A League of Their Own (1992)

One of the best films i have seen

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Tom Hanks comes very (*very*) close to stealing "A League of Their Own" (he's flippin' hysterical in this) but this has one of those pitch- perfect casts in which everyone just feels like the ideal choice for his/her role; especially Geena Davis and Lori Petty, whose sibling conflict anchors the whole story. Even Madonna does a fantastic job (god knows how much crap I've given her over the years for "Dick Tracy", and this would be the spirited counterargument). it may be an unconventional baseball movie with its proud feminist streak, but the sentiment's warm and these are characters I very much enjoyed watching. Plus, the humor's spot-on. When all is said and done, this is thoroughly entertaining.8/10

Two sisters join the first female professional baseball league and struggle to help it succeed amidst their own growing rivalry.This is Geena Davis in her prime. I mean, not to sell her short, but 1985-1995 was the golden age of Geena, with one hit after another. This is one of those, maybe second only to "The Fly". And alongside Lori Petty and Tom Hanks? Priceless.Some may ask, how factual is this? Well, strictly speaking, not very. These are made up characters. But the Rockford Peaches really existed, and there really was a women's baseball league for about a decade. If not for this film, they might be completely forgotten. So, thank you movie!

Finally, after 20+ years, I recorded and watched what I thought was going to be a middling Tom Hanks comedy. Reason for that was the trailers I'd seen hundreds of times: "Crying. There's no crying in baseball!"What I saw was a movie that should have been allowed to give Unforgiven serious competition for Best Picture and Geena Davis an Oscar for Best Actress in a leading role. Apparently I wasn't the only one fooled by those trailers.Penny Marshall's movie is a brilliant, beautifully crafted homage to a little remembered period when, just as Rosie became a riveter, numbers of talented women filled in for their men as ball players. Proving, like Rosie, they were every bit as capable as the absent males.More than that, of course, is the broader theme of the individual refusing to buckle under to social conventions. A very common American theme with Marshall's contribution ranking with the best of its expositions. Pretty good as a Baseball pic, too.It is a long movie, over 2 hours, but, despite the simplicity of the story, it doesn't play like two hours. From the first scene you (or at least I) fall in love with the screen and time becomes meaningless.Two people, supported by a strong supporting cast, are responsible: Peggy Marshall and Geena Davis. Marshall and her editor crafted a truly remarkable piece of cinematography that may be perfect; not a clang or misstep anywhere.Such movies need glue to make it all hang together and that's where Davis comes in: though brilliantly supported, without Davis the whole house would have failed. League is very much Geena Davis' movie, she's the one who puts flesh to the bones of Penny Marshall's vision.As Americans we love and should love movies like this, these celebrations of the best of our values, of how hundreds of women kept a league of their own alive for ten years.That achievement was quickly forgotten, buried in the reactionary conservatism of the '50s, which should anger us, but that anger can easily be tempered by Marshall's rediscovery and loving treatment of their story.For all of that seriousness, League is a successful comedy and fun to watch while, also successfully, demonstrating both how far we've come and how far yet to go.A large part of that 'yet to go' are those trailers that made me think that League was a Tom Hanks movie. It isn't; Hanks is almost a tertiary figure. Davis and the supporting cast, all women, are the Stars. Hanks character, Jimmy Dugan, is important and, especially at the last, honored but, as the movie unfolds, more comic relief than mover. Very much a second fiddle; to his credit, Hanks plays that fiddle masterfully.However, the fact that the distributors felt the need to exaggerate his presence to the point of ridiculousness speaks volumes about how, even in 1992, we weren't ready to embrace a movie by women about women. The Oscar's Nominating Committee's failure to recognize League as the masterpiece it is stamps paid to that point.As a movie, judged by objective cinematic standards, League should rank with the best of the best.

Geena Davis helms a plucky, extroverted squad of girls embroiled in the inaugural season of a ladies' baseball league. It's got heart and charm to spare, but often veers too close to super motivational, Lifetime Network feel-good material for my taste. The talent is there, with strong support from Tom Hanks, Jon Lovitz and Madonna, though their roles frequently edge near the cartoonish. Some are able to pull that off - Lovitz has been making bread with such exaggerated characters for years - but others, like Rosie O'Donnell's stereotypical feisty Jersey girl, aren't as adept. Puffy, padded, and egregiously predictable, its message about the irresistible force of gender equality in the midst of WWII is nice, but often feels secondary to the manufactured lite drama in the locker room.