Didn't see any other posts about this....it sounds good: http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/ar...=.jsp&c_id=mlb
"Ask yourself one question: How do you want to be remembered?"
That time-honored question asked by actor Sean Astin's coaching character Kent Stock is at the core of the charming new movie, "The Final Season." Now we will just have to watch and decide for ourselves whether the second baseball-themed major motion picture from Iowa will be remembered as well as the first.
It has been more than two decades since "Field of Dreams" was shot there amongst the hallowed cornfields of tiny Dyersville, and for all we know that line of tourists' automobile headlights is still stretching across the land. Oh, the people definitely came. And they still talk about that one as one of the best sports movies ever.
In this new movie -- directed by the former director of "Sandlot" (David Mickey Evans) and premiering this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York -- the sport and the state are the only real similarities. It is about a little town called Norway (enrollment barely 100) and its real-life 1991 high school baseball team. Amazingly, this school had produced 19 state champions, consistently beating larger schools, and a mecca for scouts. Nearly half of Norway's baseball players went on to college ball, and of those, 16 made it to the Majors. But that '91 season was the last because of school consolidations, and let's just say that these guys went out in style.
In fact, if you are going to compare "The Final Season" to any sports movie, then it is a lot closer to "Hoosiers" than to "Field of Dreams." The final sentence of the synopsis on the movie's Web site even says: "The Final Season is destined to be baseball's version of 'Hoosiers'."
Indeed, it is practically "Hoosiers" with a smaller ball. The storylines, characters, cinematography and non-fiction background are all eerily similar -- and it even ends in identical fashion, with the final camera shot zooming dramatically to a black-and-white team photo of the state high school champions that a small town could never, ever forget. There is a player's bedridden father who is the virtual equivalent of Dennis Hopper's character in "Hoosiers," there is a love story between a coach (Astin) and an initially disagreeable brunette (Rachael Leigh Cook), there is a town meeting (only it's Powers Boothe instead of Gene Hackman speaking up), and there is Boothe's legendary character Jim Van Scoyoc who says: "Eighty percent of this game is defense."
Here is what you are going to absolutely love about "The Final Season":
• The train. It is the runaway star of this movie. No offense to the actors. But it's always there. It rumbles in the background as the Astin and Cook characters play catch. It rumbles beyond the outfield fence during the championship game. It is the mystique, with a legend attached that talks about the longest home run in baseball history. You'll just have to watch it yourself to find out how far it went.
• The lines. What's a memorable baseball/sports movie without great lines you never forget? "You know," Boothe's character says, "those old-timers say that baseball is the only game on earth where the object is to get home, kid." Or when he is replaced as coach and looks out his garage to the adjacent field where all those titles were celebrated, and his wife says, "It's OK to miss it." He replies: "It'd be a whole lot easier if that field was a thousand miles away."
• The infield practice. There are millions of baseball fans who probably would appreciate this part of the movie. Imagine the "perfect" infield session right before a game, lasting a precise eight hours, 50 minutes, where every throw was on the money, as crisp as can be. "Infield" was a big-time highlight, and you will want to compare the first one with the second one during the movie.
• The relationship between the troubled teen (whose obsessively busy single dad is played by Tom Arnold) and his grandfather.
• The city signs while the state championship is being played. Like the one outside the local post office: "NOBODY'S GRANDMA DIED ... AT THE GAME."
• The first 10 minutes or so of this movie might seem almost nauseatingly happy to some, beginning with title No. 19. But the wait is worth it.
• The little batboy with the conscience -- seemingly pulled right out of "The Natural." We were waiting for him to bring someone the WonderBoy.
• The 95-mph intimidator for the last opponent. And the leaping Gary Matthews Jr.-style bringback catch.
• The fact that it's another potentially unforgettable baseball movie. There just aren't enough of them, which probably is why some are so special.
How will "The Final Season" be remembered? It will not only be up to those people who made it happen in real life 16 years ago. It will be up to movie-goers who gravitate toward surprises. Like "Sandlot." And "Hoosiers."
When they first met, Polly (Cook) asked Stock (Astin): "What is the big deal with the high school baseball team? I don't get it."
"Here's the thing you have to understand about Norway," he said. "It's like being with the New York Yankees. They have a tradition here that's about more than just winning. It's about playing the game right. I guess I just want some of that to rub off on me. Make any sense?"
Oh, yes. This movie will make a lot of sense to people around here. And maybe they will even come again to another Iowa baseball movie, more than two decades later.
That time-honored question asked by actor Sean Astin's coaching character Kent Stock is at the core of the charming new movie, "The Final Season." Now we will just have to watch and decide for ourselves whether the second baseball-themed major motion picture from Iowa will be remembered as well as the first.
It has been more than two decades since "Field of Dreams" was shot there amongst the hallowed cornfields of tiny Dyersville, and for all we know that line of tourists' automobile headlights is still stretching across the land. Oh, the people definitely came. And they still talk about that one as one of the best sports movies ever.
In this new movie -- directed by the former director of "Sandlot" (David Mickey Evans) and premiering this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York -- the sport and the state are the only real similarities. It is about a little town called Norway (enrollment barely 100) and its real-life 1991 high school baseball team. Amazingly, this school had produced 19 state champions, consistently beating larger schools, and a mecca for scouts. Nearly half of Norway's baseball players went on to college ball, and of those, 16 made it to the Majors. But that '91 season was the last because of school consolidations, and let's just say that these guys went out in style.
In fact, if you are going to compare "The Final Season" to any sports movie, then it is a lot closer to "Hoosiers" than to "Field of Dreams." The final sentence of the synopsis on the movie's Web site even says: "The Final Season is destined to be baseball's version of 'Hoosiers'."
Indeed, it is practically "Hoosiers" with a smaller ball. The storylines, characters, cinematography and non-fiction background are all eerily similar -- and it even ends in identical fashion, with the final camera shot zooming dramatically to a black-and-white team photo of the state high school champions that a small town could never, ever forget. There is a player's bedridden father who is the virtual equivalent of Dennis Hopper's character in "Hoosiers," there is a love story between a coach (Astin) and an initially disagreeable brunette (Rachael Leigh Cook), there is a town meeting (only it's Powers Boothe instead of Gene Hackman speaking up), and there is Boothe's legendary character Jim Van Scoyoc who says: "Eighty percent of this game is defense."
Here is what you are going to absolutely love about "The Final Season":
• The train. It is the runaway star of this movie. No offense to the actors. But it's always there. It rumbles in the background as the Astin and Cook characters play catch. It rumbles beyond the outfield fence during the championship game. It is the mystique, with a legend attached that talks about the longest home run in baseball history. You'll just have to watch it yourself to find out how far it went.
• The lines. What's a memorable baseball/sports movie without great lines you never forget? "You know," Boothe's character says, "those old-timers say that baseball is the only game on earth where the object is to get home, kid." Or when he is replaced as coach and looks out his garage to the adjacent field where all those titles were celebrated, and his wife says, "It's OK to miss it." He replies: "It'd be a whole lot easier if that field was a thousand miles away."
• The infield practice. There are millions of baseball fans who probably would appreciate this part of the movie. Imagine the "perfect" infield session right before a game, lasting a precise eight hours, 50 minutes, where every throw was on the money, as crisp as can be. "Infield" was a big-time highlight, and you will want to compare the first one with the second one during the movie.
• The relationship between the troubled teen (whose obsessively busy single dad is played by Tom Arnold) and his grandfather.
• The city signs while the state championship is being played. Like the one outside the local post office: "NOBODY'S GRANDMA DIED ... AT THE GAME."
• The first 10 minutes or so of this movie might seem almost nauseatingly happy to some, beginning with title No. 19. But the wait is worth it.
• The little batboy with the conscience -- seemingly pulled right out of "The Natural." We were waiting for him to bring someone the WonderBoy.
• The 95-mph intimidator for the last opponent. And the leaping Gary Matthews Jr.-style bringback catch.
• The fact that it's another potentially unforgettable baseball movie. There just aren't enough of them, which probably is why some are so special.
How will "The Final Season" be remembered? It will not only be up to those people who made it happen in real life 16 years ago. It will be up to movie-goers who gravitate toward surprises. Like "Sandlot." And "Hoosiers."
When they first met, Polly (Cook) asked Stock (Astin): "What is the big deal with the high school baseball team? I don't get it."
"Here's the thing you have to understand about Norway," he said. "It's like being with the New York Yankees. They have a tradition here that's about more than just winning. It's about playing the game right. I guess I just want some of that to rub off on me. Make any sense?"
Oh, yes. This movie will make a lot of sense to people around here. And maybe they will even come again to another Iowa baseball movie, more than two decades later.
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