Monday, May 21, 2018

Undrafted (review)

I'm a sucker for a baseball movie. Whenever I see one on one of the movie channels I haven't seen before I go ahead and record it and hope for the best. With this, I didn't get the best but what I got was good enough.

The movie is based on a true story where on the day of the MLB draft, a player finds out he didn't get drafted and decides to play out the very last game of his intramural season like it's his last.

What's most unique about this movie is that it takes place on the ball field the entire time. Only cutting away to flashbacks near the very end. I was impressed since a lot of baseball movies focus on what's going on off the field.

The characters are pretty well defined with the exception of a few going faceless. But you really get to know 8 of the 12 players on the team pretty well by the end of the movie so that's pretty good. There are moments of brilliance that pop up every once in a while. One of my favorites is a discussion in the dugout as the bench warmers on the team  come up with some great off the field banter that you remember having yourself while in the dugout.

Then there are other moments that you wish could have been better. For example, the movie shows one kid striking out and then at the top of the next inning, standing in the outfield cussing into his glove like you saw happen ALL THE TIME when you played the game. (heck, it could've been you doing the swearing) but then he continues his tirade in the outfield that looks ridiculous and unreal that a guy in his 20's would act that immature.

After the movie they play the actual game ending hit as shown at the end of the movie, to show you how it happened in real life. I nice touch.

Though not my favorite baseball movie by far, Undrafted was indeed worthy of my time. If you love baseball movies, I think you'll find it "ok" in your book too. 

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