For Love of the Game
Universal Pictures | Release Date: September 17, 1999 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
15
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
The game is cool to watch, and the love story is assertive enough to hook even the stodgiest ESPN man. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
This sentimental drama is wildly uneven as it switches between ballpark scenes, which are very involving, and romantic episodes, which are badly overplayed. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyPaul Malcolm
The film's larger, surprisingly mature emotional rhythms are strong enough to pull it through. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Costner's determination to avoid change keeps this baseball movie at a low line drive when it might have knocked one into the bleachers. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The weighty themes of loss, regret and abdication of personal responsibility are undermined by the reverential use of baseball as a symbol of mankind's potential for selfless greatness. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The real love affair in For Love of the Game is between Costner and himself.
50
VarietyRobert Koehler
Costner is as uneven as the storytelling itself, stone cold at moments, shimmeringly real in others. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
Tested my own love of the game more than anything since the time Roseanne screeched the national anthem.
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Much of this movie seems a crock.
50
San Francisco ExaminerEdvins Beitiks
A piece of baseball fluff...Costner cinema, pure and simple.
40
Film.comSean Means
Costner's serious-as-a-heart-attack performance...slowly kills the movie's energy in a gooey morass of forced sincerity. Read full review
40
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Plays like an unholy union of "The Natural" and "The Prince of Tides." Too bad...Build a movie as a shrine to baseball and they will come. Suckers!
40
Film.comMoira Macdonald
Call it baseball interruptus, or just call it a missed opportunity. Read full review
40
The New York TimesLawrence Van Gelder
Sometimes even a talented lineup produces unexceptional results. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Watching Raimi's visual style and narrative verve flatten out into this pale reiteration of a middle-aged-male weepie is an exercise in modern horror. Read full review
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