Eephus

This is a wonderful little movie that really hit home. If you've ever spent any time around baseball and especially an adult rec league, you can relate, and the fact that my teenager laughed along with me is a testament to it's appeal. Amongst all of the big budget movies, the realistic dialogue, characters you can relate to and beautiful scenery make it a refreshing departure form the norm. Baseball fans, and especially Red Sox aficionados will appreciate and enjoy the two cameos of Joe Castiglione and Bill Lee. While the characters aren't deeply developed, they are relatable. The true beauty of this movie is it's simplicity.

This film has a lot of potential, but the characters weren't developed enough. The comedy had a couple laughs and different people laughed at different times in the theater (the funniest part for me wasn't funny for everyone & others were laughing during times when for me it was barely funny at all).

The beginning started out best, with the most potential and I was just waiting for the real connection to happen, to inevitably fall in love with who these people are, but it never came to fruition.

Not to say I don't appreciate rec leagues, and the hobbies that make our lives seemingly worth living, and the dreams we all have had that only a small percent are lucky enough to live out.

This film is an almost but not quite for me, that just got so diluted with no progression in the script that made the 98 minute run time feel more like 135 minutes. I found myself wishing for the end.

The acting was good for some, maybe even for most, but for others, their skills weren't big screen ready. People disappeared/appeared and showed/didn't show without reason throughout.

The characters should've been closer than they were. It was all kind of a let down for not only them, but audiences members alike.

Some of the random spectators in it were similar in that you really don't feel the connection with them nor with the other characters or script, either. But oh we were all trying to get there.

The end was anticlimactic and it seemed purposeful, but so was the middle, thus was the majority of the film. I mean who doesn't like a good climax?

With the right writing, this could've been so much more.

This is bound to be an unpopular opinion, but, to me, fewer things in life are more boring than baseball - except perhaps for movies about baseball (with a few exceptions like "The Natural" (1984), "A League of Their Own" (1992) and "42" (2013)). And that foregoing assessment, in my view, is more than applicable to this positively dreadful debut feature from writer-director Carson Lund. This alleged comedy tells the story of two men's recreational baseball teams in a small Massachusetts town who embark on playing the last-ever game to be held at a local ballpark that's about to be torn down to make room for construction of a new school. The implausibly overlong matchup, brought about by a series of completely unfunny incidents that stretch out the length of the game, goes on from midday through the afternoon and into the crisp, chilly fall evening wherein the players try to continue competing in the dark (gee, now there's a load of laughs for you). There are also numerous talky, uninteresting conversations among the players in the dugout, along with views from the sidelines, where a handful of passing spectators offer their observations about what's transpiring on the field. These sequences do little to add to the film and serve only to pad an already-tedious narrative. The sad part in all this is that the premise truly had the potential to make for a fun and heartwarming picture. Unfortunately, though, the absolutely flat dialogue, lame plot elements and undercooked character development prevent that from materializing. While this offering admittedly features some impressive cinematography and a well-conceived production design, there's not much else to commend here. That is, of course, unless one compliments the creators on their fitting choice of title for the film: An "eephus," for those who aren't aware of what it is, is the name for an obscure form of curveball, one that's thrown deceptively slowly, almost to the point where it lulls the batter into a sense of mesmerized complacency, as if to put the hitter to sleep. And, on that score, the filmmaker has truly succeeded in crafting a picture that lives up to its namesake where audiences are concerned. All I can say is that I'm truly glad that I didn't pay box office ticket prices to see this one.

EEPHUS (2025) Like the pitch it's named after, Carson Lund's EEPHUS is a slow erratic curveball that sneaks up on you. Two baseball teams gather to play an organized pick-up game one afternoon. An old man sets up a card table to keep score. An even older gentleman takes his seat - pretty much alone with the sparse "crowd". A grumpy for-hire umpire reluctantly takes the field. A food vendor hawks pizza by the slice. The teams are made up by a motley crew of middle-aged townies and a few younger players some of whom may still harbor thoughts of semi-pro ball.

They are gathered in a rundown park, Soldiers Field, that has seen better days. The waning rays of the autumn sun fall on the colorful foliage as Halloween beckons in this small New England town. It's the last game to be played there as the stadium will be torn down to make way for a new school. The nearest similar playground is a half-hour drive away.

The narrator is legendary Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman who drops pithy quotes from the legends of the game such as Babe Ruth and Yogi Berra. Wiseman's participation is approapriate for Lund takes a semi-documentary approach, favoring observation over narrative. The film never leaves the park. One simply watches the twenty or so men go through their paces, dropping in for snatches of conversation here and there. Like the sport itself, the movie can be slow - and dare one say it? - a bit dull. Of course, as any true fan of the game will tell you, monotony is part of the game, too - as it is in life itself.

None of the actors are particularly famous, but a few such as Keith William Richards and Paul Kandarian may be somewhat recognizeable. They all feel genuine. Red Sox announcer Joe Castiglione plays the vendor. The best cameo is an extended one by Boston baseball legend Bill 'Spaceman' Lee who shows up and disappears like a ghost pitching one inning (Lee threw the most infamous Eephus pitch in history at the 1975 World Series giving up a homer to Tony Perez even though he'd been strenuosly warned not to do so).

As the game drags on, people start to go home. It gets dark, but the core men soldier on. It's the last game after all. Plus, the score is tied. There HAS to be a result. They NEED to see it through. At this point, they are literally playing for the Love Of The Game as the old saying goes. It ends not with a huge epiphany (would be inappriate for a low key production such as this) - although there is a fittingly puny fireworks display planned.

EEPHUS is an elegiac look at the true meaning of baseball. Perhaps not a 'Field of Dreams' as much as a way of life for the diehard faithful who may have little else they can still cling to.

This film was so incredibly boring. I didn't find any of the dialogue funny and I didn't hear anyone else laughing either. I've never looked at the time so often in my life. Just couldn't wait for it to be over. I was very tempted to leave after the first 15 minutes, but I thought surely this must be leading to some kind of interesting development. Alas, no. This film might work for those who enjoy movies with inane dialogue, no plot to speak of, and ridiculous acting. The Fall New England scenery was nice (looking for something positive here). Honestly one of the worst movies I've ever seen..