Customer Reviews

Slugger's Wife [VHS]

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

 

 

I am going to have to completely disagree with the other customer review here. While The Slugger's Wife wasn't a great classic romantic comedy to come out of the 80's, it was worth the two hours I spent watching it on cable. I think this must have been one of Rebecca Demorney's earliest roles, possibly after Risky Business. She plays a singer(well, err...she tries to be a singer) that performs covers of popular rock songs in cheezy/lounge singer mode. I'm sure it was her own voice too. That part of the film was a bit cheezy, but it was the 80's! Michael O'Keefe plays a major league baseball player who falls instantly in love with her as he sees her perform at a club. He doesn't win her right away, he actually almost "strikes out" completely. Eventually they start dating and get married. He wants her to be there for the games and not work, and she wants to continue with her lame singing career. This was definitely not one of the best movies from the 80s, but it is worth a look at in my opinion. It was kind of sweet. The music however, was more of a cheeze factor than real music. I didn't feel my time had been wasted on this movie. I found it to be a cute little romantic comedy that seemed to be forgotten.

These days, 80's movies are much-maligned. And watching movies like The Slugger's Wife, you gotta admit, a lot of stuff from back then is hard to watch. But I think this one holds up reasonably well. Movies based on Neil Simon plays were popular in the seventies, but were a bit hit-and-miss by 1985 (see also: Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues). Anyway, the prime reason to catch this one--or at least it was the prime reason some two decades ago--is Rebecca DeMornay. Although it would be a stretch call her a great actress, the title role her suits her talents. And yes, that really is her singing (I'm a little ashamed to admit I have the soundtrack on cassette somewhere). As someone else has pointed out, the keyboard-heavy soundtrack does hopelessly date the film.

But if you long for a simpler time, when movies wanted nothing more than just ENTERTAIN you for a couple of hours, you could do a lot worse than The Slugger's Wife.

I have The Slugger's Wife [ 1985 - NEIL SIMON] on Laserdisc,'tis a great Movie and A MUST SEE :p

"I'm rotten, but I'm smart", one of the best lines uttered in this film. There are certainly some cheesey scenes and the baseball scenes themselves are not all that great, especially compared to a film like Major League. Someone else made mention of the 80's baseball film genre and that's pretty accurate. I had never heard of this film until I stumbled upon it recently at a used DVD place.

Randy Quaid is an added bonus. This is an interesting role for Michael O'Keefe, I keep picturing him as Danny in Caddyshack. I never pictured Danny setting the MLB single season homerun record. There is some bad acting in this film, some scenes are really forced. A true baseball fan will like the film. I liked the voices of the old TBS guys in some of the play calling. I also enjoyed the old Braves, Padres, Phillies and Astros uniforms. Baseball fans...add this one to the collection.

For those of you renting this movie or watching it on HBO or whatever, and you're expecting this to be a baseball movie, of course you might be a bit disappointed. It's not realistic as a baseball movie, it's supposed to be a romantic comedy...the baseball player falls for a singer and marries her, only to smother her with too much love. At the end, they don't get back together, which is fitting, because the door is left open for that to happen. I've seen other reviews for this movie, and I'm sorry that you didn't like it, but I thought this was a very funny, very cute movie that happened to have some baseball elements in it. Give it a break.

The first time I saw this movie I was probably either 5 or 6. This movie, along with many other 80s movies (Breakfast Club, Terminator, Weird Science, etc.) has been one of those movies that has stuck with me almost my whole life...Of course it's not the greatest movie...I agree with a lot of reviewers about the cheesy music...But it was the 80s...However the story itself is really good...
Now one thing that got to me was that they didn't release a widescreen version of the film...Instead we get this lame a** fullscreen crap which is why I didn't buy it...But luckily man created DVD Recorders and they played this movie on tv in HD and widescreen and I'm recording it as we speak so now I can enjoy this classic the way it and all movies should be enjoyed in...widescreen...

As a serious drama, it is uneven; as a musical, the singing is mediocre; as a romantic comedy, it is gloomy, lewd and noisy; as a baseball movie it is unrealistic. It is also misnamed as it is more about the slugger than the singer. It isn't terrible. Darryl Porter (Michael O'Keefe) is a sympathetic character and Burly (Martin Ritt) has some good lines. "You know what makes really good champagne? Winning." But, it is seriously flawed. It does have a cameo by the irrepressible Mark "The Bird" Fidrych. I wish it had utilized him more. I miss him.

I think this is a fun baseball movie to watch though it has a sad undertow as the Slugger and his wife ( a singer) get married but their relationship is slowly ground down by the pressure of performing.

While the story might be a bad excuse for an apology to Marsha Mason from Neil Simon, and the baseball scenes are incredibly inaccurate (Astros and Braves are wearing their home uniforms at the same time), this video affords the viewer a look at one of the best nightclubs ever seen. Limelight Atlanta was built in the old Harlequin Dinner Theatre and featured an extravagant light show valued some say at over a half million dollars. It's unfortunate the club is gone, but the footage inside the club is wonderful. Also filmed inside The Saint Atlanta which closed shortly after the movie was released theatrically...

With apologies to friends who served as extras, this is a complete waste of Celluloid. Garbage is way too elevated a description. There are too many fine baseball movies on the market - "Eight Men Out," "Pride of the Yankees" - to even consider this tripe. Avoid at all costs. Strike one, strike two, strike three. Yer out!