and witty merely to wallow in sentimentality, Field Of Dreams will surely stand as a classic update of what made Old Hollywood so magical. It's still a wonderful life.

March 16, 2011 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Instant baseball classic for whole family.

December 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Widely regarded as a modern populist classic, the film is both a fabulist fable and a celebratory baseball movie that acknowledges scandal within the sport but also the game's transcendent ability to rise above attempts to damage its integrity. [Blu-ray]

June 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | Comment

One of the best films of the 80s

August 17, 2008 Comment
Moviehole

That rare thing, a poignant movie which manages to drain the tear ducts without ever resorting to cheap manipulation or clichéd sentiment.

August 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

A rare choke-up movie for guys and one of 1989's biggest hits.

March 21, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Pure magic.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Quite simply one of the best sports movies ever.

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

Whether you view it as Capracorn or Capraesque would depend on your values, but there's no denying the film evokes the vastness and grandeur of Middle-America

June 29, 2005 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

The best baseball film of all time.

June 18, 2005 Comment

A movie for a thorough tear-duct cleansing - the only film that makes tears stream down the cheeks of this hardened critic, and it gets me at least twice every time.

June 10, 2005 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | Comment
Arizona Daily Star
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Field of Dreams

The premise of someone building a baseball diamond over his corn field because a voice and a vision told him to may sound a bit silly. But it's presented so convincingly and charmingly that you're easily on Ray's side and curious about what his journey through modern US American (sports) myths) has in store for him.

June 14, 2006
ironclad1609

Super Reviewer

"I wish I could tell everyone I've ever loved --- but never told --- just what they've meant to me and to my life" Its a dream of most hearts, difficult to convey in the real, often fouled up, and seldom mentioned even in the dreamtime, the movies. But this film does that, approaches that yearning, addresses it, and

July 18, 2007
moonrivers

Super Reviewer

    1. Shoeless Joe Jackson: If you build it, the will come.
    – Submitted by Jacob D (10 months ago)

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