This remake of the 1951 family fantasy is strictly minor league, struggling mightily to balance heartwarming sentiment with sporty sight gags, yet never getting beyond second base.
Abandoned by his dad (Dermot Mulroney) after his mother's death, optimistic young Roger Beaumont (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a state ward in the care of foster mother Maggie Nelson (Brenda Fricker). Baseball fanatic Roger misunderstands when his father, who's paying a brief visit, jokes that they
have as much chance of being a family as the Los Angeles Angels have of winning the division championship. After fellow orphan and best pal J.P. (Milton Davis Jr.) dozes off, Roger prays for that double victory, and his prayers are answered by chief angel Al (Christopher Lloyd). The last-place
team breaks its losing streak, and Roger witnesses heavenly spirits lifting up a fielder and firming up the grasp of a batter.
Roger and J.P. become friends with crusty Angels manager George Knox (Danny Glover), a short-fused, life-long pragmatist and no fan of his own team, who slowly experiences a change of heart as his bumbling players shape up under divine guidance. In time, Knox comes to rely on Roger, whom he
considers his good luck charm, to advise him on line-up choices, even though no one but the child can see the winged baseball boosters and even though Knox has a troubled relationship with the angels' Angel-of-choice, Mel Clark (Tony Danza).
Self-serving sportscaster Ranch Wilder (Jay O. Sanders) leaks the news of Knox's reliance on Roger, and team owner Hank Murphy (Ben Johnson) holds a press conference to denounce the wacky rumors. Inspired by Maggie and the boys, and strengthened by the solidarity of a team that refuses to play
without his coaching, Knox courageously admits his belief in a higher power. Al directs that the Angels must compete in the championship match against the Chicago White Sox without any extra-terrestrial help, and the team does smashingly well. With the Angels' self-confidence restored, Knox
decides he's emotionally prepared to adopt Roger and J.J.
ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD offers plenty of athletic slapstick that should please the children who are its intended audience. But though it's a pleasant, old-fashioned fantasy that parents can watch along with their kids, there seems little reason for it to exist. The movie is hopelessly soft in
every respect, from the DAMN YANKEES-level sports psychologizing to the squeaky-clean glimpse into foster care. While it's a nice change that foster parent Maggie is a decent woman doing her best, the plight of these unwanted kids is never conveyed; they don't have the prickly wariness of
abandoned children. They also seem to have been genetically designed so the callous Knox can redeem himself with an inter-racial adoption. The subplot involving terminally ill, physically debilitated Mel Clark saving the day through sheer gutsiness is a further bid for maudlin tears. The film's
nadir is the inspirational sequence in which Roger leads the crowd and team-players in flapping their wings like angels to give Clark the inner strength to win the big game: it looks like a We Are the World rally staged for seagulls.
The radiantly photographed ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD hits a visual home run, but the musical score is painfully sentimental, the direction pedestrian, and many of the performances excessively cute. Remakes like this suggest the contemporary cinema's creative personnel could use an entire phalanx of
guardian angels. (Violence, profanity.) leave a comment
