POSSIBLY....I THINK THE NATURAL IS A CLASSIC..8.5/10

Not too sure about this claim. I always thought there were people who thought this film was just ok and people who thought it was amazing. Never had any inclination that some people viewed this at Mama Mia levels of awfulness.

Also not sure you can level "unbelievable" as a criticism against this particular movie. The guy literally carves his batball bat from the previously glowing wood of a tree hit by lightening on the night after his father is buried! There is subsequently again quite literally lightening in the air when he steps up to the plate in the film's key moments. I think it's fair to say being some gritty biopic was never ever the intention and therefore can't really be raised as a criticism.

And the more I've seen this film the more I think that the ending is very much open to interpretation.

@The Midi-chlorian Count said:

Not too sure about this claim. I always thought there were people who thought this film was just ok and people who thought it was amazing. Never had any inclination that some people viewed this at Mama Mia levels of awfulness.

Also not sure you can level "unbelievable" as a criticism against this particular movie. The guy literally carves his batball bat from the previously glowing wood of a tree hit by lightening on the night after his father is buried! There is subsequently again quite literally lightening in the air when he steps up to the plate in the film's key moments. I think it's fair to say being some gritty biopic was never ever the intention and therefore can't really be raised as a criticism.

And the more I've seen this film the more I think that the ending is very much open to interpretation.

The IMDB voting records support your view, there are quite a lot of 7/10s, which in IMDB land counts as fairly average. But it has a large gap between user ratings and metacritic and absolutely loads of passionate support.

In terms of unbeleivability, I'm not so much thinking of the fantasy elements, more of things like:

• the bizarre agreement over ownership of the baseball club
• getting shot without any real context or foreshadowing (although I understand this was based on a real event, it wasnt exactly fleshed out in the final cut)
• Kim Basinger bringing bad luck (again, no sort of context behind that, which you would get in a more typical fantasy book, or in The Odyssey)
• 'Pop' allegedly being some kind of great guy that the audience should presumably be rooting for?

I think if I'd seen this as a kid I would have been really confused and alienated by this film compared to fantasy films from the same era like Labyrinth and The Never Ending Story (which to me were more believable when taken within context of their own universe).

It depends on how much a baseball fan you are. As far as sports movies go it is the rare one that isn't about the underdog winning the big game. Then there is the whole father issue. I haven't come across great dislike for it but any film that has a big following is going to have some people say wtf I just don't get it. Like The Shawshank Redemption or Forest Gump. Could be a generational thing too. A movie for middle aged guys who miss playing ball with their dads.

@znexyish said:

It depends on how much a baseball fan you are. As far as sports movies go it is the rare one that isn't about the underdog winning the big game. Then there is the whole father issue. I haven't come across great dislike for it but any film that has a big following is going to have some people say wtf I just don't get it. Like The Shawshank Redemption or Forest Gump. Could be a generational thing too. A movie for middle aged guys who miss playing ball with their dads.

I think that is a decent shout. I actively dislike baseball, but then again I liked Moneyball and thought Field of Dreams was good when I watched it as a young 'un. This is the biggest disconnect I've had from other seasoned movie viewers. Herzog's Grizzly Man was also a huge disconnect for me because I found the subject matter objectionable, so that doesn't really count.

I'm not American and have seen one baseball game in my entire life (and found it a somewhat boring experience!). However I love this film. The father / son thing I would have thought was more of an applicable pull for Field Of Dreams rather than this since both the son & Roy were unaware of their relationship until the end - it's a nice, schmaltzy ending but not really part of the film per se.

Personally I see this story as very similar to Superman which is probably why I love it.