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Final Season, The
Yari Film Group


7.4

based on 16 reviews
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based on 9 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG for language, thematic elements and some teen smoking

Starring Sean Astin, Powers Boothe, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Michael Angarano

The Final Season is based on the true story of a small-town baseball team facing insurmountable odds. Tradition in Norway, Iowa (pop. 586) can be summed up in one word: baseball. From father to son, generation to generation, this high-school David exists to defeat Goliaths 10 times its size. As coach Jim Van Scoyoc leads the team to its 19th State title, it seems that following it with a 20th is a forgone conclusion. But the unexpected strikes when bureaucracy intercedes to merge the town with another. Petty jealousies and political designs conspire to rob Norway of its heritage and a 20th Championship. Making matters worse, coach Van Scoyoc is fired and replaced with a one-season assistant coach, Kent Stock--a move that seems to guarantee the team's failure. The Final Season is a film about the sudden nature of change, the identity of a small town, and the strength that brings out the best when we need it most. (Yari Film Group)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	James Grayford Art D'Alessandro
DIRECTED BY:	David M. Evans
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 15, 2008 Theatrical: October 12, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	114 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

TV Guide Ken Fox

Yes it's as corny as Kansas in August, but this admittedly formulaic sports drama is base on a true story and has something important to say about the fate of many small Midwestern American towns whose popular sports teams fall victim to school consolidation.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

There's a sign on the way into Norway, or at least a sign that somebody from the film crew put up: "On the eighth day, God created baseball." If amen is your answer to that, then The Final Season is the movie for you.

LA Weekly Tim Grierson

Formulaic but not cynical, The Final Season has some sweet, thoughtful passages in what is otherwise just one more well-meaning inspirational sports movie.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

There are too many unearned runs to fully embrace this underdog triumph.

Washington Post Mike Mayo

Nathan Wang's score borrows blatantly from "The Natural" and is slathered on thick in all the big emotional scenes. They establish the right nostalgic mood, but it's broken with that loud "ping" of a metal bat every time a kid gets a hit.

Variety John Anderson

There's not quite as much corn in The Final Season as there is in the Iowa farm fields that run through it, but it's close.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Evans' goal is to do for high school baseball what "Hoosiers" did for high school basketball, but to mention both titles in one sentence is almost an insult to a picture that many rank as the first or second all-time sports film.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Follows a predictable format.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

This takes place in the same sort of pathologically sports-obsessed hamlet as "Friday Night Lights," though in contrast to that movie's grim honesty there's enough heartland schmaltz here to embarrass John Mellencamp. Remarkably, the movie rights itself once the actual season begins, focusing on game strategy more than the usual heart-stopping pep talks.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The movie is decent and heartfelt, and it eventually settles into some sharp diamond action, but the small-town homilies are dropped like an anvil. If you thought 1993's "Rudy" was too spare and unsentimental, Final Season is for you.

Los Angeles Times Staff (Not credited)

In a movie where the timing of a squeeze bunt is presented as the thing of beauty that it is, and the eradication of small-town culture in a changing world is a genuine concern, the simplifying countrified morality of The Final Season is the real crying shame.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Exactly the formulaic, by-the-numbers movie it appears to be. These Tigers deserved better.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

All these stereotypes are meant to exalt small-town values, but The Final Season is proof that it's hard to paint masterpiece in broad strokes.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Poor writing, an indifferent production and sincere but often wooden acting make "Season" one big strikeout.

Chicago Tribune Tasha Robinson

Viewers who don’t flee the intrusively uplifting soundtrack and choking sentiment get just what that opening promised: a by-the-numbers, based-in-reality inspirational sports movie, thick with overwhelming pride and nostalgia for small-town farmland America.

Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton

Kind of "Hoosiers": Part 2. But the storytelling is so backassward that it’s impossible to care about any of the characters or really engage in the movie whatsoever.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it a6:
Same nickname, different sport, but the same theme that ran through Kenneth A. Carlson's "Go Tigers!", the 2001 documentary about a small town's obsession with its football team, runs through "The Final Season", as well. Which is: People should get a life. When an Iowaian school board votes to shut down Norway High School and have it merge with a sister school, a bigger school, academics is brought up briefly, only given lip service, by a woman with two college-aged children, before much of the town hall hubbub returns to, and revolves around the tiny high school's decorated baseball team. In "Go Tigers!", we can see with alarming clarity how those sports-minded townsfolk have their priorities all mixed up. In a sports call-in show, one concerned football fan complains that the Masillion players are hitting the books too hard. The father of a Norway player in "The Final Season" attends his son's game against doctor's orders, despite the possibility of imminent death. "The Final Season" treats this unflagging loyalty as cute, not demented, but that's because this "Hoosiers" for baseball purists slathers on so much corn syrup, fanaticism gets sugar-coated. "The Final Season" doesn't see a problem with a culture that's centered around the fortunes of its high school sports teams. There's no sane person like the Barbara Hershey character in the David Anspaugh-directed film about Indiana high school basketball, who speaks as an advocate for education. In the postscript, no mention is made about the academic progress of the transplanted Norway student body. Like most people when it comes to academic institutions, "The Final Season" seems only concerned about the school's athletic programs. The bigger school, we learn, has yet to produce a championship season. But is that a tragedy, if the kids of Norway are receiving a better education?

Gaylene R. gave it a9:
Great family film with terrific values and discussion points. If you love baseball it will push all your buttons.

Todd B. gave it a10:
Never trust a movie critic. This was a good movie that my family and friends loved, so much that the audience all cheered at the end. Make an effort to see it you won't be sorry.

R. J. gave it a7:
The baseball scenes in this movie were a lot of fun! It was pretty hard to not get caught up in the energy and excitement, even if you knew the ending.

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Final Season, The Yari Film Group

Final Season, The
Yari Film Group