The Final Season-480P

The Final Season-480P

No, it's not another "Bang the Drum Slowly," but like Slowly, it's an excellent baseball picture that has everything including a strong small town in Iowa, a contentious board meeting, love blossoming between two opposing forces, a memorable superintendent, and a baseball team that just wouldn't quit, even though they see their beloved high school closed to join a larger school. The main surprise in the movie is the role of Powers Boothe, the coach who was replaced because his wife dared to start a petition drive not to close the school. After about 40 minutes of the film, he is rarely seen again. Boothe gives a restrained but compelling performance as the replaced coach of a team with 19 straight division titles. Along with the major plot, we have a rebellious youth who is sent to live with his grandparents. Obviously, the young man finds himself through the baseball team. Cohesiveness and town unity is what makes this film so good.

I wanted to like this movie. Having lived in Iowa and knowing this story fairly well, and being a big baseball fan, I felt this would be enjoyable. It wasn't. Sometimes the low budget films have a particular charm to them. This one lacked most of that. It was poorly pieced together as a bunch of anecdotes. They couldn't focus on crucial details. The music was too much, and the editing and acting were horrible, despite having big names. But I think what bothers me the most were the little details they glossed over... small things. A few noticeable details: -Norway was playing a school with "Vikings" on the jersey. But the stadium said, "Home of the Knights" (Norway was the Tigers) -In the championship game, the umpires called literally every pitch from Ellis a "strike", when several were very, very much off the plate. They didn't write these to make it seem like they were bad calls (for example, no one in the crowd groaned at the calls). -There were things pertaining to the baseball that makes one wonder if the writers have ever watched baseball? Let alone, 1A baseball in po-dunk Iowa... From things like the way the coach swung and managed to hit a massive home run or the effortlessness of a pitcher throwing 95 on the black. It sounds petty, but I firmly believe that writers who do these things well do them because they take their audience seriously. I don't feel the writers of "The Final Season" took us seriously. And it shows.

Come on people, it is what it is. Show me some where else in the US this has been done. I would have preferred to see someone else in the roles of Kent Stock and Jim Van Scoyc, someone who actually cared about the roles, but from someone who grew up in this town, it was very nice that anyone even bothered. Evans does a super job with the baseball scenes. Let it be for God's sake. If you hate it, don't watch! If you like it watch away. Someone cared enough to let us have our little moment in the sun. Maybe someday, you will have one of your own. We lived through all the highs and lows of baseball in Norway, and we enjoyed it all. It's really a shame that some of the older fans who were so devoted to the teams through the years, were not here to see it. That's the tragedy. Maybe another movie will come out soon you can focus your venom on.

There are a lot of harsh reviews on this film, and it is puzzling. Sure the film has a formula feel to it, but considering how it is based on a true story, how could it not follow the standard underdog formula? The film caught the flavor of the David and Goliath aspect from many points. Small town school wins consistently against larger schools at the state champ level, second choice coach filling shoes of veteran favorite coach, town versus state politics, and the list goes on. The movie is entertaining and inspiring--look for those moments. Iowa and baseball go together and the movie captures the importance of baseball to a small town like Norway, Iowa. Sean Astin gives a likable performance as coach Kent Scott. Form your opinion and don't be swayed by the negative reviews. The baseball scenes are worth the watch all in their own.

I wish I could rate this movie better than a 6. The cinematography is beautiful, the acting is competent, the story is true. The baseball scenes are exciting, which makes the second half of the movie quite good. Unfortunately, the first half suffers from a mediocre script and glacial pacing. The movie didn't need the romantic subplots (any of them). It really didn't need the wayward teenager sent to live with the farmer grandparents either. Rachel Leigh Cook's character lacks credibility in her romantic interest in the young assistant coach and in her career about-face. It's a good baseball movie. It's also a good movie about small town values and how a winning high school sports team can energize a town that is hanging on by its teeth. Once you get past the plodding pace of the first half, it is a worthy entry in the genre of under dog sports movies.

Baseball is the perfect metaphor the American Dream: effort = success, anyone can play, and winning is a metaphor for life. The Last Season is a nice effort by Sean Astin. It is pretty much exactly what a good sports underdog movie should be. The film about Norway, based on fact, a tiny town of 500 or so that produced team after team that went onto win the State Championship for High School baseball. When threatened with politics and closure due to lack of funding the team does what it knows best, goes in to bat for one last season. Have to be honest though and say it's not as inspiring as it would like to be in places, it does hit some good home runs by the end, but overall it is a little too clichéd to really succeed. If sports movies are your thing then you'll enjoy it, but I don't think this will become anyone's (Outside of Iowa) favorite ever movie. It is a nice effort, and watchable, but as I said it ain't outstanding...

"The Final Season," from the director of the Sandlot, is based on the true story of the Norway, Iowa high school baseball team. Norway is a small Iowa town who holds a lot of pride in its baseball team, who has won 19 state titles in 24 years. When the school board threatens to merge the school with the large school of Madison, the town is enraged. They disagree with all of the boards claims and reasons for merging the school, and hate to see their baseball team and players disappear. Will the team get to play another season? Will the school be merged, or will it stay independent? The acting is pretty good, although at times the actors seem to be reading off a prompter. These incidents are few and far apart, however. The movie is a bit predictable, but isn't that the nature of sports films? It is still a fantastic movie that will be enjoyed by not only baseball fans, but sports fans is general. I recommend this movie for all ages. The film overall is inspiring, emotional, and entertaining. I strongly recommend you see this movie.

This film tells the story of the Norway High School baseball team, who is looking to end their baseball dynasty with their 20th state championship. As an Iowa native, I knew I had to see this film, and I was not disappointed one bit. I will use the same line Boston Celtic legend Larry Bird used when he described the movie Hoosiers "Those guys got it right". A lot of the lessons that Sean Astin's character learns from the old coach are the same lessons that our head coach at Spalding High School taught us. It showed the passion that the people of Norway, just like the fans in many Iowa small towns (Lansing, Granville, Bancroft, etc) will drop everything to go to the games on Friday nights and will travel hundreds of miles to see their teams play for a state championship.