Major League

Directed by David S. Ward, Major League follows several less-than-polished baseball players, including Tom Berenger’s Jake Taylor, Charlie Sheen’s Ricky Vaughn, and Wesley Snipes’ Willie Mays Hays, as they attempt to drive the Cleveland Indians to a series of coveted victories. There’s ultimately little doubt that Major League is at its best in its briskly-paced and sporadically hilarious opening half hour, as filmmaker Ward, working from his own screenplay, does a superb job of establishing the various characters and their appealingly comedic ragtag exploits – with the appealing atmosphere heightened by the efforts of a uniformly superb cast. (In addition to the stars’ charming work, Major League boasts strong work from scene-stealing periphery players like James Gammon, Margaret Whitton, and, especially, Bob Uecker.) It’s disappointing to note, then, that the picture’s momentum takes a serious (and insurmountable) hit from a meandering midsection, as the emphasis is increasingly placed on the less-than-enthralling melodramatic exploits of the various protagonists – with the most obvious (and egregious) example of this an entirely tedious (and somewhat off-putting) subplot involving Jake’s dogged pursuit of a former lover (Rene Russo’s Lynn). There’s subsequently little doubt that the climactic game is hardly able to pack the visceral, exciting punch that Ward is clearly aiming for, which does, in the end, cement Major League‘s place as a passable comedy that could (and should) have been so much better.

**1/2 out of ****