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For Love of the Game Customer Reviews (28 - 30 of 41 Reviews)

I'll start by saying I believe you need to be over 35 and a baseball fan to appreciate all aspects of this movie. As an over-40 male active in sporting activities, I could identify with the frustrations when your body begins to let you down; when things that used to be easy on the field become more difficult; and when you start asking yourself if it's still worth it. I've had my share of sports injuries that had to be rehabilitated. To me, this movie was real. The short prayer of, "God, just let my shoulder not hurt for the next 10 minutes" is SO true. If your idea of a great baseball game is a 1-0 pitching duel, you'll enjoy this a lot more than if you like to see 10-8 home-run fests.

Kevin Costner threw every pitch shown, fastballs and curveballs, for strikes and was clocked over 80 mph. Find another ACTOR who could've done that. All players were either professional players in the Tigers and Yankees farm systems (for non-acting positions) or they were actors with organized baseball experience and the umpires were actual MLB umpires. I don't know how you can get more real and still have people who can act.

The extra DVD features raise it a star. It has a featurette on many of the aspects I've shared above which help you appreciate the film on another level. If you successfully navigate through the little quiz, there's another featurette of Babe Ruth in "Slide, Babe, Slide". Plus the deleted scenes, etc. of most good DVDs and some DVD-ROM features.

For those indestructible 20-year olds - you probably won't like it. It doesn't move fast enough and you won't understand a lot of the subtext. But when you're 35, get it. Like most baseball movies, this plot will stand in good stead for many years.

Good, not great. This is not "Field of Dreams"
Over the past weekend, my wife and I actually got the opportunity to rent a couple of movies, sit down, and watch them! (In a large family, such is usually NOT the case!)

Three stars for "For the Love of the Game". We loved the baseball (indeed, I suspect that Kevin Costner does as well) and felt that the way flashback were handled from within the context of the game itself was quite effective.

However, we were both disappointed at the development of the relationship. My wife was completely underwhelmed by Kelly Preston's acting ability (or lack thereof), and I felt that Jane, the character she portrayed was poorly developed -- and frankly, the bits that WERE developed, I didn't like. I found myself with no sympathy for her whatsoever.

Other pluses to the movie would include the authentic-sounding announcing by Vin Scully, and the remarkable visual and sound editing when Costner is on the mound.

As a lover of baseball, I enjoyed the movie -- but as far as baseball movies go, it ain't great.

QUICK BALLS
I admit it, I've seen dozen of movies about base-ball and I still don't quite understand the rules of the game. But, one thing is certain, it's possible to play the game of his life in one and only game : it's called the perfect game. And Kevin Costner, in director Samuel Raimi's FOR LOVE OF THE GAME, is on his way for it.

FOR LOVE OF THE GAME is a typical genre movie, the hero can't be happy until he has fulfilled the dream of his life, until he is part of america's history. With this theme, you're sure to attract the local audience's votes. It's human.

So, the quality of the movie depends only on the director's skill or desire to play some variations on this common theme. For instance, until now, in my opinion, Barry Levinson's THE NATURAL with Robert Redford is clearly the best baseball related movie ever filmed.

After a western and a film noir, Samuel Raimi is going to shock one more time his long-time supporters with FOR LOVE OF THE GAME. No more hysterical travellings and zooms, not a single gunshot, the young "crazy horse" director, like Kevin CHAPEL Costner, has an eighteen years career behind him. One could say that FOR LOVE OF THE GAME is the first adult movie of Samuel Raimi. And it is a compliment.

Excellent compositions of Costner, Kelly Preston and Th. Reilly. Above-average bonus features but I would have appreciated a director's commentary.

A DVD zone U.S.