For Love of the Game (1999)

Disappointment for a huge fan!

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

.......................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA and ORLANDO, FL "They don't make 'em like they used to!" As regards "For Love of the Game", the above comment applies to both movies and baseball players! Old- fashioned, straight-ahead storytelling, complimented by solid performances, extremely convincing on-the-field action, excellent photography and more than competent direction by Sam Raimi, make for a resoundingly entertaining movie...even if you're not much of a baseball fan! Perhaps the best thing going for the film is its truly innovative integration and balance of rapid- fire on-going game vs. relationship development flashback elements, allowing the viewer to "get inside the athlete's head" in a way no other movie in recent memory does. "For Love" thusly manages to put a signature spin on the subjective experience of a great athlete's swan song by sharing and highlighting the stark contrast between the external precision and perfection of the real-world game in progress, and the turbulent, highly personal, inner-world of the passions that drive him. .......................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA and ORLANDO, FL Kevin Costner, certainly NOT the greatest actor in the world, literally shines in the mother of all tailor made roles. Kelly Preston shows us a highly focused intensity, in just what may be her best on screen appearance to date! John C. Reilly, although cast as the solid-as-a-rock-always- there- when-you-need-him-on-the-sidelines Catcher, plays to the hilt a supporting role, in every sense of the word.There are moments in "For Love", however, that seem a touch too maudlin, trying just a little too hard to jerk that extra tear. A few of these melancholy scenes are drawn out to the point of making the viewer self- conscious and put upon. These occasional excesses are easily overlooked, however, in light of the films many strengths and its overall highly engrossing nature. 8*.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!

For Love of the Game (1999): Dir: Sam Raimi / Cast: Kevin Costner, Kelly Preston, John C. Reilly, Brian Cox, Jena Malone: Drama about loving something enough to give it up. It regards a man searching for where he wants to be and where he should be. It regards decisions and regrets and stars Kevin Costner as a baseball pitcher of nineteen years who may be pitching his final game due to an arm injury. His mind is on his girlfriend who is leaving for Europe for a better job position. Costner reflects upon their relationship through the entire game. Predictable with some unnecessary elements. Despite clichés the baseball footage is fantastic with director Sam Raimi pulling off suspense with regards to the fate of the leads. This is an interesting departure for a director known for creating the Evil Dead movies. Costner's wrestles through frustration for what matters most. He is in position to give up one love for the greater gain of another. Kelly Preston is well cast as his girlfriend whom he first encounters having car trouble. While the leads pull through, the supporting roles are typical and flat mainly placed for cliché moments. Among them are John C. Reilly and Brian Cox who can do better but get reduced to under written roles that take second fiddle to the leads. With that one complaint aside this contains strong themes regarding love for what matters most. Score: 8 / 10

The producers were obviously trying to cash in on the popularity of Bull Durham, but this was a bad misfire. 5 percent baseball. 95 percent psychobabble, with Costner and Preston endlessly discussing their relationship, the rules of the game, etc, etc. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan without the humor. And what the Tiger's ace pitcher could see in this messed- up gal is a mystery. At 40 years old, he should have known better. Susan Sarandon was a much more convincing match for him.If you like juvenile dialog about love affairs, you may find this interesting. But if you're looking for a baseball movie like Bull Durham or Field of Dreams, forget this one. It's a love story, and not a very good one.

For Love of the Game is a sports drama movie that was based on the novel of the same title by Michael Shaara.The film stars Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston.The story follows the a perfect game performance of an aging star baseball pitcher as he reminisces about his career and his relationship with his on-and-off girlfriend, while pitching his final game.The screenplay was written by Dana Stevens and it was directed by Sam Raimi.The story centers on Billy Chapel,who is the star pitcher with the Detroit Tigers, standing on the mound at Yankee Stadium in his last game and throwing what is shaping up to be a perfect game with the help of his best friend and catcher, Gus Osinski. However, Billy is having a hard time keeping his mind on the game; he's come to a crossroads in both his personal and professional lives, and he isn't sure what to do or where to go. He's learned that the Tigers are about to be sold, and the new owners intend to trade him at the end of the season, and that his girlfriend Jane is planning to leave him.But guess what,something else happens.After finishing the perfect game, Billy sits alone in his hotel room as the realization sinks in that everything he has been and done for the past 19 years is over. Despite his amazing accomplishment, he weeps not only for the loss of baseball, but for the other love of his life, Jane. The next morning, Billy goes to the airport to inquire about a flight for London. Jane has missed her flight so she could watch the end of his perfect game. Finding her there waiting for her plane, they embrace and reconcile.The movie is clichéd,contrived and predictable just like most sports movies and apparently most romantic comedies.As one well-known critic was quoted in his review of the film,"Thinking back through the movie, I cannot recall a single thing either character said that was worth hearing in its own right, apart from the requirements of the plot." I totally agree with the said movie reviewer.But what made the movie work is Costner and Preston's convincing professionalism and chemistry together that kept the audience involved and engaged all through out the movie.In the end,it is still worth the view "for love of the game".