Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner is either Bull Durham or Field of Dreams. For me, it's Bull Durham. As I've said, I get the concept of Field of Dreams, but it's just not the same. For my birthday (August 26th), I'll review the movie that is me, but yeah... nobody feels that it's For Love of the Game, which isn't necessarily a bad movie. Instead, it's just formulaic saccharine that tastes good at the time, but we'll never pay for it on DVD (even at $6) to have it in our collection.
Is the issue John Travolta's wife as recurring love interest that is and isn't there, sometimes more, sometimes less important than baseball?
Is the issue a youthful Jena Malone, who just makes this whole thing too Gilmore Girls-esque?
Is it John C. Reilly in a role that isn't Walk Hard: Dewey Cox (now, that was a great movie)?
Is it the fact that we're going back to the same cow to milk it so many times in hopes that this one works too?
Is it the fact that we're in the midst of a perfect game and we know that it's going to happen (should have had Jim Joyce to come in for the final out... now that would have been a plot twist that nobody saw coming)?
Is it the fact that it's against the Yankees (and we get it... we hate them, too, but couldn't it be against the cellar dwellers of the division so we wonder if it's as legitimate as a perfect game by rain delay after 5 innings or against a team of schlubs where the pitcher decides to throw heat instead of calling the outfield in)?
Is the issue Costner himself (a once great actor deciding what to do with his career as he gets hired for name recognition instead of lead man status)?
Between westerns and sports movies, that's Costner's bag of tricks. At least he's not restorting to doing a movie on a Montana ranch where he teaches the workers to play baseball until the aliens come and he unites with some mysterious stranger with a laser shooting bracelet on his wrist in order to save the day (no, wait. other than the baseball, that's Harrison Ford).
But there is 2 hours of passable entertainment in the DVD, and if you haven't seen it before, and even if you have, it's not like you're going to ask for 2 hours of your life back. That said, it's not like you're going to feel like you've struck cinematic gold either.
You're just getting what you're getting. Baseball on the big screen.