Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17410 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-03-03
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Dutch, English, French, German
• Dubbed in: French, German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Special Features
Anamorphic Wide Screen
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1

Synopsis
Brian Robbins (VARSITY BLUES) directs another sports-related picture with HARDBALL, an uplifting story about a man who finds redemption when he's least expecting it. Keanu Reeves stars as Conor O'Neill, an underachiever whose gambling addiction has gotten him into seemingly insurmountable trouble. Desperate for money, he begs his friend Jimmy (Mike McGlone) to bail him out one more time. Jimmy agrees to give Conor a weekly stipend, but only if Conor agrees to coach a little league baseball team in Chicago's inner city. At first, Conor realizes just how unequipped he is for this particular task, as the assembled team goofs off, fights, and curses, paying no attention to his authority. Eventually, however, he gains their respect, and pretty soon, they're winning games. Meanwhile, off the field, Conor finds himself falling for the children's schoolteacher, Miss Wilkes (Diane Lane). He also places a potentially life-threatening bet with a high-level bookie, but after a miracle saves him and he begins to fully embrace his new role as a coach and father figure, tragedy strikes and teaches Conor a much more valuable life lesson. Based on the non-fiction book by Daniel Coyle, HARDBALL is an uplifting story that gets a boost of energy from its non-professional cast of youngsters.

Customer Reviews

A little grittier than your average feel-good sport movie
In an effort to get himself out of trouble with some heavies and having amassed enormous gambling debts, down-on-his-luck, end-of-his-tether, Connor O'Neil (Keanu Reeves) reluctantly agrees to coach baseball to a group of kids for $500 a week.

Naturally all the normal cliches are there (it's a sports movie, after all), but at least they are shaken up a little: the kids aren't sickly sweet; Connor is a very messed up character who is more in need of help than the kids he coaches; and the sport action is actually quite low key and the film is cut in a really rather interesting way (especially towards the very end) that lets you understand what happens during the season but doesn't take the audience through every game.

The performances are good - Reeves does a very good job with the desperate, hard gambling, hard drinking, chain smoking, Connor who is struggling with the responsibility that comes with being a coach and role model. Plus - nice job singing Big Papa, Keanu...

The DVD comes with various bits and pieces including deleted scenes, a decent director's commentry and a really rather dull 'making of' feature.

I enjoyed this film. It's humorous in places and dramatic in others. The romance is so slight as to be hardly worth the effort, so don't expect a strong rom-com b-story (although what there is, is quite sweet). I think people might be surprised to find that watching Hardball is a painless and actually quite enjoyable experience.

Great!
I had never heard of this film until I bought it. I was blown away, I absolutely love it and can watch it again and again. Keanu's acting is great, the story is good, the kids are great, an all round fab film. Keanu can act, official, so forget the critics who knock him, they just dish out the same old critiques, ignore them, you will enjoy this.

Top Flick, Top Soundtrack
All I can say is buy it you won't regret it. This is as far from a cheasy sports flick as you can get. Keanu is good the kids are superb, it'll make u think it might even make u cry.