A chronicle of Babe Ruth's phenomenal story--from his hard knock beginnings at a Baltimore orphanage, to his meteoric rise to baseball superstardom and his poignant retirement from the game. His amazing career included seven American League pennants, four World Series championships, two tempestuous marriages and a wild lifestyle that earned him numerous suspensions.
It's not a bad movie. But its sentiments are faster than its reflexes. By the time it tries to uncoil a home-run swing, the ball has already vanished.
– Michael Wilmington,
Los Angeles Times,
9 May 2014
rotten:
Goodman should have been perfect for the title role: like Ruth, he's a regular Joe of hugely irregular proportions in appetite and accomplishment. Too bad Hiller and Fusco cut him down to size.
– Michael Sragow,
New Yorker,
9 May 2014
rotten:
It doesn`t matter that these things really happened, because the thin staging and sentimental exaggeration make them seem extremely phony in any case.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Tribune,
9 May 2014
fresh:
An honestly unheroic view of a hero, with a grand-slam performance by John Goodman.
– Richard Schickel,
TIME Magazine,
9 May 2014
rotten:
What could have been the Raging Bull of baseball movies becomes the nibble of a mouse on the legend of a giant.