'Hardball' swings, rolls foul

The tagline for Keanu Reeves' new movie "Hardball" reads: "The most important thing in life is showing up."\nWell the movie did show up to the movie theaters, but that's about all it did besides letting a bunch of little kids cuss. \nIf you've seen the "Bad News Bears" or "Mighty Ducks," then you know the plot line. A troubled man is forced to coach a sports team of misfits. They terrible at first, but the kids start transforming the coach into a better person. The coach then morphs the team into a better one. Somehow they all make it to a big game, where the worst player on the team scores the winning point. Oh, and the coach finds a woman, too. "Hardball" follows this plot to almost to a T. \nThe kids live in the projects of Chicago, where they must end practice before the sun sets in order to get home safely. Conor O'Neill (Reeves) is a drunk and a chronic gambler who only agrees to coach in return for a loan from a rich friend. He also starts falling for the kids' teacher Ms. Wilkes (Lane). Conor struggles with gambling, and once he gets back on top of his debt he attempts to quit coaching the team. \nIt's obvious that "Hardball" makes an effort to differentiate from the baseball classic "Bad News Bears." This team isn't horrible to begin with, though the players lose their first game badly, they win their second with ease. Also, you never see that point where the coach finally decides to connect with his kids and they start to transform into winners. \nReeves does show signs of improvement in his "Hardball" role, but as usually can't act any differently than he did in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." Some of his weaknesses in "Hardball" can be credited to bad screenplay writing. None of the kids in this movie are Haley Joel Osmet, but most do succeed in being cute and sometimes funny. But much of the humor from the kids comes from cursing (which I do find funny at times, but it's too easily humorous).\nDespite being mostly a bad movie, "Hardball" does entertain you. It just makes you roll your eyes a few times. "Hardball" is "Bad News Bears" meets "Dangerous Minds," only Walter Matthau is unfortunately nowhere to be seen.