Movie Reviews

Hopkins gets exorcism 'Rite'

 
Anthony Hopkins, left, and Colin O'Donoghue are on a mission from God.  (New Line Cinema)

"The Rite"

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Running time: 112 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (Disturbing thematic material, violence, frightening images and language, including sexual references)

 

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 "The Rite"

Possession may be nine-tenths of the law, as the old saying goes, but it's everything in "The Rite."

Anthony Hopkins slings some holy water in an exorcism thriller that ranks as horror only because it's based on real events.

It's interesting that Swedish director Mikael Håfström cast Hopkins in the role of eccentric, legendary priest Father Lucas.

Some would say -- and I would be right there with them -- that Hopkins played hop-scotch with the devil himself as cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs," his Oscar-winning role of 1991.

Hopkins' veteran exorcist character is the axle that drives the wheel in "The Rite."  He's not, however, the leading man.  That would be relative newcomer Colin O'Donoghue, the Irish actor who appeared in "The Tudors" on Showtime.

O'Donoghue portrays Michael Kovak, a U.S. seminary student with, shall we say, issues.  Never intending to become a priest, Michael ran to the church to get away from his undertaker dad (Rutger Hauer), who, if not possessed himself, definitely spiked the wacky meter.

Not-quite-Father Kovak is chosen for Vatican exorcism class in Italy despite his doubting ways.  Once there, while arguing that most "possessed" souls might just be in serious need of some psychiatrist couch time, Michael meets a fetching female journalist ("City of God" co-star Alice Braga) and the aforementioned Father Lucas.

"The Exorcist," of course, is the film by which all serious exorcism films must be judged.  "The Rite" falls short of that film's now-famous showiness.  Looking for pea-soup projectile vomiting and head-spinning?  You're in the wrong place.

Instead, "The Rite" creeps up on you and might just creep you out.  It's based within the actual framework of what the ageless fight between good and evil, God and Beelzebub is all about.

And there's this:  Hopkins can still get it done when he's got a meaty script to dive into.  And he's got one here.

"The Rite" isn't a great exercise in cinematic exorcism.  It is, however, a powerful enough piece of possession-related drama that'll have you gripping the armrest of your seat tighter than usual.

'Fighter' almost up for the count

Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg as two conflicted boxing brothers.
(Paramount Pictures)

The Fighter

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Running time: 115 minutes

MPAA rating: R (for language throughout, drug content, some violence and sexuality)

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"The Fighter"

Serious movie lovers know that any boxing drama based on real people enters the cinematic ring on the ropes and with the ref pointing and counting.

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro saw to that with "Raging Bull," the boxing movie of all boxing movies in 1980.

"The Fighter," though not as precise with its dramatic punches, matches "Raging Bull" blow-for-blow in authenticity and, in some cases, outrageous, offbeat style.

Scorsese used extreme slow motion, animal noises and blood splattering onto ringside fans to orchestrate pugilistic history into big-screen entertainment. Director David O. Russell, every bit as eager to punch his audience below the belt, goes for a big family, big 1980s hair and the fighter's big brother, mentor and failed idol sucking on a crack bong.

A dream project for star Mark Wahlberg, "The Fighter" instead becomes a macabre showcase in human and emotional transformation for Christian Bale. He may play the Caped Crusader in the modern-day "Batman" franchise, but it is as fighter-turned-crack head Dicky Eklund that I long expect to remember Bale's riveting acting.

Wahlberg is "Irish Thunder" Mickey Ward, the little brother once in awe of his elder, then later poised to perhaps get a title shot that his brother tossed aside for a crack not at a title, but at more crack cocaine.

"The Fighter" is such a good stirring pot for drama, in fact, that I found myself wishing Wahlberg were the great actor and Bale merely supported his performance. That's how it should be in a perfect cinematic arena.

But let's not be quick to criticize Bale's outstanding talent. His Dicky never chews the scenery in order to steal a movie. Instead, Bale gets so far under a real person's skin that it's impossible to muzzle a persona that pranced to the front row in prison like a movie star at a world premiere to take a seat for an HBO documentary on addiction that chronicles his downfall. Dicky truly believes it to be a showcase of his boxing comeback.

Like "Raging Bull," "The Fighter" will have you squirming in your seat at times. In addition to the usual tale of the cinematic tape that unfolds in steely Lowell, MA (and actually shot there), this is a drama that nails an equally vicious preliminary match between the boys' manager mom, Alice (Melissa Leo), and Charlene (Amy Adams), Mickey's steel-willed girlfriend.

Actually, the women are almost as intriguing as the men in this heavyweight battle of wills. Leo is the Oscar nominee as the desperate single mom of "Frozen River."

Adams is cast way against her usual softer type. Make no mistake, though, the double Oscar nominee ("Junebug," "Doubt") who shared the screen (if no scenes) with Meryl Streep in "Julie & Julia" is up to the challenge.

"The Fighter" isn't quite world champeen caliber like "Raging Bull," perhaps because Russell doesn't quite congeal all the excellent parts into a master work whole, as Scorsese managed.

Go for the performances, though. Three out of the four lead acting turns are knockouts.

Carrey's frantic love call for 'Phillip Mor-ris'

 
Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) looking for love.  (Roadside Attractions)

I Love You Phillip Morris

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Running time: 98 minutes

MPAA rating: R (Sexual content including strong dialogue and language)

 

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 "I Love You Phillip Morris"

Jim Carrey has been waiting a very long time to make a dagger of a movie like "I Love You Phillip Morris."

This outrageous tale -- based on actual events, by the way -- about a family man turned con man turned gay con man desperately trying to impress his soul mate, but having to continually bust out of jail to do it, is not a drama as such.

It's a black hole dark comedy congealed with drama.  In this case, that's an odd dynamic perfectly suited to Carrey's charismatic charm and fits of wild abandon.

If you're wondering just how dark the comic elements might be, know this.  "I Love You Phillip Morris," based on former Houston Chronicle investigative reporter Steve McVicker's book, is co-written and co-directed by writing partners Glenn Ficarra and John Requa.

Can't quite place the names?  Ficarra and Requa are the screenwriters who fed Billy Bob Thornton's outstanding way-down and way-dirty performance in "Bad Santa" (2003).

"Phillip Morris" sneaks up on you.  When we first meet Steven Russell (Carrey), he's a seemingly happy family man playing organ for the church choir in Virginia and working as a police officer.

Never quite getting over the fact that his mother gave him up for adoption, Steven bends the rules, using his law enforcement computer to track down his birth mother.  The meeting doesn't go well, and "I Love You Phillip Morris" launches into a tale of self-discovery about living a lie (he's gay) and learning that his outgoing nature may be more suited to a career as a con man than a cop in uniform.

One of the things I like best about this raw embracing of a person's inner (and long-hidden) drives is that the co-directors (in their initial feature film effort) and Carrey flamboyantly keep the tone pedal to the metal.

Maybe it's because I've seen Carrey not reach his full potential in films like "The Number 23" (2007) and "The Majestic" (2001) that I celebrate (perhaps along with him) for gathering up his comic charisma, his likable on-screen nature and his yearning for dramatic effect and rolling it into an improbably charming cinematic snowball.

While refreshing, this is one snowball that hits us in the gut and leaves a mark.

Set primarily in Texas (but shot in Louisiana), "Phillip Morris" chugs along at a brisk pace.  Steven meets Mr. Right (Ewan McGregor as Phillip Morris) in jail, then goes more than a little nuts busting out of confinement on several occasions to be with the man he loves.

Leslie Mann, who shared the screen with Carrey in  "The Cable Guy" (1996), brings proper charm and dismay to Debbie, the wife left not for another woman but for a man.  Any man, in fact, at least in the early going.

McGregor scored his own acting triumph this year in "The Ghost Writer." He tones everything down to play Phillip, who, in the long run, becomes as perplexed about Steven as his former wife did.

"I Love You Phillip Morris" will likely blindside you with real, growing sentiment near the end.  Not the fake kind, either, like in "The Majestic," a failed barely disguised remake of "It's a Wonderful Life."

I'm talking the real thing; convincing dramatic acting from a gifted comic who has always wanted to move his audience without a scrunched-up face or a pratfall.

I love you, "Phillip Morris," for finally giving Jim Carrey that chance.

And ... 'Secretariat' is just a little off

 
Diane Lane as Penny Chenery savoring a Big Red.  (Walt Disney Pictures)

Secretariat

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Running time: 123 minutes

MPAA rating: PG (brief mild language)

 

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 "Secretariat"

A horse movie is a horse movie, of course, of course.

Unless it's "Seabiscuit," the seven-Oscar nominee of 2003, which, unfortunately, "Secretariat" is not.

The latest race around the track may be about a supremely gifted horse that defied the odds to win the much-coveted Triple Crown in 1973.  But "Secretariat," though heartfelt and well-acted in some quarters, is overly theatrical at times even for a Cinderella story.

Filmmakers have choices to make when they glorify real-life triumphs for movie audiences.  The creative challenge is to raise the audience's emotional pulse with larger-than-life moments that feel real, or are at least close enough that we can pretend they're sort of real.

In this third outing in the director's chair,  TV writer/producer Randall Wallace ("We Were Soldiers," "The Man in the Iron Mask") fails to corral the over-the-top fairy tale-like emotions at times.

Diane Lane, the fine actress nominated for an Academy Award as the title character in "Unfaithful" (2002), puts on a stern face to portray Denver housewife and mother Penny Chenery Tweedy.

Unwavering in her determination to make her ill father (Scott Glenn) proud as his health steadily fades, Penny abandons her own family in 1969 to shepherd a family horse farm  in Virginia in general and a glistening colt she calls Big Red in particular.

The world will see Red as Secretariat, which scribes at the time and history later dub "superhorse."

John Malkovich, one of the finest actors working, takes on the dubious task and outlandish wardrobe of fiery trainer Lucien Laurin.  Malkovich's hats are so garish in this historical horse opera that I wouldn't be surprised if the two-time Oscar nominee ("In the Line of Fire," "Places in the Heart") didn't request to keep his wardrobe solely for the purpose of burning it.

Even excellent actors can be saddled with lines that fall below their ability to recite them.  Sadly, that's the case here.  "Secretariat" screenwriter Mike Rich, using William Nack's book "Secretariat:  The Making of a Champion" as a "suggestion," had better luck scripting "The Rookie," another real-life sports drama in 2002.

"Secretariat" is not without merit.  It's beautiful to look at in spurts, for instance.  And the five horses that stomp the turf for Big Red all bring honor to a great slice of American history that, unfortunately, is too well known to thunder to the cinematic finish line with the desired lump-in-the-throat dramatic effect.

But what the hay, it's entertainment, right?

Facebook friends, enemies, gripping drama

Jesse Eisenberg on the hot seat as Mark Zuckerberg.  (Columbia Pictures)

The Social Network

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Running time: 120 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (sexual content, drug and alcohol use and language)

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"The Social Network"

All movies have a rhythm, a feel to them.

"The Social Network" bears a beat so pulsating, dangerous and inviting that you almost ride or wear this movie instead of merely watching it.

Buoyed by director David Fincher and his team's precision filmmaking skills, the tale of the troubled formation of Facebook purrs across the movie screen like a panther waiting to pounce.

Based on Ben Mezrich's book "The Accidental Billionaires" and a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, who also adapted "Charlie Wilson's War," "The Social Network" buzzes around a hive of controversy and turmoil about as far removed from social -- and especially socially correct -- as one can imagine.

Jesse Eisenberg ("Zombieland") is out front as Mark Zuckerberg, the nerdy Harvard computer whiz who -- according to the movie, at least -- dives into writing social network computer code in a frenzy after having an argument with girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara).

Fincher ("Fight Club," "Seven") sat back a little and let the special effects of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" do the heavy creative lifting for him.  Not this time, though.  He returns to dramatic creative excellence with a vengeance.

When Facebook, or The Facebook as it's first dubbed, begins to take off like wildfire, Fincher intercuts two civil suits against his lead character without skipping a beat or losing the attention of his audience.

Good acting helps, and Eisenberg, who drew notice as the troubled teen of "The Squid and the Whale" in 2005, is up to the challenge as a computer genius.  His Zuckerberg is aloof, quick with a cutting remark and easily guided into choppy business waters.

The circling shark in this case is Sean Parker, the former Napster founder portrayed without a flaw by Justin Timberlake.  Parker nudges his way into the Facebook corporate structure like a determined-at-all-costs cockroach squeezing under a locked door.

Equally mesmerizing is the laid-back, but emotionally wounded turn by Andrew Garfield ("Never Let Me Go") as Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg's close friend.  He provides the seed money for Facebook then faces betrayal on two fronts.

From this aisle seat, it doesn't matter so much whether this is an accurate portrayal of a social network empire exploding and imploding right in front of our eyes.  All feature films distort facts, blend or ignore characters and stretch the truth to larger-than-life cinematic proportions.

What is ultimately important is the entertainment ride.  Fincher, editor Angus Wall (who has worked with Fincher before) and everyone on both sides of the camera combine tremendous efforts to pump out one of the finest emotional thrill rides of the year.

Onward Jewish soldiers

A visit from the commander (Zohar Strauss).  (Sony Pictures Classics)

Lebanon

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Running time: 94 minutes

MPAA rating: R (disturbing bloody war violence, language including sexual references, and some nudity)

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"Lebanon"

Four young Israeli tank soldiers, overgrown Jewish boys, really, rumble across a border, onto an unfamiliar road and into a life-changing war.

"Lebanon" is a riveting war drama unlike any I've seen.

In Hebrew with subtitles, "Lebanon" takes us inside the cramped, clanking tank as the Shmuel (Yoav Donat) the gunner, Assi (Itay Tiran) the tank commander, Herzl (Oshri Cohen) the ammo loader and Yigal (Michael Moshonov) the driver try to survive a world suddenly gone mad.

Their only connection with the outside war zone comes via increasingly distraught visits by Jamil (Zohar Strauss), the commander on the ground.

"The Hurt Locker," the reigning Best Picture Oscar winner, captured the angst, fear and madness of American bomb de-activators in the current Middle East conflict last fall.  

This is 1982 and Israel's first war with Lebanon.  As these young men rattle down a dusty road and into a bombed-out village, they take the audience with them in the tank.  If you're anything like me, you'll almost be able to feel the heat, feel every jerky movement of the armored tin can with a huge gun attached.

Writer-director Samuel Maoz is making nothing up.  This terrifying ordeal (or something very similar) is what he experienced inside a tank as a shell-shocked young Israeli soldier 28 years ago.  Almost all of "Lebanon" is viewed from inside the tank; through the green-hued cross hairs of a gun sight.

This is not a scenic journey or view.  Terror and horror will be seen from there, as are a mesmerizing shot in extreme slow-motion of rapidly approaching gunfire.  

It took Maoz a quarter of a century to look back in horror and find the fortitude to transfer his tortured soul into screenplay form.  He captures it extremely well.  In fact, well enough to win the Golden Lion Award at last year's Venice Film Festival.

I often wonder why we as movie-goers line up for intense war dramas that rip out our emotional guts as they blow up the guts of others.

Movies like "Lebanon" are why.  Extremely well-crafted good ones like this and "The Hurt Locker" convey the physical and emotional pain soldiers endure so that others don't have to.

Except in the safety of a darkened movie house.

Short takes: 'Get Low,' 'Love Ranch'

Every small town seems to have a legend bouncing around -- perhaps for decades -- about the town grump, or hermit or outlaw.

Felix Bush, portrayed without a flaw by Oscar-winner Robert Duvall in the period heartfelt drama "Get Low," however, is based on the real thing.

In the late 1930s, Felix "Bush" mostly stayed to himself in the backwoods near Kingston, Tenn.  His only companion was his mule.  Fearing death in his old age, Felix paid for a funeral "party" and turned the offbeat proceeding into a lottery, which attracted a huge crowd from miles around.

You should know going in that "Get Low" is not a happy-go-lucky story, despite the co-starring performance by Bill Murray as opportunistic funeral home owner Frank Quinn.

"Get Low" also features a solid performance by Oscar-winner Sissy Spacek, who plays a woman from Bush's past who returns to town just in time for his final, premature farewell.

Summing up:  Excellent acting; a heartfelt delight.

3 jalapeños out of 4.  100 minutes.  Rated PG-13 for some thematic material and brief violent content.

(Bill Murray, left, and Robert Duvall photo courtesy:  Sony Pictures Classics) 

Very little critical love for 'Love Ranch'

I'm not going to lie.  I had high hopes going into the based-on-truth drama "Love Ranch," and feelings of major disappointment once the closing credits rolled.

Question to self:  How can the rock-solid director of "An Officer and a Gentleman," "Against All Odds," "Dolores Claiborne" and the excellent Ray Charles musical biopic "Ray" let something like this happen.

Especially with his real-life wife, Oscar winner Helen Mirren (for "The Queen" in 2006), in the lead role.  Mirren and Joe Pesci attempt to portray Grace and Charlie Bontempo, the husband-and-wife owners of Nevada's first legalized brothel in the late-1970s.

The acting is flatter than the Nevada desert.  The dialogue by screenwriter Mark Jacobson is mundane and the production itself feels like something put on by a small-town theater group on an off night.

Summing up:  One of the worst films of 2010.

1 jalapeño out of 4.  94 minutes.  Rated R for sexual content, pervasive language and some violence.

(Joe Pesci, left, Helen Mirren photo courtesy:  E1 Entertainment) 

'Eat Pray Love,' rinse, repeat

Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) looks for inner peace.  (Columbia Pictures)

Eat Pray Love

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Running time: 140 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (brief strong language, some sexual references and male rear nudity)

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"Eat Pray Love"

It would be lovely if all beloved books unfolded on a movie screen as the electronic equivalent of a page-turner, a book we just can't seem to put down.

"Eat Pray Love," the Elizabeth Gilbert personal enlightenment journey morphed into a Julia Roberts starring vehicle, is a movie, though.  And I can certainly put it down.  In fact, I feel it's my duty to do so.

Roberts, a three-time Academy Award nominee and winner for "Erin Brockovich" in 2000, is lovely, of course.  Let's get that out of the way right at the top.  

Liz Gilbert (Roberts) goes through major soul-numbing bust-ups in this inner-peace-seeking travelogue that hops (but takes its time doing it) from New York to Rome, then to Italy and finally to a quaint beach-side condo in Bali, where Javier Bardem's Felipe sulks about his divorce by making mix tapes for his car stereo.

The point is that even when Liz tells her husband Stephen (Billy Crudup) that she wants to untie the matrimonial knot, or when the rebound relationship with an actor (James Franco) has literally driven her from his bed, Roberts' Liz looks more glamorous than most of us do when relationships are splintering onto the rocks and washing up on the shore of heartbreak.

"Eat Pray Love" has so many ways to go as a journey of self-rediscovery.  Unfortunately, it unfolds as a travelogue of rich food and drink not enjoyed so much as endured by a magazine writer in time-out whose ability to love lags way below the emotional poverty level.

I'm a little surprised that Ryan Murphy, who co-adapted Gilbert's memoir with his "Nip/Tuck" collaborator Jennifer Salt, occupies the ever-shifting director's chair.  (They actually shot in New York, Italy, India and Bali, you see.)

Murphy's best known as the co-creator, writer and director of "Glee" and "Nip/Tuck" on TV.  I know him, though, for his offbeat, no-holds-barred big-screen writing-directing debut of "Running with Scissors" in 2006.

Murphy's law appears to be capturing wit and dark comedy and bringing to the screen.  None of that's happening here, with the possible exception of the fine work turned in by always reliable character actor Richard Jenkins as "Richard from Texas."

Jenkins' Texas accent might not exactly be dead on, but his acting sure is.  "Eat Pray Love" wallows in the food and wine of Italy and the big sky majesty of Bali, but it never achieves anything as beautiful to me as Jenkins (an Oscar nominee for "The Visitor" in 2007) picking his teeth with his finger during his tearful confession on the roof of an Ashram in India.

It doesn't matter that "Eat Pray Love" is a movie about a woman and presented from that side of the gender fence.  You don't have to be female to know that despite its genuine star power and acting talent, this movie runs too long, plods along at an snail's pace and turns out to be little more than a romance novel in collision with a travel agent's brochure.

Porn on the Fourth of July

 

Jack (Like Wilson) gets caught in a tough spot in "Middle  Men."
(Paramount Vantage)

Middle Men

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Running time: 99 minutes

MPAA rating: R (strong sexual content, nudity, profanity, drug use and violence)

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"Middle Men"

"Middle Men" lives on the edge.

"Inspired by a true story," this seedy gangland drama dives into tangled emotions of a Houston entrepreneur trying to maintain a steady family life in Houston while being drawn into the business side of the shady world of Internet porn.

More specifically, Jack Harris (Luke Wilson) is known as a go-to business guy when companies get in trouble.  In the mid-1990s two brainy, but drugged-out idiots played  well by Giovanni Ribisi ("Avatar") and Gabriel Macht ("The Spirit") figure out a way for consumers surfing the Internet to pay on-line to see nude photos.

The Internet porn industry is born.  In this scenario very loosely based on the experiences of "Middle Men" producer Christopher Mallick, however, stoner goofballs Wayne Beering (Ribisi) and Buck Dolby (Macht) make an unwise deal with a Russian mobster (Rade Serbedzija of "Eyes Wide Shut").

A crooked Los Angeles attorney played by veteran actor James Caan calls on Harris to straighten out the mess.  If Wilson, the Texas native usually performing lighter material on screen  ("Death at a Funeral," for example) seems out of place in this low-down set of circumstances, co-writer/director George Gallo has you right where he wants you.

"Middle Men" is a crafty, potentially lethal mix of deception, temptation and piles of easy (or not-so-easy) money.

Ribisi ("Public Enemies," "Perfect Stranger"), perhaps the finest actor of his generation and definitely the most under-appreciated, commands the screen as Wayne, a brilliant techie lost in a fog of cigarette smoke, dope and arousal.

Gallo, who wrote "Midnight Run" and "Bad Boys" and directed "Local Color," was wise in casting Ribisi for two reasons.  First off, he's terrific, as previously stated.  Secondly, Ribisi raises Wilson's acting game to a level not seen before in the dramatic arena.

Harris is a man torn between home and business.  When late-night "business" meetings in L.A. nightclubs eventually lead to an introduction to fetching young porn starlet Audrey Dawns ("Shrink" co-star Laura Ramsey), the sun begins to set on Harris's happy Houston home.

While it has some dark comic moments, "Middle Men" works best when it sloshes through the mire of bottom-feeder liaisons, both business and personal, as drama.

The screenplay, co-authored by Gallo and Andy Weiss ("The Meyersons"), hops around in time a little too much for my taste in the beginning.  Once it settles into its comfort zone, which will likely provide the opposite for audience members, "Middle Men" becomes a smart movie about dumb guys, unfortunate guys, very bad guys and the invention of the process that allows you to make purchases on-line.

What you buy, of course, is your own business.

Or is it? 

'Perfect Game' pitches near-perfect on screen

 

Cesar (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Mario (Moises Arias) discuss baseball and "the  ladies."  (Prelude Pictures)

The Perfect Game

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Running time: 113 minutes

MPAA rating: PG (some thematic elements)

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"The Perfect Game"

"The Perfect Game," a little gem of a stand-up-and-cheer baseball movie, was almost shut-out before it ever made the big screen.

On the shelf, or should we say the bench, for well over a year, this is a must-see for anyone who loves baseball or just enjoys a solid tug on the heartstrings.

In a perfect world, "The Perfect Game" would be assigned enjoyment for every Little League team member, coach and parent around the globe. For those who don't enjoy the game of baseball, the family friendly entertainment scores with a mix of life lessons about tolerance and respect for all humans.

A note from this aisle seat:  I consider myself a pretty serious baseball fan.  Yet I had never heard the emotional story of a rag-tag team of Little Leaguers from Monterrey, Mexico that forms the foundation of this story.

In 1957, they walked 10 miles in 110-degree heat from the U.S.-Mexican border to McAllen, TX to play their first Little League game north of their home country .  For many -- perhaps all -- of the 10-12-year-old players, it wasn't just their first glimpse of El Norte.  It was also the first time the team that had to clear rocks to play ball on a makeshift dirt field ever got to play on grass.

The screenplay by W. William Winokur, working from his own book of 2008, while a little cheesy at times, grabs the heart early and begins a serious emotional squeeze play.

The actor most will recognize first is veteran comedian/actor Cheech Marin.  Marin sinks his acting soul into the role of Padre Esteban, the priest who loves baseball almost as much as his first calling.  San Antonio native Bruce McGill ("W.," "The Lookout") and Lou Gossett ("Jasper, Texas") add credence to small featured roles.

Of the adult actors, however, it's front-liners Clifton Collins Jr. and Emilie de Ravin ("Lost" on TV) who knock performances out of the park.  Collins ("Extract," the "Star Trek" remake), turned heads in the industry opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman as Perry Smith in "Capote" (2005).

Collins is strong here as well as Cesar Faz, the Mexican steel worker who once had hopes of coaching in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, but was tagged out by the 1950s color barrier.  Though reluctant at first, Cesar becomes the Little League coach, and pushes his players beyond expectations with fundamentals, hustle and heart.

De Ravin is all over the role of a spunky McAllen newspaper reporter who follows the team and records the story.

Several of the young cast members who make up the scrappy little Monterrey Industrials are standouts as well.  Jake T. Austin ("Hotel for Dogs") will melt your heart as Angel, the ambidextrous pitcher verbally abused at home by a stern, grieving dad.

I was also very entertained by New York native Moises Arias (Rico on "Hannah Montana") as Mario, the team's little ladies man who serves as effective comic relief.

My only foul-ball complaint for veteran baseball movie director William Dear ("Angels in the Outfield") is that this film which takes place much of the time in Texas was shot in Los Angeles.  The dead giveaway comes when someone in the film calls a team from the Rio Grande Valley town of Weslaco "Wes-layco."

That's the only error in "The Perfect Game," a walk away winner that no baseball fan or Little Leaguer should miss.