Hardball2001
Hardball (2001)
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Movie Info
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Cast
as Conor O'Neill
as Elizabeth Wilkes
as Ticky Tobin
as Jamal
as Sterling
as Clarence
as Kofi Evans
as Raymond `Ray Ray' Bennet
as Jarius G-Baby Evans
as Andre Ray Peetes
as Jefferson Albert Tibbs
as Miles Pennfield II
as Matt Hyland
as Ray-Ray
as Jimmy Fleming
as Duffy
as Fink
as Pearla Evans
as Lenora Tibbs
as Darryl Mackey
as Himself
as Umpire
as Umpire
as Waatas Coach
as Bartender
as Ellen
as Pizza Guy
as Other Pizza Guy
as Ed
as Barber's Son
as Gino
as Straight-Laced Kid
as Priest
as Barfly
as Gang Member
as Sterling
as Aaron
as Alex
as Tough Kid
as Tough Kid
News & Interviews for Hardball
Critic Reviews for Hardball
All Critics (100) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (61) | DVD (8)
A smarmy proposition passing itself off as family fun in the style of The Bad News Bears.
Works where it counts, on the emotional level.
Does surprisingly few lurches as it walks the tightrope between urban realism ... and family entertainment.
There's no cork inside Hardball, but there's more than enough corn.
There's nothing wrong with a good cry, or a good cliche, and Hardball offers both by the barrel.
Just dreadful.
Audience Reviews for Hardball
It's an incredibly dumb urban sports movie that tries to cover racism and male comradery. Keanu Reeves plays a gambling low life who gets stuck coaching kids, so it's nothing you haven't seen before. I can tell that it wasn't supposed to be good, but that doesn't make it okay.
Super Reviewer
This hard-edged little dream deserves plenty of credit for avoiding the light comedy and fairy-tale conclusions by which underdog sports sagas usually are known, and would deserve an even higher rating were it not for Keanu Reeves's wooden (as usual) performance in the lead role. Really fantastic and emotional home run story.
Super Reviewer
It took me a week to come out with a rating on this one, and I still can't decide whether it's a pretty good movie with some really bad parts, or a bad movie with a few really good parts. The screenplay seems decent, but the dialogue is rough; Keanu Reeves is mostly bad, Diane Lane is mostly good. The sports scenes are more cliched and contrived than in any sports movie in recent memory - who makes up bristol board signs and cheers THAT much for little league baseball?? - but the "ghetto scenes" got away from the cliches that one usually sees in films with that subject matter and are surprisingly raw. All in all, the contrast the film draws between the hopelessness of day-to-day life in this particular community and the magic of baseball is very striking, and almost too stark for the film to hang together. The potential in this film is what keeps you watching, and though its execution is questionable, you don't really lose faith in the story, and I think most people will stick it out rather than turn it off. Most people.
Super Reviewer
Hardball Quotes
| Ray-Ray: | Coach Conor? You're not really trying to get Ms. Wilkes, are you? |
| Conor O'Neill: | No. |
| Ray-Ray: | Good. 'Cause I already tried and she ain't havin' it. |
| G-Baby: | Yeah, me too. |
| G-Baby: | All right, let me break it down to you right quick. |