The comedy of Albert Brooks isn’t for everyone.  He’s typical of those who exaggerate the human condition for an effect.  Sometimes it works well, sometimes it doesn’t.  The film The Scout was written by Brooks and others based on an article by noted sports author Roger Angell.

Albert Brooks is Al Percolo, a scout for the New York Yankees.  This means he travels around from town to town; school to school, scoping out players there seems to be a lot of buzz around in regard to their talent to play baseball.  The idea is to get the most talented ones with the best prospects to sign with his team to play ball.

Percolo comes across a talent by the name of Tommy Lacy who he signs to a contract.  The day of his major league debut, Lacy gets a case of cold feet.  This costs Percolo his status as a scout, and he's demoted to cruising the circuit scoping out players in rural Mexico.

While there, he comes across a local celebrated player by the name of Steve Nebraska (portrayed by Brendan Fraser).  Percolo convinces him to return with him to the Yankees.  The only problem is that before he has a chance to show off Steve's talent, Al is fired by the Yankees.

Al shops Steve around, and after seeing his talent, the Yankees are a high bid to sign him.  Unfortunately, at the press conference where Steve signs his contract, Steve flakes out with all of the flashbulbs going off.  The Yankees insist on having a psychiatric exam before they pay out any money.

The comedy is centered around Steve’s pathos and Al’s reaction to it.  As more and more layers are peeled back  it seems to be less and less funny, although there are some funny moments with his psychiatrist (portrayed by Dianne Wiest).

Steve is a fantasy - he’s the player every scout and owner dreams of finding in a sense and it works well that Al evolves to see him as a person rather than just a means to an end.  His qualities are exaggerated, such as the 112 mph fastball.  Baseball fans will know that it’s basically not possible, although in this day and age of steroids…

I guess, though, with the background of what’s happened in baseball the past ten years or so, that’s why a lot of The Scout didn’t seem all that funny to me.  Players have been treated as a commodity and thought the teams, owners, and major league baseball itself has held fast to painting steroids in a negative light, privately the use was generally ignored.  Ratings were up, attendance was up because of the players using the steroids and no one wanted the good times to end, so they turned a blind eye to it while saying how bad it was at the same time. For this reason, I can’t believe that a player like Steve would generate the least little bit of concern in anyone’s eyes unless it affected his play on the field.

Brooks is good as Al and manages to evolve the character as well as having funny moments.  Brendan Fraser is the type of actor who really picks really great roles that show off his talent or roles that essentially portray him as a big galoot.  This one is the latter.  You could insert just about any other young, hot actor here and the effect would have been the same.  The two do manage to forge a decent relationship and in the end it felt like Al and Steve had formed a bond beyond just the baseball diamond.

Wiest has some good moments as the psychiatrist, but suffers from being another caricature of a psychiatrist.  There are some cameos by baseball players including Keith Hernandez, Bret Saberhagen, Bobby Murcer, Steve Garvey and many more.  There’s a cameo by George Steinbrenner as well, and Tony Bennett makes an appearance as himself and gets the chance to sing.

While not a really bad film, I was just disappointed overall in The Scout.  There’s nothing that’s a real surprise in the film and the comedy is hit and miss.  It’s not a film I can really recommend, despite the plethora of ballplayers who appear in it.


EXTRA FEATURES:

• TV Spots
• Featurette
• Baseball Strike Newswrap
• Theatrical Trailer




© 2009 Patti Aliventi

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Viewing Format: DVD