Saturday, July 18, 2015

Bull Durham (1988)

Let me give you a piece of advice, don't watch this film.
There isn't really much to like here. Sure, the performances from both Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner are pretty good, and that is saying something as I can't stand Costner, the plot is ridiculous. Sarandon is a college educated woman but her greatest achievement is picking a minor league baseball player, and sleeping with him for the season which will be the best of his career. For the season the film follows, she has selected ladies' man, 'Nuck' LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) for her sex buddy. She does give him good advice, at least on the field, which includes listening to the seasoned catcher, Crash Davis (Costner).
It is basically a three person drama though there is an interesting subplot between the religious ball player Jimmy (William O'Leary) and Anne's frisky friend, Millie (Jenny Robertson) which should have been given more attention.
The film has that small town feel to it, which is appropriate but the characters don't mesh and the evening is just a mess with Nuck being called up to the majors and Crash picking a woman over his career. Though baseball is Anne's main religion, she knows that is nothing personal when Crash briefly leaves her, after all, baseball is a job also.
I wish the film would have been funny or meaningful or filled with great performances or witty dialogue. In the end, it had none of those. Grade: C-

No comments:

Post a Comment