Baseball has long been called our national pastime.Here in 2005, we might add trendier pursuits like get-rich-quick schemes, suing your neighbor, and grasping for 15 minutes of fame. Mike Wranovics' "Up for Grabs," a twisting and turning docu-comedy about two grown men fighting over a million-dollar baseball, introduces the new American dream. Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Film Festival, "Up for Grabs" is a sly indictment of our present-day obsession with
fame, fortune, and Barry Bonds. (C) -- Crooked Hook Productions
It's a terrific story -- part mystery, part farce, part legal nail-biter -- with a last-minute reversal so bitterly ironic it could have been scripted by Billy Wilder.
The film keeps a straight face, letting the story's hilarious triviality speak for itself, and neither of the litigants comes off that well, though Wranovics cleverly changes our opinions of both as the complicated tale goes on.
A wry and humorous documentary with fascinating (if not entirely likable) characters and a subtle moral about what happens when money makes grown-ups act like children.
A wonderful story about greed. Initially I took sides with Popov in his pursuit to claim rights to the ball. As the movie progressed my support for his claim weakened. Popov's greed, lack of sincerity and ultimately the legal grey area of property possession kept the audience from supporting his pursuit. At one point
in the film Barry Bonds gives his take and offers a wise suggestion. Popov should have listened to Bonds.
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