The Scout (1994)
Review by Bailey
Film:
DVD:

Directed by Michael Ritchie
Written by Andrew Bergman, Albert Brooks & Monica Johnson, based on the article from The New Yorker by Roger Angell
Starring Albert Brooks, Brendan Fraser, Dianne Wiest, Anne Twomey, Michael Rapaport

Features:

• Theatrical Trailer
  
• Featurette
  
• Baseball strike news cap
  
• TV spots

Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Avoid It.

We got this movie at the site for review. The studio sent it to us and said, “review it, tell us what you think.” I think—no, I know that I want my money back. I really like Albert Brooks, loved Defending Your Life and he was great in Out of Sight. I really like Brendan Fraser, the Mummy movies notwithstanding; he’s done some really good stuff. Dianne Wiest is pretty much a rock in Hollywood. And I love, I mean love baseball. I am the weekend warrior that is playing two nights a week and every weekend during the summer months. So what went wrong?

This movie is about a down on his luck talent scout (Brooks) for the New York Yankees who, while in exile in Mexico, stumbles across the greatest player (Fraser) to ever play the game...maybe. Only problem is that due to the performance of some of Brooks’ previous finds the Yankees want a letter from a psychologist (Wiest) stating that Fraser’s character is competent to play in the big leagues.

Sounds interesting, has potential, think about it: how good could this story idea be compared to say a baseball story about a guy building a baseball diamond in the middle of a corn field? Oh, wait, that worked didn’t it--so this must be money. Do you remember The Scout in the theaters? No? Neither do I. Because this movie simply wasn’t memorable. The performances were mediocre. The plot didn’t develop in a logical manner. The movie makes a big deal of establishing the need for the psychologist--perhaps the most interesting plot direction--and then doesn’t go anywhere with it. Why? No clue. And all my love for the sport could not translate into a like for this movie.

The DVD was a letdown as well. It didn’t give us that much in the way of background material. Sure there’s a blip of information on the baseball strike, but like always: I want more. Certainly more than that and the trailer and TV spots. Not to mention the obligatory ho-hum featurette. The potential for gigabytes of useless movie trivia is here and no one seems to be able to give it to me. Oh well.