So, I finally saw the movie Fever Pitch (2005 version).
I've been highly skeptical of this film for numerous reasons:
1. Movies based on books usually don't do justice to the book and make me mad (with the rare exception like High Fidelity - also a Nick Hornsby book). But Fever Pitch did not have John Cusack OR Jack Black in it.. just Johnny Damon, Jason Varitek and Trot Nixon.
2. There has already been a movie of this book. Fever Pitch (1997). Movies that have Colin Firth in them don't need to be remade.
3. They completely changed the book from being about soccer football in England to baseball in Boston. I read the book years ago. It was not a book about a relationship between a guy and a girl. It's a book about a relationship between a boy and a team. I liked the book even though I didn't understand much of it, not knowing any soccer lingo or anything about the teams in England. But I know to root for Arsenal now.
4. In the book, Arsenal ends up winning. Originally, in the movie the Red Sox don't win (because who would believe that?). Then the ending was frantically rewritten to include the World Series, complete with Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore on the field at the end of Game 4. GAG! That shit just ain't right!
5. Jimmy Fallon is in the movie. While I loved his Red Sox skits on SNL, I read an article where he was asked what his favorite baseball team was and he said the Brooklyn Dodgers. What fucking poser. He's what.. 35 years old?
and most importantly:
6. Red Sox mystique just should not be fictionalized! You live it or you don't. No movie can do it justice.
And then the movie came in the mail from Netflix.
The movie starts with the kid going to Fenway with his uncle (who else but Lenny Clark). The sites! The sounds! The green! The Green Monster without seats! But most importantly a close up of Dennis Eckersley and Jim Rice in Red Sox uniforms. And I turned to a big puddle of goo and knew I would love the movie. I have an insane, crazy, raging crush on Dennis Eckersley and I always have. I love everything about him.. even his bad 70's porn movie hair and moustache. I adore it when he's on Extra Innings (and Extra Innings Extra!).
The movie itself is passable.. if not for all the little Red Sox things, it would be just another silly Drew Barrymore romantic comedy. But I loved that the girl from Still, We Believe was in it, I loved that one of the students was wearing an Adam Vinatieri shirt, I laughed out loud at the dance he made his friends do to get Yankees tickets, the cut scene where Jason & Johnny speak is in the special features!, I liked the use of Tessie throughout.. (I know some people don't like Tessie, but I do), the return of Ione Skye.. Diane is back. Well, I'm sure there is more that I liked, but it doesn't matter.. you had me at Eck. You had me at Eck.-----
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