The working title for this film was "Tokyo Diamond". Tom Selleck,late of TV's "Magnum PI",is an American baseball player who is transferred to a Japanese team after the American team officials believe that Jack(Selleck) is unsatisfactorily playing. In Japan,he meets beautiful Hiroko and falls in love with her. Hiroko ends up joining Jack in going back to the United States. Hiroko's father owns the Japanese team that Jack plays for. This is somewhat like the real-life union of Yoko Ono and the late John Lennon. After success in Japan,Jack is welcomed back to his American team. Dennis Haysbert had a supporting role in this film,probably in part because he appeared in the 1989 Paramount film MAJOR LEAGUE. All-American Jack couldn't quite adjust to the customs of the Japanese. Great film!
Fun
This is a fun, off-beat movie about a gaijin (foreign) baseball 'has-been' hired to play for the Chunichi Dragons when no one wants to sign him in the US. The hot-dogging American begrudgingly flies to Japan and is almost instantly overwhelmed by a completely different culture which does not value hot dogs (at least not the human kind). Cultures clash as he slowly realizes that baseball is a team sport!
This is a thoroughly enjoyable movie, not only from the perspective of baseball, but from the culture-shock element. Of course the Japanese are somewhat stereotypical, as is Selleck's American superstar, but that's why this is a movie and not a documentary.
Interestingly, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation has quite a few similar elements in it, including the insomnia and late-night television watching, as well as the bewildering experience of trying to understand Japanese ads! Selleck, like Murray, is made to perform in an ad, although Murray's "rat pack" imitation is far more suave than Selleck dressed as a sumo wrestler.
A fun watch!
WOW!!!!!!
at first i was skeptical about tom sellick coming out of the role of magnum "from magnum pi" but once i started watching mr baseball, wow the way it brings japanese and american culture togather has not been seen since the karate kid 2. one of the most heartwarming scenes is when he goes to his girlfriends fathers house and his girlfriends father is his manager that he did not get along with.they have a discussion about baseball and life that will stick with you for the remander of your days. this is the most epic film in the history of modern cinima.with his performance in mr baseball tom selleck has catapulted his name into the list of greatest actors. now when you think pacino, brando, bogart you have to also put sellick in that list if not at the top. to say mr baseball changed my life would be an understatment. mr baseball changed the world.
A baseball comedy and slob comedy rolled into one, this one actually works as entertainment, if not as a piece of cinematic mastery. James Gammon is the has-been manager hired to lead the last-place Cleveland Indians whose owner wants them to lose so she can sell them. But the team of has-beens and never-wases that he assembles (including Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, and Wesley Snipes) develops a sense of pride and turns the team around. There's plenty of rowdy humor about sex, race, and whatever else they can make fun of. Look for Rene Russo (in her first film role) as Berenger's romantic interest; Snipes also had his first showy role as Willie Mays Hayes, the team's base-stealing ace. --Marshall FineMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Tom Berenger - Charlie Sheen Director(s): David S. Ward DVD Release Date: Released the 24 September 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $12.99 Your Price: $9.74YOU SAVE $3.25!
Buy it
always somewhat skeptical when it comes to sequels. major league 2 right on target. answers some questions from number one and makes you keep laughing. good, good, good More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlie Sheen - Tom Berenger - Corbin Bernsen Director(s): David S. Ward DVD Release Date: Released the 16 May 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $9.97 Your Price: $9.97YOU SAVE $0!
Buy it
I like Major League: Back To The Minors, I found it funnier then the second Major League movie. Quantum Leap dude was a good addition to the series, I was disapointed Al wasn't there. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Scott Bakula - Corbin Bernsen Director(s): John Warren (II) DVD Release Date: Released the 16 May 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $9.97 Your Price: $9.97YOU SAVE $0!
Buy it
Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner) is having a bad day. His girlfriend Jane (Kelly Preston, stunning as ever) says she's leaving, and his boss (Brian Cox) says he's selling the business and ace employee Billy may be out of job. Sounds like business as usual for an old-fashioned veteran. However, the business is baseball and for Billy Chapel, the 40-year old former all-star for the Detroit Tigers, it means his career--and his life--is at a crossroads.
Although it is no Bull Durham, For Love of the Game finds a solid and very believable role for Costner. The film is based on Michael Shaara's (The Killer Angels) stream-of-consciousness novel (the rough manuscript was found after his death 1988). The entire film takes place on Billy's day on the mound against the Yankees, a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kevin Costner - Kelly Preston Director(s): Sam Raimi DVD Release Date: Released the 15 August 2000 Usually ships in 6 to 8 days
List Price: $12.98 Your Price: $9.99YOU SAVE $2.99!
Buy it
From the sun-dappled heartland, a young man (Robert Redford, in soft lighting) emerges as maybe the best baseball player anybody's ever seen. On his way to the majors, he is cut down by an enigmatic black widow (Barbara Hershey) and vanishes for many years. When he reemerges, a silent mystery, he lands a spot with the New York team and begins tearing up the league--he's still the natural. Fans of the Bernard Malamud novel will be dismayed at the pure mythical hokum of this film, but baseball fanatics have been known to watch and rewatch this one; after all, it's constructed as a kind of shrine to the national pastime. Barry Levinson (Rain Man) directs the movie with an unabashed devotion to the game, although the film could use more of the realities of chewing tobacco and pine tar.... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Barry Levinson DVD Release Date: Released the 03 April 2001 Usually ships in 4 to 6 weeks
List Price: $14.94 Your Price: $10.99YOU SAVE $3.95!
Buy it
