Change Your Image
wkephart
Reviews
The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (1998)
A Wonderful Day at the Movies
This documentary is aimed to appeal to three groups, Jews, baseball fans and members of the greatest generation. Since I am in two of those three groups I found it very appealing. I would have liked more detail on his experiences during the war and on his activities after his playing days were over. This period was glossed over very quickly as was his personal married life. There were other Jewish baseball players and mention of those would have been interesting. I had been looking forward to seeing it and was glad and surprised that it came to Richmond and gave me a very enjoyable time in the motion picture theater.
To the Ends of the Earth (1948)
Still good after 52 years
I have been looking for this picture since I first saw it when it was released in 1948. It impressed me then with the world wide scope of its story of opium smuggling and I had been anxious to see it again. I had thought about it many times over the years and knew that it was not on video and did not know where I would find it. By accident I found it listed in the movies on Movie Plex. It apparently had been show previously as there were 21 votes for it so at least 21 others had seen it. Seeing it the second time after all these years was just as enjoyable as the first time.
Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
A Mish Mash of A Movie
If I had not read the book I would not have watched the movie and I do not know if that is the reason I found it so disappointing. If I had not read the book I probably would have had even more difficulty with it. The book was not a great one but was a good read, and nicely crafted by a talented author. The movie gave only token attention to the many details and characters in the book. I am not sorry that I watched it because I like to see what movie makers do with a good novel, but I would not recommend it to anyone else.
For Love of the Game (1999)
Good Baseball; Bad Movie
The baseball sequences are as good as any I have seen in a movie, but the rest is as bad as any movie I have seen. Unfortunatley the baseball part is not enough to make this a movie which could be recommended. I have read the book and thought it too was a good book though not great which concentrated on the character of Billy Chapel as a baseball player and as an individual. The relationship with his girl friend was not as elaborate or complicated as that shown in the movie, but did depict him as someone who was dedicated to his baseball career, and though a decent human being did not really need anything or anyone else. I saw this movie on DVD and the best part was the extras added about how the movie was made and the short film about Babe Ruth. It did not seem to have any connection with the movie, but to a dedicated old time baseball fan was quite interesting. What surprised me most was the fact that Costner did all of the pitching himself and in this manner aquitted himself as a good baseball actor though his acting in the other love sequences was not as convincing.