The Final Season

For what it’s worth...a movie review

My scale: 1 through 10; 1 being Istar and 10 being Gone With The Wind


OK, I’m a sucker for a baseball movie, I’ll admit it. I’m always hoping for another Field of Dreams or For the Love Of The Game. Well, this is neither, but I still liked it.

Norway, Iowa is a baseball town. After 19 Championships, Norway High is being merged or rather swallowed up, by a bigger school for ‘the good of the town’. Coach Jim Van Scoyoc, played by Powers Booth, has taken them to the last 12 titles but is let go before the final season. In comes newcomer, Kent Stack, played predictably perfect by Sean Astin (whom I’m also a sucker for). He, of course, is met with the usual obstacles of this kind of feel good film.
Tom Arnold, who I think is under rated and under used as an actor, is a former player for coach Van Scoyoc and the Norway Tigers. He brings his rebellious son, Mitch, portrayed by Michael Anganano, to live with his grandparents for a little small town comeuppance! The grandparents were perfectly cast, James Gammon and Angela Paton. Wouldn’t you know the boy is a gifted baseball player. Who whoulda thought?!
The merge doesn’t set well with the team or the town though Marshall Bell as the heavy Harvey Makepeach is determined not to be swayed.
As you can guess, there are ups and downs to the final season, but they do, in fact win the last game with our little Mitch making the winning play....

I went into this film wanting so to love it. Well, I didn’t love it. But I did love many aspects of it. There were characters I thought were spot on perfect small townies; the janitor/bus driver, the town priest, even the little girl who sings the National Anthem. The look, the feel, the innocence of Any Small Town USA was great. The people of Norway were just as determined to keep the high school open and the team together as the antagonist was to see it be gone. I would have loved to see more character development with the members of the team. You really didn’t know any of them well enough to root for them. The romance between Astin’s Coach Stock and School Board Member, Polly Hudsen (Rachel Leigh Cook) , was very believable. Just enough to make you think those two crazy kids will last forever in Norway, Iowa.

Should you see this film? Sure, why not. It’s a Sunday afternoon, feel good, root for the underdogs (well, except they really weren’t underdogs...), and share popcorn with the one who brung ya kind of movie. In the immortal word of the great Steve Johnson, ‘it sure wasn’t no Rudy!’ Well, no, Steve, it wasn’t Rudy...but then, what is....

I give this film a generous 6.7...I gave Rudy a 9.999. I gave it the extra .7 because I recognized Sean Astin’s brother Mackenzie as his assistant coach. Way to keep the fam alive, Sean! It would have been great to see mom Patty Duke as an extra in the stands, but I guess that would have been a little to much hokum, even for this film...but I did like it.....I am a sucker for a baseball movie.....if you see it, let me know what you think.....