73
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100USA TodayMike ClarkUSA TodayMike ClarkThough his film is like no other baseball movie, it may remind you of Paul Newman's hockey comedy Slap Shot: a knowing look at sport's underbelly - punctuated by jelly-belly laughs. [15 June 1988]
- 90Los Angeles TimesSheila BensonLos Angeles TimesSheila BensonIt's just that when a movie is this close, with so much of the sports flavor (co-producer Thom Mount is co-owner of the real Durham Bulls), you like to see it perfect. [15 June 1988]
- 90Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumThe movie evokes Howard Hawks (in spirit if not to the letter) with its tight focus on a snug, obsessive world of insiders and camp followers where the exchanges between buddies and sexes have a euphoric stylishness and a giddy sense of ritual.
- It eases up on you, lazy as a cloud, and carries you off in a mood of exquisite delight. To borrow W.P. Kinsella's phrase, it has the thrill of the grass.
- 88Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertA treasure of a movie because it knows so much about baseball and so little about love.
- 80Washington PostDesson ThomsonWashington PostDesson ThomsonYou may catch yourself trying to remember where you parked a little before the end.
- 75Chicago TribuneDave KehrChicago TribuneDave KehrSuccessfully avoids the grandiose mythmaking that has been the bane of the baseball movie from ''Pride of the Yankees'' to ''The Natural.'' Rather than a vapid national epic, it is a warm, droll, deftly cracked romantic comedy. [15 June 1988]
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittEven if baseball isn't your favorite sport, or if you don't like sports much at all, you'll find something to catch your attention in this smartly made (if unblushingly vulgar) new comedy. [7 July 1988]
- 70VarietyVarietyA fanciful and funny bush league sports story where the only foul ball is its overuse of locker-room dialog.
- 40The New RepublicStanley KauffmannThe New RepublicStanley KauffmannWhat is outstandingly incredible are the high-flown pronouncements, including literary judgments, given suddenly to Costner. They make him sound like a dummy for Shelton the ventriloquist. [1 Aug 1988]