There was a….bit of a theme to this month’s movie watching, at least for the ones I watched solo. See if you can guess what it is. I bet you can!

The Scout, 1994. Albert Brooks plays a scout who, after a bad call, is sent to the baseball version of Siberia — rural Mexico – to ‘search’ for talented baseball players.   He discovers an extraordinary young man played by Brendan Fraser, who  like the Babe and Shohei Ohtani is a ‘double threat’,  a man  superbly talented in both pitching and hitting.   Unfortunately for him,  Fraser’s character has certain….ehm, eccentricities. Hilarity ensues.  Also, there’s Tony Bennett.  

Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot!, 1967. Spaghetti western.  I…don’t know what to tell you. Gang rolls into a town, everyone dies. 

Benched,  2011.  John McGinley, aka Dr. Cox,  is a little league baseball coach used to Winning – but then not only does his son & star pitcher leave the time to perform in the school play, but he’s saddled with one of those irritatingly modern and therapeutic parents as his assistant.  This is a story of friendship forged amid pain and trial with an additional fathers-and-sons story,  set amid a season of kids’ baseball. 

Hardball, 2001.   Keaneau Reeves owes five figures to two sets of angry bat-wielding bookies,    and out of desperation takes a gig as a little league coach in the projects.   The result is The Mighty Ducks,  if it involved the constant threat of death, lots of profanity, and  a hip-hop soundtrack.  Supposedly based on a true story, and quite enjoyable until one of the kids was shot.  I stumbled on this one while watching some MLB players analyze various baseball movies.

Reservoir Dogs, 1992.  A few men try to rob a diamond store. Things do not go well. Lots of Steve Buschemi &  Chris Penn, plus some Harvey Keitel.

Major League, 1989.  A woman running the business end of the Cleveland Indians wants to move to team to Miami because she doesn’t like bad weather and dead factories (oh, wait, this is pre-NAFTA…) , so she’s  fixing things to make the team fall into dead last so attendance will fall and she can use the Indians’ contract with the city to skedaddle.  James’ Gammon’s mustache and deep voice has other ideas. So does Charlie “Wild Thing” Sheen.

The Natural, 1984. Robert Redford is a promising young ballplayer on his way to get signed up by the Cubs, but he picks up the wrong woman at a train station and get shot. Fifteen years later, the itch to play ball is still there, and he signs on with the ailing New York Knights, only to be dismissed by manager Wilfred Brimley who is thinking about quitting ball and taking to the airwaves to talk to Americans about diabeetus. He finally gets his shot to prove what he’s capable of, though, and the movie has a smashing good ending. (Not as ‘smashing an ending’ as Bump Bailey, though. Heehee.) 

Take Me Out to the Ballgame, 1949.  A young Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly are entertainers and ballplayers.  This is Frankie in his first bloom – he hasn’t yet lost his voice (‘52), and hasn’t had his revival courtesy  of femme fatale Ava Gardener recommending him to play Maggio in From Here to Eternity (‘53).  Entertaining enough, especially as Frankie and Gene have to deal with their new ballclub owner being not only a dame,  but a distractingly attractive one who knows the game as good as they do.  Based on costumes, it’s meant to be set decades earlier, in the opening decade of the 20th century. 

Amy, 2021. Documentary about Amy Winehouse’s life and death.   Rough going for an Amy Winehouse fan. I heard her first in 2005 or 2006 and became an insta-fan, and I missed a lot of her downfall in college, until that lurching moment when the news hit that she was dead.   Film goes into the role her parasitical husband played in her downfall.

Mad Max Fury Road, 2015. Tom Hardy is someone who is captured by The Guy and all his pasty bald minions. The Guy is sending out a big truck to do something, but surprise! A Fierce Strong Female (Charlize Theron) is using the big truck to spirit out a bunch of The Guy’s sex slaves,  and in the resulting fight Tom Hardy joins up with Charlize and her damsels in distress. Together they engage in an  Epic Car Chase across a barren wasteland trying to find some oasis, but are disappointed to discover it’s a poisoned swamp.  Tom Hardy and Charlize agree that they need to go back to The Guy’s hideout because he has water and such,  so there’s another Epic Car Chase in which they kill The Guy and arrive back at The Guy’s hideout and show The Guy’s people his head, and the people are like “Oh! You killed The Guy! You are now The Guy!”.  I think maybe I should have seen the movies before this one.

Bad News Bears, 2005.  Found this while looking for a way to stream the original, and since I had free access to it via my last day of Paramount, I figured: why not.  It’s been too long since I’ve seen the original to compare them, but I enjoyed Thornton’s version of the character enormously. The kid playing Amanda was also solid, though when I searched for her (Sammi Kane Kraft)  to see what else she’d been in, I was sorry to see she was killed in an auto accident.  I enjoyed the scene of a ‘drunk’ Billy Bob Thornton repeatedly hitting kids with fastballs entirely too much.  I think the remake had more sexual humor than the original, given that I don’t remember Walter Mattheau ogling softball players or warning kids to stay away from crack lest they wake up in a prison married to a guy named Bubba Blue tattooing his initials on their butts. 

My Blue Heaven, 1990.    Steve Martin is a wiseguy in witness protection, who can’t stop running scams – much to the worriment of his FBI handler, Rick Moranis, who really needs to keep him out of prison and out of the morgue so he can testify back in New York.   A comedy with romantic elements.  Pretty sure this was a rewatch for me, but it’s been so long I’d forgotten pretty much everything. 

Michael Collins, 1996. FREEEDOO- wait, wrong movie. Liam Neeson plays Mick Collins, a leader in the Irish republican movement who was killed by members of the same who opposed his backing of a treaty with the Crown. I knew nothing of Collins before this and the movie’s lack of a narrative kept me more or less confused. My buddy and I watching this had no idea who was attacking whom when the tank started shooting people at a soccer match. I read on Wikipedia that the royal forces thought the fellas shooting collaborators had blended into the crowd at the match, but you don’t get that in the movie: it’s just “Oh, hello, you’re doing sports? I’d like to do a repeat of Amritsar now, thanks.” Made me realize that holy wow, do I need to read some Irish history. Perhaps in June I’ll give a week over to it. (April, of course, is England’s, and I have…Plans….for May.)

Bad News Bears, 1976. A rewatch. Still fun. Walter Maltheau is a former ballplayer who has descended into drunkenness and pool cleaning, but accepts some money to coach some kids rejected from the local little league.

Damn Yankees, 1958. An aging real estate agent who dotes on the Nationals and hates the Yankees is tempted by a mysterious figure with supernatural powers, who offers him youth and amazing baseball talent, enough to see that the Nationals beat the damyanks for the pennant race. Oddly enough this is the second baseball musical I’ve seen this month. The big dance scene reminded me a lot of the mambo scene in West Side Story: I imagine that’s Bob Fosse’s influence, since he was the dance choreographer in both. Enjoyed it very much, though there were weak points — especially the musical number about ‘urp’ and the mambo. The best part of the movie was seeing “Boothby” from Star Trek TNG playing Mr. Applegate/Satan. Based on a novella called The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant.

It Happened in Flatbush, 1942. Years after his critical error caused the Brooklyn Dodgers to lose a game and the pennant,  ‘Butterfingers’ McGuire has returned to his team as manager, struggling against residual resentment and distracted by his attractive new boss. It’s very much a movie about the way communities can dote on their teams, especially the intense affection Brooklyn had for the Dodgers before they went chasing silicon dreams in California. In 1957 the Dodgers would leave Brooklyn for silicon pastures in Los Angeles, in part thanks to Robert Moses being terrible.

The Rookie. 2002. Dennis Quaid is a science teacher who once dreamt of playing baseball. After observing him in action, the high school team he coaches challenges him to try again — if they win the pennant. Source of one of my favorite quotes for this month: ” Do you know what we get to do today, Brooks? We get to play baseball.”

Mickey, 2004. A lawyer with tax  problems goes on the lam with his son to escape the goonie-boys, using his and his son’s new identities to give his son another year in the little leagues –  despite him now being technically too old.  Unfortunately, his son’s stellar performance on an already dominant team takes the team to the Little League World Championship, drawing the attention of the aforementioned goonie boys.   Screenplay is by John Grisham, who has a cameo.

Syk pike  |  Sick of Myself, 2023.   A disturbing film about a young woman (Signe) who falls into a deep well of narcissism: her need for attention is such that she orders anxiety pills off the black market which she knows will make her break out into a skin rash if she takes too many of them — so naturally, she eats them like skittles. There are papers waiting to be written on her transformation throughout the movie, as she becomes increasingly disfigured  by the pills’ side effects:   the Gollumization of Smegol is the most apt comparison, I think. (One could also make an allusion to Dorian Gray, but Signe’s inner and outer ugliness mirror one another.)  The scenes of her taking photos of her disfigured self to share on social media,  her toxic delight  in any attention is profoundly unsettling, though it becomes darkly comic at times, as when she and her partner are having sex: his “dirty talk” is telling her how he’s visiting her in the hospital, and if she dies he’ll make sure her dad and her ex-friend Anine can’t come because they didn’t come see her in the hospital, that sort of thing.  

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1953.    Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell are two friends with different approaches to relationships (Marilyn is after money, Jane after bodies).   Before the boat ride is over, they’ve both sang a lot of songs and gotten married.   My first Marilyn Monroe movie, I think. 

Jesus Christ Superstar, 1973.  Some group of young people travel into the desert and stage an elaborate recreation of Holy Week,  with added rock opera elements. It had its moments, but is incomplete: it ends on Good Friday, with none of the joy and wonder of Sunday. 

The Sandlot, 1993.   The best movie about baseball,  boyhood, and summers. Period. 

Taxi Driver, 1976.   A mentally disturbed and socially awkward veteran who is getting by driving a taxi becomes infatuated with Cybil Shephard, a political campaigner: after disgusts her taking her to a dirty movie (he’s socially oblivious), he hatches a plan to assassinate the man she’s campaigning for, but then encounters a child prostitute (played by Jodie Foster) who he decides to rescue.   Fascinating and disturbing.

Little Big League,   1994.  A kid whose grandfather owns the Minnesota Twins inherits the ball club after grandfather goes on to extra innings in the big ballpark in the sky, and promptly appoints himself manager. He’s an absolute freak with statistics and strategy, but is soon overwhelmed by the ways the job warps his social life, school responsibilities, etc. Surprisingly good.

Chinatown, 1972. Jack Nicholson is a private eye who is asked to follow a politician who may be cheating on his wife, but realizes sharpish that he’s being used by ne’er do-wells who view the politician as an obstacle.   Darker ending. I don’t think I’ve ever disliked any film Jack Nicholson was in.

Trouble with the Curve, 2012. Clint Eastwood is an aging scout whose declining eyesight threatens his ability to work, but his daughter Amy Adams joins him on a scouting trip at the request of John Goodman and they stumble on a major find. Amy Adams is ocassionally distracted by Justine Timberlake playing baseball trivia with her. Enjoyed the actors quite well, and the story was…ok. The ending was very tropey/stereotypical.

MASH, 1970. The original movie. I’ve seen scenes of the show (my grandparents played reruns almost constantly when I was growing up) so I knew all of the characters. Development seemed a bit different — Hawkeye was more of an ass, Hot Lips lost her mettle, etc. Enjoyable enough despite the inexplicable football scene. They’re in the middle of a war and can source uniforms and field posts?!

Field of Dreams, 1989.   “Hey, dad, wanna have a catch?”  “…..”I’d like that.”