You Gotta Believe

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.

It's more for older kids and adults with heavy and undeniably inspirational moments. It's about believing in something and allowing it to help carry you through something impossible. The Kelley's were a force every time they were on screen. "Robert" was endearing and honest. "Peanut" was light hearted and balanced the scenes without being too much. The boys had a sweet relationship with each other that felt very real. Luke Wilson portrayed the father as reserved and hands on without being overbearing. Very salt of the earth. The boys individually who played the ball players held their own well. They were very believable in their efforts to support and be there for the Ratliff boys at their young ages. Nothing felt frilly or dishonest. The jokes the players had on the team were cute without feeling out of place. The way the story approached life's hardest realities was refreshing and didn't overreach for what a child's reaction or understanding would be. They let there be so much room for emotions. It was raw and beautiful.

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.

I never knew this was a true story until I read a few reviews here. The fact it was a true story inspired me watching. The only part I knew that was true is that this was a real little league team I didn't know about the father at all.

Now the set up for this team being a bunch of bodies who were just bad at baseball, I don't know If it is true. It was nice seeing that the team came together even though honestly that just wasn't well played out in the script. It kind of just happened.

They start playoffs and they literally showed us literally literally literally nothing after their first game until they're magically in the World Series. That's a really lame script. That is really really lame.

You know I wanna see how the kids felt and acted after their first game or any other game up until the World Series. They showed us nothing.

It's only good because the story of a bunch of nobodies making the World Series and watching the effect that dad has on them is inspiring. But the script was really, really poorly played out.