Fever Pitch

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: April 8th, 2005 (wide)

Cast: Drew Barrymore (Lindsay), Jimmy Fallon (Ben), Lenny Clarke (Uncle Carl), Brandon Craggs (Casey), Jessamy Finet (Theresa), Isabella Fink (Audrey), Darren Frost (Zach), Zen Gesner (Steve), Evan Helmuth (Troy), Jack Kehler (Al), Brett Murphy (Ryan), Armando Riesco (Gerard), Michael Rubenfeld (Ian), Scott Severance (Artie), James B. Sikking (Doug Meeks), Johnny Sneed (Chris), KaDee Strickland (Robin), Marissa Jaret Winokur (Sarah), Ione Skye

Director: Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly (Stuck on You, There's Something About Mary)

Screenwriter: Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel (EdTV, City Slickers)

Premise: Ben (Fallon) is a high school teacher who meets and falls in love with a successful businesswoman, Lindsay (Barrymore). Although their lives are vastly different, the relationship seems perfect until the baseball season begins and she has to compete with his first true love: the Boston Red Sox.

[Two Lane Blacktop]

The guy in the baseball cap looks incredibly stoned.

2LB

[Myxo]

Wow, this looks incredible. Barrymore and Jimmy (won't make it away from SNL) Fallon.

[Stefen]

Ugh I will never forget when the Sox won the world series last year and as soon as it was clinched and all the players ran onto the field, there was Fallon and Barrymore complete with a crew on the field too, filming a scene for the movie at that exact moment. It pissed me off so bad. Especially since the Fox cameras kept cutting to Barrymore and Fallon kissing and embracing and smiling (read: acting, i guess) instead of the monumentous occasion that the red sox win wasI hope this fails and i hope barrymore, fallon and the dp all get roughed up at the premier.

[modage]

i love nick hornby and have loved the adaptations of About A Boy and High Fidelity.  i saw the original Fever Pitch with Colin Firth and didnt love it, but it was good.  i havent watched that trailer yet, but hopefully this is a chance for the farrelly bros. to do a weitz bros. and tackle something with more than just laughs.  or maybe they've farrelly'd it up.

edit: okay i just watched the trailer and it looks substantially different from the previous version.  number one, this version looks to focus on drews character, not fallons (although that could just be the marketing).  so it looks like they've changed a lot more than just the sport here, but hopefully the bad narration and no-very-good trailer are misleading terrible audiences into a movie that'll still be pretty good.  (or maybe i'm just dreaming).  well, it cant be worse than Taxi.

[xerxes]

fever pitch is the only nick hornby i haven't read.  how is it?  and would the fact that i really can't stand soccer and don't know all that much about it lead me to not really like the book?

[Myxo]

well, it cant be worse than Taxi.

..until Taxi 2..

[metroshane]

Without Horatio Sanz, who will he break scene with?

[modage]

i saw this tonight.  they were having nationwide sneak previews all weekend.  it was enjoyable but not too good.  it was basically the type of film i rarely watch, but actually liked because i liked the actors in it even when they werent their best.  it was nothing like the other film.  the only elements that were kept was the fanatical sports obsessing male teacher trying at a relationship with a woman.  other than that, it was all new.  i didnt realize that the farrelly's did not write the script which i believe was a first for them.  it was sort of hard to tell because they did leave their marks all over it, (crude humor, disabled and 'normal' people featured, etc.) some of the acting felt a little awkward and unnatural, maybe it was the actors or maybe the way it was cut together.  anyways, the stars were likable (unless you hate them already) and drew reminded me of my girlfriend because her character dressed/looked the same.  some of the grosser humor didnt seem to mesh as well with the sweeter moments, but it did try.  the closest comparison in tone i would say would be 50 First Dates (which i saw on hbo) which also tried with uneven results.  so, it was not a return to greatness for the farrelly's unfortunately but it was the best since something about mary easily (not that that says too much).    so, probably a C, but since i liked the actors a C+.

[Weird. Oh]

Jimmy Fallon playing a gleeful Red Sox fan? Next, they'll have him 'play' a bad actor.

[Pozer]

so I hear this is supposed to be really good. what's that all about? i had the slightest of all desires to see this, thought of it as a rental actually, but now i'm hearing it was really well done and it's due to the Farrellys.
Been waiting for a good romantic comedy, so maybe this is it.
so tonight shall be a date movie night.
sno snoosnight snall sne a snate snovie snight. i'm so gay.

[modage]

it's not it.  keep waiting.

[deathnotronic]

Drew Barrymore was on Conan last night. She talks through the side of her mouth and it annoys me. The movie looks decent, though Jimmy Fallon is one of the shittiest actors ever.

[john]

This film made my heart sink....such a crushing misuse of the source material. Until the end, when they used Joe Pernice and Jonathan Richman songs, that made me smile a bit - that made me think about Nick Hornby's Songbook and the fucking brilliant essays in it (especially the ones on Thunder Road and A Minor Incident) Then I thought about how Nick Hornby probably got a fucking huge check for this film, and that made it's entire existence justifiable for me. Good for him.