You Gotta Believe

I'm not a baseball fan, but am a fan of inspirational movies based on true stories and this movie fills the bill. I thought the acting was incredible and the story touched my soul. Of course, it won't win any awards because only weird themes seem to garner that kind of attention these days but you will be thinking and smiling about You Gotta Believe long after its run at the box office. I am seeing YGB for a second time today. I hope the writer will continue finding worthwhile topics to bring to the screen. He seems to have the knack of making a sad situation into a "feel good" outcome. I've always been a fan of Greg Kinnear and think he was perfect for the role he played. More Lane Garrison/Greg Kinnear movies, please!!!

6.8 stars.

This is the story of a coach and his best friend coaching a team of little leaguers in Texas. They are about the worst team around. The coach gets sick. The kids get inspired, they drastically improve and make it to the 2002 Little League World Series. It's quite an inspiring story albeit somewhat misleading.

The film portrays the boys as scrawny, weak and terrible players, but if you look at some of the actual footage, they were average to above average sized, and actually quite good. This is not a bad news bears story. I think the Director wanted to make it appear that way to make the impression of them being underdogs. This is for obvious reasons in the movie biz.

This film is slightly inspired, but only average for entertainment and impact.

This movie was lovely and you could tell it was true as no hollywood fluff was added. We need small Movies like this to have balance and not just blockbusters. I liked all the kids and the main actors were totally real. The moral is what we all teach our children so seeing people Live it touches the heart. Every family should want to see this film. I recommend it. Not a bad news bear which was all fake. Just a Good movie. Good storytelling and real people with real feelings. These movies will go away and we will only see blockbusters or crude or horror films if we don't support the family films.

The message of a young team rallying behind a powerful emotional cause that pushes them beyond what they think is possible is always one that I will be drawn to and interested in. The fact that it's a true story makes it very tragic.

However, the film does not at all do such a true story justice. The script is extremely poor and the characters take a long time to connect with. The idea is that the team is supposed to be a really bad baseball team and has no hope at all as a fill in team for a spot in the Little League World Series. There's brief moments of them practicing but we aren't really shown the evolution of the kids as players or really how they've matured as individuals while dealing with the personal matters the one family faces on the team. Yes , they do say lines that suggest they have matured, but without actually seeing it play out much ourselves it feels like the lines are forced in to make the plot work.

There are also many confusing lines along the way that distract or take away from the main message of the movie. In particular the friendship between the coach's feels odd. I'm not sure if it's cast selection or the acting quality. In general the head coach who is an attorney seems to get more screen time than is warranted.

Overall , it's a touching story but maybe a book would have been a better format to tell the story so that people can appreciate the details better.

Looking for something to see, I was intrigued by the premise of misfit little leaguers. Could this be an updated The Bad News Bears?

Nope. It's a whitewashed family film scrubbed of any edge, predictable beyond belief, and boring.

It was hard to find what the appeal would be for either adults of children.

This a true story that is supposed to be inspiring but instead is a poor tribute to the brave coach the film is honoring.

Greg Kinnear looks bored and tired. Luke Wilson fares better but the sappy script lets him down. The kids make little impression. The film builds no tension and you basically know how it will end after the first 20 minutes.

The film is also weirdly lit, and poorly edited.

I was the only one in the theater on the opening night preview. When a film opens quietly with almost no marketing, there is a reason.