Rookie of the Year

Rookie of year strikes out in the laughs department. [09 Jul 1993, p.3D]

The movie has a charming mix of sensible, earthbound characters and silly, over-the-top caricatures. Read full review

Look, this isn't a great movie. If you're not a kid, don't go unless there's a kid you want to take. But if you are a kid, and you have ever for a moment wondered what it would be like to play major-league ball at your age, then take it from the old Little Leaguer and see this movie. Read full review

With Rookie of the Year, Daniel Stern has struck out. Read full review

A good time for kids Read full review

Rookie of the Year is a wholly benevolent but banal baseball fantasy aimed at Little Leaguers with dreams of reaching big-time fields. Read full review

A relatively enjoyable kids' movie that will entertain the kids, but unsurprisingly may leave the adults cold. From the director of The Wonder Years, it doesn't break any new boundaries, but rather sticks with what he knows best, that is sentimental childhood comedies. Read full review

Rookie of the Year, which was directed by Daniel Stern from a script by Sam Harper, has an appealing central performance by Mr. Nicholas, who manages to be cocky without seeming obnoxious. As a summer diversion, the film has about as much substance as cotton candy. Read full review

First-time director Stern - Macaulay Culkin's punching bag in the Home Alone films - gives a broad performance as the pitching coach who knows nothing about baseball. Approach with aspirin. Read full review

Aimed squarely at little leaguers and their doting parents, Rookie of the Year is a modest fantasy that makes its comic fable appealing despite sporadic slapstick missteps. Read full review

A warm, comic "what if" yarn, it's rife with humor and sentimentality but is just one run away from the game-winning score. Read full review

Rookie isn’t a bad movie. It’s also not good. Read full review

The phrase "by the numbers" was invented for the way Harper crafts this script. After coming up with a good notion, opening and close, he simply fills up the middle innings with the detritus of several decades of TV sitcoms and high-concept kid movies. [07 Jul 1993, p.F1]

Kids will certainly enjoy the basic idea, and pre-teens will clearly relate to Nicholas, whose awkward puberty - complete with vocal cords warbling from soprano to baritone - is just right for the role. But even he is ultimately annoying, leaving only Busey's laid-back, natural performance to hint of what this film could have been in more confident hands. [07 Jul 1993, p.E3]

This is one of the silliest plots since Disney cast Gus the mule as the star place-kicker for a hapless football team. Although it sounds like a whimsical throwback to Gus and another classic of the genre, The Absent Minded Professor, Rookie of the Year fails to connect. [09 Jul 1993, p.G4]