F Young I'm a big Tony Bennett fan, but the rest of the movie was childish. Did I mention Tony is a class act? Seriously I could find no reason why this obviously American born person would be hiding away, south of the border, the part with him hanging out up in the rafters of the stadium trying to make up his mind to play or not was so frustrating for me, I found myself trying to decide if I wanted to destroy my VCR or not. I felt very uncomfortable for Mr. Bennett in the scene where he was upstaged on his "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" segment of his show. I don't want to seem to harp on this particular part, but it is what stands out in my mind when I think of this film..

FilmRetrospect Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the movie. I've probably seen it about 10 times, and it never fails to entertain me and give me some good laughs here and there. It's your typical goofy Brendan Frasier comedy, although something tells me that's not what exactly what it was going for. I didn't buy into any of the dramatic elements of the movie... Brendan Frasier's character(his goofy behavior), as well as some of the plot elements made it very hard for me to take the movie completely seriously. The fact that Steve Nebraska (Frasier) was supposedly the "greatest player to ever live" and his ability to strike every batter out with 100+ MPH fastballs and even the ability to hit a home run every time at bat seemed a little ridiculous to me. Also, the conflict that arose towards the middle of the movie (about Nebraska's mysterious past/his family) should have been delved into a little more. But Other than those complaints, I'll say that I enjoyed The Scout for what it was, which was an above average baseball comedy with enough laughs and plenty of entertainment to keep me watching for 2 hours.

wgviper13 This movie starts out great, especially the scenes with Brendan in Mexico, but turns for the worse once his personality is fully revealed. A bizarre film that is a drama bookended by comedy. Wiest does her part very well, and "The Boss" is his jerk self. Not enough baseball scenes. It's a like a sports-themed "The Cable Guy", in that it's supposed to be funny, but Fraser is downright psychotic in some scenes. It of course wraps it up too quickly in the end. A dream World Series matchup though; Yankees-Cardinals.4/10

Kurt Berger First of all, let's deal with the fact that this movie isn't at all about baseball. Not in any real sense of the sport - it's more of a wry comedy that Albert Brooks specializes in. Brendan Fraser stars in the type of role he'd spend the next few years of his career perfecting - the lovable doofus who doesn't quite have a clue but is impossible to truly dislike. He's Steve Nebraska - uber-prospect baseball pitcher who has found his life and career derailed and ends up pitching semipro baseball in Mexico. Brooks is a baseball scout on the downside of his career, in purgatory south of the border when he discovers the immensely talented - but quite immature - Nebraska. He sees this as his ticket back to the bigtime and shops his pitching prospect around the majors, eventually signing with the Yankees where Nebraska makes his debut in the World Series.Now is when this film careens towards the edge and drives off a cliff. It's not about baseball, fine. But it involves baseball to a heavy degree, even including several major leaguers and baseball people in cameos. The climactic scene takes place in Yankee Stadium during the World Series. It may not be a sports movie, but it owes its entire premise to the sport of baseball, and as a result, owes that game a semblance of respect. What it ends up doing is shafting the game so completely and making such a mockery of baseball that it ruins whatever it had built up through the rest of the film.There is simply no excuse for building Steve Nebraska as the greatest pitcher ever - a guy who not only throws 110 mph and knocks over his catcher AND the umpire with pitches, but also hits like Barry Bonds. A guy whose first ever major league appearance is in Game One of the World Series - not only a ludicrous prospect for dramatic purposes, but completely impossible in real life (the rules of baseball don't allow this, discussion ends there). A guy whose debut game consists of throwing 81 straight fastballs past major league hitters - none of whom even so much as make contact - and who throws all of them at 110 mph. (Infamous point - the last pitch is FASTER than the first pitch). Physics dictate a guy like this would completely shred his rotator cuff, labrum muscles, and probably destroy every ligament in his elbow. Not to mention any major league lineup worth its salt (for instance, one playing in the World Series) would sit on this guy's fastball and absolutely torch him the second time through the order.Is this nitpicking? I don't think so. The Scout may be better judged as a comedy than a baseball movie, but it can't totally remove itself from the sporting aspect. I think that any movie that involves baseball as heavily as The Scout does owe it to its audience - as well as its subject matter - to make some slightest bit of effort to craft something that doesn't insult fans of the game. You can make sentimental stories that use baseball as a backdrop - and involve legendarily talented players - that don't mock the game and flip it the middle finger. The Natural comes to mind.As a comedy, it's average. As a baseball movie, it's completely insulting and awful.