Mr. Baseball (1992)

"Mr. Baseball" is a pretty good film and it is enjoyable to watch. However, the main character, Jack (Tom Selleck) is rather unrealistic and if his character had been toned down just a bit, I think it would have been a better film.When the film begins, Jack is playing in the major leagues for the New York Yankees. However, despite being a star in the past, his last season was terrible and he is now about to be released. But no other American team wants him because he's overpaid, arrogant and not performing. His only option...play ball in Japan. But his road to success is VERY bumpy...much of it because the culture is so different and because Jack is an obnoxious idiot! Can Jack learn to be a little less 'Jack' and manage to make a success of it?As I said, Jack is a character that comes off poorly...entertaining to watch but also one dimensional and cartoonish. Of course life will be difficult for a major leaguer to move to Japan...but not THIS much because his character does NOTHING to try to learn Japanese customs or fit in with the team. Perhaps the filmmakers thought they needed to exaggerate all this...I think toning him down a bit would have been wiser. Still, it is worth watching....warts and all.

Viewed on DVD. Subtitles =three (3) stars. Director Fred Schepisi delivers a very limp romantic comedy with a phony, Americanized version of Japanese baseball as a back drop (those interested in the culture of real Japanese baseball may wish to read Robert Whiting's 1989 definitive book on the subject, You Gotta Have Wa). The film's plot involves an over-the-hill American major league player whose contract is bought by a Japanese team. This fish-out-of-cultural-water scenario is far better and more accurately described in Whiting's book. Some cultural nuances, however, are caught in the script including the politically-correct role of the Gaijin-player's interpreter (also described in Whiting's book). Film was not shot in a Japanese baseball park (and, aside from spectator and a few other pickup shots, does not appear to be filmed in Japan), and it sure looks it! Major film composer Jerry Goldsmith's score is surprising uneven and not that great (perhaps the orchestrations did him in?). Subtitles are missing about half the time. Slightly better than watching screen savers on Amazon Fire TV. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

A couple of baseball flicks on tonight. This was the first and, while it is no great picture, it was worth watching.Tom Selleck plays the predictable Ugly American that thinks he knows it all. He can't accept that, if he really knew it all, he wouldn't have been sent to Japan.Dennis Haybert from 24, The Unit, Jarhead, and Breach tries to help him realize that he needs to get with the program.But, it is the manager's daughter that turns him around and , guess what, he starts to be a team player.Yes, I know that that was so predictable, but is still worth your time. It's no "Natural," but it's OK.

I kind of had somewhat high expectations for this movie. I've always thought that Tom Selleck's lesser known movies (ie Runaway and Coma), where well above the ones he had more press for. Maybe the producers should have had a little more knowledge about former major league baseball players who became stars overseas. The majority were players too good for triple a baseball, but not exactly major league matériel. I admire the idea of putting Selle's's character in Japn, versus the cliché of having play in the minors. Sad to say, this movie, much like the title of the post, is stranded at third by a movie that seems to be running on autopilot. I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel, and hopefully, the producers would learn from the mistakes. The premise is just way too unique to be left alone with this uneven flick