The tone of Eight Men Out is reminiscent of the droll irony of John Huston's considerations of the vanity of human wishes and the corrupting power of money.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 6, 2014

The light shed on this dark period of sports history makes Eight Men Out essential moviegoing. But what makes it heartbreaking is watching the toll taken on champions betraying their talent on a field of honor.

Full Review | May 6, 2014

It's a period re-created with a whoosh of energy and a redeeming vein of irony.

| Mar 20, 2013

The ensemble performances are of such a uniformly high caliber that our interest in the story never wavers.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 20, 2013

Eight Men Out never gathers much authority; the old themes have been hung on a rickety structure that constantly threatens to collapse.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 20, 2013

In an ensemble movie like this one, an actor who grabs too much of the limelight can throw everything out of focus. The cast Sayles has assembled understands the value of teamwork.

| Mar 20, 2013

Sayles often seems like a man who, trying to stretch a single, gets caught between bases and is desperately trying to evade the rundown.

| Aug 1, 2008

Perhaps the saddest chapter in the annals of professional American sports is recounted in absorbing fashion in Eight Men Out.

| Mar 21, 2007

Baseball fans might find this marginally absorbing; for anyone else it's as conscientious and stylistically pedestrian as Sayles's other films, and a mite overlong to boot.

| Mar 21, 2007

Given the inevitably knotty plotting, the message is oddly unrevealing, although the film features more than enough intelligently, wittily scripted moments to remain a fascinating insight into a crucial episode in the souring of that old American Dream.

| Jan 26, 2006

For anyone who appreciates artistic integrity and is interested in genuinely independent films, the prolific and highly personal work of John Sayles is essential viewing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 2, 2004

For Mr. Sayles, whose idealism has never been more affecting or apparent than it is in this story of boyish enthusiam gone bad in an all too grown-up world, Eight Men Out represents a home run.

Full Review | May 20, 2003

If John Sayles were a ballplayer, they'd call him Lefty -- not for his pitching arm but for his politics. The devoutly liberal filmmaker's political point of view is certain. It's his dramatic focus that sometimes gets fuzzy.

| Jan 1, 2000

It's an insider's movie, a baseball expert's film that is hard for the untutored to follow.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 1, 2000