The Perfect Game
IndustryWorks Pictures | Release Date: April 16, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
9
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Boxoffice MagazinePete Hammond
Really a perfect family movie. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It’s not a game anymore. In 1957, these kids were playing. And it was a perfect game. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
The film's flaws probably won't bother less jaded kids one whit. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
A very sweet, very slight family movie that scores smiles and tears of joy. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom Russo
Much like a Sox starter struggling for the first couple of innings before settling down, The Perfect Game takes a while to get to the parts worth cheering. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMark Olsen
An imperfect film, but an unusual case in which the heart of both the story and its telling do help in smoothing over other deficiencies, sweet and disarming in its belief that something like a baseball game can make a bigger difference. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
A movie for people who value heart and earnestness over technical filmmaking skill, and consider unpredictable plot turns a betrayal. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
As the title loudly hints, ultimate victory assumes the flawless shape of the star pitcher’s perfect game, a rarity anywhere yet especially at the Little League level. In getting to that climax, the recreated game action is a bit tepid and the child actors too precociously cute, but the true tale in the midst of the fabrication remains a guaranteed heart-warmer. Read full review
42
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
I seriously doubt that it happened this way, with such convenient strife and truncated solutions. The movie is about baseball but plays like T-ball, with each situation teed up for easy swings. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyAaron Hillis
Barely dramatizing off-the-field struggles like visa problems and the boys' first taste of good ol' American racism, the film does a disservice to the community it depicts by rendering an inspiring cultural story entirely uninspired. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Well-meaning but thick with cliches. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
A lot of heart, a jaunty mariachi score and a lush Eisenhower-era look help as the family-friendly story follows the usual sports-drama plays. Read full review
40
The New York TimesNeil Genzlinger
So overwhelmed by its own based-on-actual-events tale that it can’t find the tone to tell it effectively. Read full review
40
VarietyJoe Leydon
It's an unabashedly corny but occasionally stirring dramedy based on the true-life story of scrappy young baseball players from Mexico who, in 1957, scored an improbable string of successes while playing their way from a Monterrey sandlot to the Little League World Series. Read full review
38
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
The characters in The Perfect Game speak old school “Hollywood Mexican.” In other words, they speak English with accents that we haven’t heard since the golden Age of Speedy Gonzalez. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The film is perfectly mediocre, which is heartbreaking, not heartwarming. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Few of the scenes in The Perfect Game feel authentic, but the ones in Monterrey are especially lacking in flavor. Read full review
33
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Notable only for being a catalog of just about every kid-pic cliché ever committed to film. Read full review
20
Time OutEric Hynes
Although based on the real-life tale of nine underage underdogs from Monterrey, Mexico who swept the 1957 Little League World Series, this Cinderella sports story rings false from first pitch to last. Read full review
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