Mr. Baseball

As high-profile Hollywood releases go, probably the most earthshaking thing about MR. BASEBALL is that there's nothing much earthshaking about it. Well suited to star Tom Selleck, it is laid-back, amiable and unpretentious while touching on serious themes lightly but intelligently.

Jack Elliot (Selleck) is a power hitter on the wane whose team trades him to a fate worse than Cleveland, a Japanese team that expects him to power them to a pennant. He's immediately taken in hand by his new team's no-nonsense coach, Uchiyama (Ken Takakura). He's also taken in hand by the more attractive but equally no-nonsense team promotions manager, Hiroko (Aya Takanashi), with wh...