Customer Reviews

Bleacher Bums

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bleacher Bums is a movie version of the famous Second City stage play which stars Wayne Knight(Seinfeld, Third Rock from the Sun), Brad Garrett(Everybody Loves Raymond, Til' Death) and Hal Sparks(Queer as Folk). The film is about a group of loyal baseball fans who take bets on the entire game, cheer and boo for the home team and gets on each others' cases. Now, due to legal and trademark issues, the film cannot use the Chicago Cubs name or logo, Wrigley Field, or Major League Baseball, and also, the film was not shot on location in Chicago, but Toronto, Ontario, Canada. But anyway, Bleacher Bums will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the spirit of baseball.

This movie is great combination of adult humor, love story and object lesson. You'll laugh till you cry at some scenes and may be tempted to cry at others. If you like relational movies, you have GOT to see Bleacher Bums.

Ignore the heckler in the stands below; this is a great film not just about baseball, or gambling, but about people and how they "win or lose." In this film, no one loses and the entire cast hits homeruns. I loved it.

Anyone know who did the great blues music featured in the film? I would love to have a CD of this as well!

A very good adaptation of a stage play, with an outstanding cast. It has an mature perspective on the love of baseball and the compulsion of gambling. It is funny and serious at the same time. One of the finest examples of ensemble acting available on film.

A foul-mouthed, salacious, well-cast, occasionally entertaining, slice-of-life look at some Chicago Cub (Bruins) fans. Although the ensemble acting is effective and the movie has some satisfying moments, the merits don't outweigh the liabilities for me. I would love to be a bleacher bum at Wrigley Field, but if I sat anywhere near this set of fans, it would diminish my enjoyment. These are the Bleacher Barbarians, and the movie's treatment of a mentally unbalanced fan and his menacing of a player is disturbing. I would love to watch a game with the two old guys in the scoreboard, but they are only in the film for a few moments. In short, the movie doesn't have enough to redeem its winking at antisocial behavior, including compulsive gambling, and the MLB was wise to withhold its approval. I would love to watch the Cubs, but the Bruins not so much.

An odd collection of fans get together regularly to watch their favorite team play. One gal hopes to be caught on camera and discovered. Then it rains. Pretty much only one recognizable face, Robert of 'Every One Loves Raymond'.

Excellent, fun movie which Brad Garrett comes very close to stealing, in my opinion. Hal Sparks is wonderful as the younger guy who worships Garrett's character and desperately wants his approval. The obsessed fan willing to cheat (reflecting the sun into a batter's eyes is a no-no that will get you banned from major league parks) is in my opinion a weak link in the film- hard to see why we should care about him, he's not really part of the story, more a loud annoyance than anything else. I also didn't care for the two guys in the scoreboard, probably for the same reason- they weren't necessary to the plot development and seemed more a break from the film than anything else. Their "Do you think they have a chance" followed by "Oh, anything's possible" exchange when the "Bruins" have just tied the game seems trite and forced- they just tied the game, they are the home team, of course they have a "chance!" But overall- excellent film which I've watched several times and always seems fresh.

The movie is good but I wonder why the name change for the home team went from the Cubs to the Bruins? In the stage play the Cubs remain Cubs. The movie was filmed at Wrigley Field so the Cubs had to cooporate with the project.