Thanks for the memories!

Powerful

Instant Favorite.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Okay, the come-on notes says this is an "intramural" game, but it's supposed to be a playoff game in some unidentified summer league. The players on both sides act like freshmen in high school or worse, but they all appear to be at least 24. Who ever heard guys beyond little league doing chants and cat-calls during a game. I guess the guys are older so they can say the F' word a lot, and go on about how hard life is beyond puberty. I kept watching it to see if there was a message someplace or some surprise ending like having a girlfriend pitch the last out. No, the message was "keep on trying." And the closing shots appear to be from the author/producer's little league or high school game. Oh well, keep on trying as there are a lot better sports movies out there.

I didn't know what to expect from the movie, but the story-line intrigued me. Five minutes into it and I was hooked. Let me warn you though this is not a 'Remember the Titans' or a 'The Blind Side'. This one was created at probably half the budget of the two famous movies and chances are you may not recognize a single face in the cast. However, the movie is simply awesome for some very basic reasons. First, the rusticity and grittiness is not cultivated. A movie about a ragtag baseball team in a small town looks like a ragtag baseball team in a small town including the dusty and ill-fitted jerseys or the less-than-glamourous atmosphere and no attempt has been made to beautify it to make it attractive. It can as well be shot by somebody sitting on the sideline and it kind of makes the whole drama more compelling. Secondly, the cast. They move and talk in a way like they have all been growing up with each other and have known each other since forever. There are the douchebag, the jock, the wannabe, the level-headed, the hot-headed, the local blue-eyed boy whom everybody pitches for and of course there is the jaded-looking umpire with sarcastic one-liners.You kind of relate to it so much. Even though you may not be from a small town in America, you may not even know all the rules of baseball correctly, hell, you may not even like sports, but you get it. Because at some point of time in your life you are embarrassed by your friends and family, but you still root for them because they are weirdos, but they are your weirdos and you will defend them with tooth and nail. Because things always don't make sense and you get to make do with what little you have. And you will see yourself in the bunch of people playing a game you know little about. That is the magic of this movie. It is so real that it is nearly unreal. It seems the dialogues were not written by a script-writer, but the actors were told to say whatever comes out of their mouth first thing and they did it so wonderfully. Each one of them has given such guileless, unselfconscious performance, that the story transcends from a sports movie and it becomes an analogy to life itself. Magic of the movie, again.I would highly recommend it to anybody to people who like baseball, who hate baseball or people like me who don't understand baseball, but would love to watch a movie that proves a movie can be sweet and leave a gentle smile on your lips without having a single romantic plot (or sub-plot).

My son and I have watched this movie over and over again. We absolutely love it. The entire movie keeps us laughing. It has a serious side when it comes to the actual love of the game and what parents and children go through when baseball is such a big part of their lives. Joe Mazzello did an excellent job directing and acting in this film. Murray and Vinnie kept us in stitches along with all the other cast members. Such a fun movie to watch. Obviously, Joe's brother John should have been drafted. We researched his batting average and all we could say was "Wow!". Great movie, love love love it.

Baseball is America's pastime. It was first played in 18th century England. Sadly, it is depicted in a rather juvenile fashion via 2016's Undrafted (my latest review).Undrafted is about a crass, intramural team trying to win a meaningless, seven inning game. Supposedly, it is based on a true story involving the director's brother (John Mazzello). Real-life Johnny boy failed to make the Major League Baseball draft. If this is an admiral tribute to him, well then you can just call me the veritable Cal Ripken Jr. So OK, I've seen other, similar "play ball" movies like For Love of the Game and Summer Catch. This is indeed worse. Oh and um, Richard Linklater called. He says he wants his inclination of male bonding back.Anyway, writer/director Joseph Mazzello (he's also an actor) fashions a script that might look good on paper but for some reason, deems these dudes to be incredibly annoying. They don't talk and act like actual human beings. And hey, they won't and can't shut up. Players on the bench prattle about the Backstreet Boys. Tyler Hoechlin portrays a starting pitcher yet doesn't replicate anything near what said pitcher's form is supposed to look like. A center fielder and his teammates go psychotic even though their team is winning a slight, pivotal game. A hitter argues a pitch that is clearly in the strike zone. Finally, James Belushi appears briefly as a failed, draftee's father (is Belushi that hard up for an acting job). In jest, most of the sequences in Undrafted are in the dugout, separated badly from what is really going on in the field. Man I'm so glad this flick was free by way of On Demand.All in all, Undrafted is like a more volatile Everybody Wants Some!! It's overacted with scenes that are edited quickly only to die on arrival. The only difference between this film and "Wants Some!!", is that its proceedings don't include partying, drugs, alcohol, or the notion of getting laid. Heck, Undrafted sucks period no matter how you wanna analyze it. I wanted to punch everyone involved. No one wins this cinematic game of baseball and you know what, no one should. That includes the producers, the cast, and the filmmaker (Joe Mazzello) who excitedly (and naively) showed this thing three years after it was made. Undrafted is one of 2016's worst and I don't think it ever got released (in theaters) in the first place. Good call ump. A strike out or a last ditch, nicked foul ball is my commentating assessment . Rating: 1 star.