I was much less impressed with my second viewing of John Lee Hancock’s 2002 The Rookie (The Blind Side, The Alamo) than when I watched it for the first time back in 2004. This is one of those movies that you only need to see once in your life. Unfortunately, much like The Express, this “inspirational” story of overcoming the odds to reach a dream movie gets lost in the masses compared to other sports dramas based on true stories.

Dennis Quaid (Frequency, Vantage Point) stars as 35-year-old Jimmy Morris, a Texas high school science teacher and coach of the school’s baseball team whose lifelong dream was to play in the major leagues. Setbacks, including injuries, continually moving around the country as a child, financial difficulties as an adult, and resentment of his father (Brian Cox – The Ring, Adaptation), made this dream unattainable. To make things worse, his coaches’ high school team won just one game over the previous three seasons.

The baseball players in the school love their coach. They know how much he loves baseball and how important coaching is to him. After watching Jimmy pitch in practice one day, his students encouraged him to give baseball one more shot. He continually shoots down the idea. However, in the end, he promises them that if they win districts, he has to go to an open tryout for a semi-pro league, knowing in his heart that this will never happen. But when the team wins 14 games in a row and captures the district championship, Jimmy knows he must honor his promise to the boys.

Many things could be improved with the editing of the movie. Jimmy’s parents are married when we meet Jimmy as a young boy. His parents are divorced when we see him 20 years later, though we don’t know why. At the start of the movie, he has a younger brother who is never heard from again. We continuously hear about Jimmy’s injuries (specifically a bad right shoulder). Still, we never see him suffering from the injury, nor do we know why he seems suddenly cured. Because this drama wasn’t there, I didn’t see Jim as more than an old guy who could throw a baseball 98 miles per hour and earn one more chance to capitalize on a dream.

I realize it takes work to make a movie like The Rookie unique. There have been thousands of films made about individuals overcoming adversity. There are hundreds of sports movies with almost this same theme. With that said, there have been other highly successful and memorable sports, many of which came after The Rookie. These include Friday Night Lights (2004), The Blind Side (2009), Cinderella Man (2005), The Fighter (2010), Coach Carter (2005), and Miracle (2004). I recommend each of these sports dramas before recommending The Rookie. I would especially recommend Friday Night Lights and Cinderella Man.

Quaid does an admirable job as a likable coach. I could see him as both a high school teacher and a coach. He holds together a movie that is full of holes. For a sports drama, however, this movie replaces tension with corniness. The film is such a mockery of itself at times, with corny cliche after corny cliche that when the feel-good moments do come, you no longer care about them.

The Rookie is not a horrible movie, and with a “G” rating, it is aimed at audiences different from those of the films I mentioned above (except for maybe Miracle). This is a movie that the whole family could watch and enjoy together, though I believe family members of all ages will be saying to themselves, “That’s it?” when the movie is over.

Plot 8.5/10
Character Development 5/10
Character Chemistry 5/10
Acting 8/10
Screenplay 6/10
Directing 7/10
Cinematography 7.5/10
Sound 5/10
Hook and Reel 6/10
Universal Relevance 10/10
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