I may have liked this movie better than many reviewers because I DON'T know a whole lot of details about Babe Ruth's real life. Other than the famous 'called shot' and his home run race with Gehrig, I'd only heard that he was larger-than-life, a real undisciplined manchild.
To that end, I thought John Goodman turned in a pretty good performance as the Bambino, bringing his usual genius to his work. His range of emotion was excellent, and did much to complement the whirlwind pace of Ruth's salad days. The most powerful scene was definitely Ruth attacking the booing hometown fans during his slump; Goodman gave a frighteningly convincing impression of a man quickly devolving into an apoplectic state. Whether the incident took place in real life, I don't know, but being as I haven't seen a reviewer on imdb castigate it as fiction, I'll assume that it was.
The soundtrack in the movie was perfect, as well. A great combination of uplifting sports-movie heroic music and hopping, gin-joint jazz; it hid from the spotlight and supported the whole film, like a good score should.
The only major problem I found with the film was, ironically, John Goodman himself. He clearly tries very hard to look, move, and talk like The Babe, but he's so recognizable on his own that I didn't see the Sultan of Swat in living color - I saw John Goodman playing baseball. Unfortunately, the remainder of the cast gave mostly-forgettable performances, but I supposed that's something you assume when their whole point of being included in the movie was to show their relationship to the central character.
In conclusion: maybe not good for sports historians, but a pretty watchable film, on its own.
To that end, I thought John Goodman turned in a pretty good performance as the Bambino, bringing his usual genius to his work. His range of emotion was excellent, and did much to complement the whirlwind pace of Ruth's salad days. The most powerful scene was definitely Ruth attacking the booing hometown fans during his slump; Goodman gave a frighteningly convincing impression of a man quickly devolving into an apoplectic state. Whether the incident took place in real life, I don't know, but being as I haven't seen a reviewer on imdb castigate it as fiction, I'll assume that it was.
The soundtrack in the movie was perfect, as well. A great combination of uplifting sports-movie heroic music and hopping, gin-joint jazz; it hid from the spotlight and supported the whole film, like a good score should.
The only major problem I found with the film was, ironically, John Goodman himself. He clearly tries very hard to look, move, and talk like The Babe, but he's so recognizable on his own that I didn't see the Sultan of Swat in living color - I saw John Goodman playing baseball. Unfortunately, the remainder of the cast gave mostly-forgettable performances, but I supposed that's something you assume when their whole point of being included in the movie was to show their relationship to the central character.
In conclusion: maybe not good for sports historians, but a pretty watchable film, on its own.