Today's Movie: A League of Their Own

"There's no crying in baseball!"

Though not my favorite baseball movie, 1992's A League of Their Own is both fun and entertaining. It was also one that I debated placing on my "10 Tom Hanks Movies Everyone Should See" list (which you can check out by clicking here), but ultimately there were just too many movies that I didn't want to leave off.

The film is about a women's baseball league that is started up while many MLB players were fighting in WWII. The two main players the film focuses on are a pair of sisters from Oregon, a catcher named Dottie Hinson (played by Geena Davis) and a pitcher named Kit Keller (played by Lori Petty). They are recruited to the league by scout that is played by Jon Lovitz, and though he's only in the film for a short time, he provides a couple good laughs. They play ball for the 'Rockford Peaches' and are joined by woman from across the country played by Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, Anne Ramsay, Megan Cavanagh, Tracy Reiner, Bitty Schram, and others. Their manager Jimmy Dugan (played by Tom Hanks) is a drunk, ex-MLB player, with a bad knee, and who doesn't initially even think the women should even be considered real baseball players, but he comes around in the end.There's a decent amount of comedy sprinkled throughout, and the chemistry among the cast works well enough that you buy into them being a team.

As the season goes along tension builds between the two sisters because, due to her baseball skill and good looks, Dottie becomes the star of the league and Kit is constantly frustrated being in her shadow. Eventually, Kit is traded and both the 'Peaches' and her new team the 'Racine Belles' meet in the world series. This is Kit's time to shine and in game 7 she scores the winning run, allowing herself to finally feel like more than just Dottie's kid sister.

Overall, though not great, I think it's a pretty good movie.
I give it 3 out of 5.


Have a suggestion for a review?
Leave it in the comments below.

A Look Back At: Beetlejuice (1988)

Released in 1988, Beetlejuice is a comedy Directed by Tim Burton and stars Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder, and Micheal Keaton. Like many Burton films, this is a strange but fun watch. That being said, every time I see it I always seem to have similar thoughts by the time I reach the end credits. But first, let's take a quick look at the plot:

Barbara and Adam (played by Davis and Baldwin respectively) are spending their vacation decorating their country home but one day as the two are driving, Barbara swerves to avoid a dog and their car plunges into a river. After they return home, they discover a book titled 'Handbook for the Recently Deceased', and they then begin to realize that they did not survive the car accident.
Well, the house is soon sold to the Deetz family and that's where the films main conflict comes into play:

Delia Deetz and an interior designer named Otho transform the house into a bizarre modern-art project. Hating the changes to their home, Barbara and Adam consult the handbook, and soon learn that if they want the Deetzes out of the house, it is up to them to scare them away. Unfortunately for them, their attempts at scaring the Deetz family off prove to be ineffective as the only person who is able to see them is the Deetz's daughter Lydia. 

Desperate to get their house back, Barbara and Adam try to scare the Deetz's odd  but when that doesn't seem  work they seek out the help of a "bio-exorcist" ghost named Betelgeuse (played by Keaton), to get rid the Deetz family. At first, they are unaware that "Betelgeuse" is pronounced "Beetlejuice", and so they initially have trouble summoning him. But once they do the force of nature that is Micheal Keaton takes over the film as the crude troublemaker and, without spoiling the second half of the movie, I'll just say that it's a wild ride.

So, what are the conclusions I always seem to come to? Micheal Keaton is awesome, Geena Davis is solid, Winona Ryder is OK, and Alec Baldwin's performance is unimpressive. The plot is OK, some of the effects haven't aged well at all and not all of the comedy sticks the landing, but Danny Elfman's score, particularly the main theme, is great.

 Is it one of the all-time great movies? No, but overall it is fun and entertaining. I give it a 3 out of 5.


Have a suggestion for a review?
Leave it in the comments below.

Today's Movie: Cutthroat Island (1995)

Cutthroat Island is a 1995 action/adventure flick with a reputation as being a 'bad movie', but is that a fair assessment? Now I'm not going to try to make an argument that's it's a great film, because it's not, but I will say that there are enough redeeming qualities to make it worth watching.

So, what's the film about? Well, it's a pretty generic plot: Genna Davis plays a pirate named Morgan Adams, who's father (also a pirate) has been killed, so she takes over as Captain of his ship and sets off to find the treasure buried on 'Cutthroat Island'. However, she only has one piece of the treasure map and thus, sets out to find the other two pieces. She rescues and, over the course of their adventure, falls for a thief named William Shaw (played by Matthew Modine). They eventually learn the location of the island, but there is another pirate crew led by Dawg Brown (played by Frank Langella) that is also after the treasure. In the end, after a big high seas pirate battle, it's Morgan that defeats Dawg and gets the gold.

Overall, there aren't a great number of really good pirate movies in the world, and Cutthroat Island is far from the worst. The movie does have a really good score, as well as, some fun action scenes with big sets, sword fights, cannons, and pyrotechnics. The acting is decent and there's also a bit of humor thrown in and some of it works. The film moves along at a brisk pace and, if nothing else, it'll likely keep you entertained during it's 2hr runtime. Sure, the plot is thin and predictable and many of the characters are underdeveloped but, again, there are far worse pirate films out there.

 

I give this one a 2.5 out of 5

Have a suggestion for a review?

Leave it in the comments below.