Hardball

Hardball (2001)

  • 38% of critics liked it
    (99 reviews)

  • 70% of users liked it
    (54,292 ratings)

Television actor-turned-director Brian Robbins follows up Varsity Blues (1999) and Ready to Rumble (2000) with another sports comedy. Keanu Reeves stars as Conor O'Neill, an underachiever and inveterate sports gambler who needs a bailout loan from a friend to pay off his mounting debt. As a… More

Play Trailer

PG-13,
Directed By
Written By
John Gatins
Genres
Drama, Comedy
In Theaters
Sep 14, 2001 Wide
Paramount Pictures

Critic Reviews

  • Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

    A smarmy proposition passing itself off as family fun in the style of The Bad News Bears.

  • Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle

    Works where it counts, on the emotional level.

  • John A. Nesbit, Old School Reviews

    Had Paramount played more team ball, they coulda been a contender

  • Nell Minow, Common Sense Media

    This umpire calls Hardball out at first base.

  • Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com

    This is less a hardball than a softball, without any curves or surprises.

Read all 8 critic reviews

See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Conner R


    It's an incredibly dumb urban sports movie that tries to cover racism and male comradery. Keanu Reeves plays a gambling low life who gets stuck coaching kids, so it's nothing you haven't seen before. I can tell that it wasn't supposed to be good, but that… More

  • Dean M


    This hard-edged little dream deserves plenty of credit for avoiding the light comedy and fairy-tale conclusions by which underdog sports sagas usually are known, and would deserve an even higher rating were it not for Keanu Reeves's wooden (as usual) performance in the lead role.… More

  • Daniel P


    It took me a week to come out with a rating on this one, and I still can't decide whether it's a pretty good movie with some really bad parts, or a bad movie with a few really good parts. The screenplay seems decent, but the dialogue is rough; Keanu Reeves is mostly bad,… More

  • Jason S


    This is a really dark movie really. The main guy is in the dumps in a bad way and he hooks up with inner city kids to play baseball. He is pretty much a scummy guy until the end and he doesn't seem to get the lesson the situation is trying to show him. The ending is a real… More

  • danny d


    not bad, diane lane was good in this one

Read all 10 featured audience ratings

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Cast

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Trailers & Clips