The filmmakers realize that playing baseball isn't nearly enough to fix what's wrong in these kids' lives, which might have made a more provocative ending than what follows.

| May 13, 2020

[Keanu] Reeves is often mocked for his blankness, but that quality is an asset here.

| May 13, 2020

Director Brian Robbins' film ultimately seems as uninterested in penetrating the graffiti-scarred walls of its Cabrini Green setting as its white-bread protagonist is.

| May 13, 2020

This umpire calls Hardball out at first base.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 24, 2010

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 30, 2006

[Keanu] Reeves doesn't strike the right chord -- you never get the feeling he's not acting.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 10, 2003

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 10, 2002

Even if "Hardball" is mostly soapy formula at its core, it's a formula that at least finds a satisfying groove.

| Oct 12, 2001

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 24, 2001

It's not a bad concept, but it's poorly executed. What could have been a poignant story ends up being sappier than a maple tree in March.

| Sep 24, 2001

A smarmy proposition passing itself off as family fun in the style of The Bad News Bears.

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/5 | Sep 18, 2001

Works where it counts, on the emotional level.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 17, 2001

Does surprisingly few lurches as it walks the tightrope between urban realism ... and family entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 17, 2001

There's no cork inside Hardball, but there's more than enough corn.

| Sep 14, 2001

There's nothing wrong with a good cry, or a good cliche, and Hardball offers both by the barrel.

| Sep 14, 2001

Just dreadful.

| Sep 14, 2001

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll do exactly what this formula hip-hop baseball saga wants you to do.

Full Review | Sep 14, 2001

A surefire heart-tugger made with skill and judgment.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 14, 2001

This is a film designed not so much to tell a coherent and moving story as it is to deliver a van full of cinematic groceries to a certain audience.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 14, 2001

The movie is so littered with cliches of genre, as well as clichs of artifice in Reeves' pained performance, that any semblance of social reality goes foul.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Sep 14, 2001