C.H.U.D. [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • low budget gem
  • Good for a lazy afternoon/morning...
C.H.U.D. [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: John Heard , Daniel Stern , Christopher Curry , Kim Greist , and Laure Mattos
Director: Douglas Cheek
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:
  1. C.H.U.D. 2 - Bud The CHUD [1988] C.H.U.D. 2 - Bud The CHUD [1988]
  2. The Stuff [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC) The Stuff [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
  3. Horror: 4 Film Favorites (REGION 1) (NTSC) Horror: 4 Film Favorites (REGION 1) (NTSC)
  4. Killer Klowns from Outer Space [1988] (REGION 1) (NTSC) Killer Klowns from Outer Space [1988] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
  5. Street Trash [1987] (REGION 1) (NTSC) Street Trash [1987] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

ASIN: B00004Y6BC
Release Date: 2001-01-30
C.H.U.D. [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars low budget gem.......2005-06-23

This is one of those low budget oddities that surfaced on home video in the eighties and developed a cult following among horror fans as well as people curious to see early performances from Daniel Stern and John Goodman. Mutant tramps living under new-york city are beggining to venture to the surface to find fresh meat, speading panic amongst the city's homeless population, a cop, a soup-kitchen worker and a professional photographer begin to investigate the mystery. Anchor bay's disc is great, with the best transfer I have seen yet and the film itself has been re-edited and presented as the director intended. The commentary track is both fun and informative and the disc also includes a superb easter egg. At the prices i've seen this go for on amazon this is an essential purchase for horror fans.

4 out of 5 stars Good for a lazy afternoon/morning..........2005-02-26

CHUD is a solid, fun movie, with a lot of things to recommend it. In terms of how the movie feels, although it's generally known as a horror movie there's very little scary about it so it falls into the 'sci-fi thriller' category along with Independence Day, Jurassic Park, Predator and the like. While those films are suitable for kids, aside from Predator anyhoo, CHUD is definitely not (of course the R rating and the fact that CHUD stands for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers probably tipped you off) and the admittedly few and far between instances of violence or gore are quite grim, so keep this one out of reach of the littlies, but otherwise this is a fun B Movie thriller that everyone will enjoy. The acting is solid throughout, and it's surprising given the time the movie was made (during the 80s slasher boom when most of the characters in movies got bumped off before they had a chance to speak let alone develop) but the writers have taken genuine pains to create characters who you actually care about and believe in. This movie reminded me of the kind of daft Sci-Fi I used to watch back in the 80s when I was a kid, so it instantly got accepted into my heart just for that, and it really is the kind of movie anybody should be able to watch, horror fan or not. The only things that stopped CHUD from getting 5 stars were that it seemed to end abruptly, and at times the movie didn't seem to know whether it was trying to be funny or frightening. Also the sound transfer on the DVD is a little haphazard, resulting in some of the script getting lost in the hubbub. Mind you, this is an old movie and one that's only just been reissued so the print had probably deteriorated a fair bit.

If you like CHUD and feel you'd want to check out similar stuff, try these: Return of the Living Dead(1 and 2, not 3), Repo Man, Humanoids from the Deep.
Night of the Comet [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Night of the.... Bomb It!!!!
  • The best B movie ever made
Night of the Comet [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Robert Beltran , Catherine Mary Stewart , Kelli Maroney , Sharon Farrell , and Mary Woronov
Director: Thom Eberhardt
Manufacturer: MGM
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:
  1. Nowhere Land [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC) Nowhere Land [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
  2. Chopping Mall [1986] (REGION 1) (NTSC) Chopping Mall [1986] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
  3. Warning Sign [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC) Warning Sign [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
  4. The Stuff [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC) The Stuff [1985] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
  5. Prom Night [1980] (REGION 1) (NTSC) Prom Night [1980] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

ASIN: B000MDFTHE
Release Date: 2007-03-06
Night of the Comet [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Night of the.... Bomb It!!!!.......2007-08-16

I think the central problem in this film is simply the fact that the creators have chosen two rather bland leads. The actresses who play the surviving sisters wander the city searching for shopping and boys.
It all starts so well, with the arrival of a comet last seen in the jurassic period wipes the earth clean of humanity, save for the sisters, a handsome lad, and one or two fairly effective comet zombies.
By the time a small knit band of scientists arrive to save the film (they can act) we've been wishing for the comet to turn around so the girls end up as piles of red dust.
It tries to be The Omega Man, and, with a more concentrated cast, may well have been since the idea is quite solid.
It's a shame. Worth watching for the general idea itself. But ready yourself for the most cutesy ending of the 80s!!!

5 out of 5 stars The best B movie ever made.......2007-06-30

I think Mr. Dunn has lost the point about Night of the Comet. NOTC doesnt take itself seriously, it doesnt need too. It has presented a modern day take of all those B movies from the 50's with over the top monsters / villians / leads.
The two leads are superb in their roles, they seem to relish they are playing a couple of airheads, and act the part accordingly. How can you not love a Mac 10 toting cheerleader who is more concerned with the country music playing in the car, than the zombies about to mutilate her outside.
If the movie had taken a more serious note, this film wouldnt have been so much fun to watch, to see the zero budget special effects, to listen to the cheesy 80's songs, and as for the end, yes it all kind of neatly plays out, but sometimes you dont need a severed head in a box to make a film work. Plus isnt it nice to know that DMK was one of the survivors too.
Enjoy the film folks, since although it may not be 28 days later, it works just fine.
The Natural [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • coulda been a contender...
  • Circular cricket...
  • A tale well-told
  • Circular cricket...
  • One of my all time favourites....
The Natural [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Robert Redford , Glenn Close , Kim Basinger , Wilford Brimley , and Barbara Hershey
Director: Barry Levinson
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:
  1. Eight Men Out [1988] Eight Men Out [1988]
  2. The Rookie [2002] The Rookie [2002]
  3. For Love Of The Game [2000] For Love Of The Game [2000]
  4. Field of Dreams [1989] Field of Dreams [1989]
  5. Best Shot [1986] Best Shot [1986]

ASIN: B000MNOX94
Release Date: 2007-04-03
The Natural [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Amazon.co.uk Review

Director Barry Levinson treats The Natural as a kind of shrine to America's national pastime, baseball, complete with all the possible mythic resonance that can be gleaned from the subject. Fans of the Bernard Malamud novel may be dismayed, but anyone who fell for the similarly mythic Field of Dreams will be hooked. Levinson displays an unabashed devotion to the game, although the film could use more of the realities of chewing tobacco and pine tar. The story opens as a young man (Robert Redford, in soft lighting) emerges from the sun-dappled heartland as maybe the best baseball player anybody's ever seen. On his way to the majors, he is waylaid by an enigmatic black widow (Barbara Hershey) and vanishes for many years. When he re-emerges, a silent mystery, he lands a spot with a New York team and begins tearing up the league--he's still the natural. Redford is fine, and Kim Basinger and Oscar-nominated Glenn Close are effective as the women in his life. The crowning touch is the soaring, extraordinary music by Randy Newman, the singer-songwriter turned orchestral composer. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars coulda been a contender..........2006-11-08

I'm a film fan. Someone who watches a lot of films. But I used to play a lot of sport...and wasn't too bad at some of them.

You don't have to be like me to enjoy this film...(which was hugely)...but it might help if somewhere along the lines you thought..."what if...?"

For the intellect there is a raft of mythological/historical references...the lightning struck tree...Thor=God of Thunder and the hammer...a mighty strike... One critic has even pronounced on the fact that Roy is phonetical close to 'Roi'...sumat Frenchified for Royal....i.e. is Roy a prince among men?

For the aesthete the sepia tones rival The Godfather in terms of 'Period Peice' and evocation of a dusty bygone era.

For the actors workshop...well where do you start?

For the naive child in everyone...triumph over adversity, the little guys win by playing well and fair, the bad guys lose, the greedy are defeated and all ends well.

Watch it. Enjoy it. Love it...and you don't need to be sports fan let alone a baseball fan.

I've only ever had the same level of 'warm and fuzzy' feeling after watching 12 Angry Men...

4 out of 5 stars Circular cricket..........2006-03-15

I approach reviewing the movie 'The Natural' with some fear and trembling -- not being someone raised on American sports, baseball has often held the image in my mind as being a sort of circular cricket game. However, beyond the basic mechanics of the game is the psychology, and, by and large, there is a very different mindset to athletics in America than there is outside of America (though this is changing over time); certainly as I was growing up, I had no sports-figure heroes, nor did I ever consider professional sports as a potential career even in a fantasy.

Beyond the general psychology of sports in America, baseball has a ranking with pride of place, being a national pasttime. To this end, to further my research for this review, I treated myself to that most American of activities, a baseball game, on that most American of holidays, the fourth of July. Being nearest to Indianapolis, there are no major leagues in town, so I went to the minor league game (Indianapolis Indians against the Louisville Riverbats -- the Indians won handily 7-2). I finally began to have some insights into what could be interesting and exciting and fun about baseball. I am certain that my reflections on 'The Natural' would be very different without that experience.

Perhaps it is a fantasy of many Americans to be a natural at sports in general, and some sport in particular. Baseball, having been woven into the history of the country, gives a particular insight into what can be best and worst in life through the game -- honour, glory, happiness; greed, betrayal, vice.

Barry Levinson's 1984 film, 'The Natural', shows the love of the game in full force. Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs, an almost mythically inspired character, complete with mythic instruments (a bat that is made from a lightning charged tree, perhaps a bat 'anointed by the gods', as it were). Having been a natural from childhood days, he suffers an injury by a mysterious woman in his young manhood that (so far as we know in the film) cuts short a promising career. Is she the Delilah that cuts down a Sampson? If so, why (other than to set up the rest of the film).

Many years later, a much more mature Hobbs returns from out of nowhere to lead a desperate team to victory, overcoming the greed and corruption that big-time money injects into the game for a riveting, round-the-bases having hit out the lights home run that brings the fans to their feet and the puts the bad guys to shame.

What could be more natural than that?

While this is a good story and ends with a happy, yet somewhat incomplete scene of Hobbs playing ball with with a boy (will he be a natural, too?) while a rescued woman (oh yes, did I forget the love story? -- my mistake -- Glenn Close turns in a reasonable but far from her best performance as the love interest on the sidelines while Kim Basinger plays the sultry temptress intertwined in the murky dealing with the power brokers) watches, there are too many unexplained events and tenuous connexions for me to think of this as a great film. Unanswered questions abound.

However, the movie is good entertainment, even for someone who hasn't been to a baseball game. The pace is leisurely (like a baseball game), and the action goes from slow to riveting to gentle to exciting and back again. The dialogue is not inspired, but adequate for the plot. Some judicious editing might have made the movie hold together a bit better.

I can see the love of the game over all other considerations, and I can sense that in Hobbs character. And I can see the reality in many of the other characters. However, this is not executed well enough in philosophic terms to be a morality tale, and underdeveloped in human terms.

In the end, like the baseball game I attended on the fourth of July, I'm glad I saw it, but alas, I didn't fall in love with it. Perhaps I'm just a cricket man at heart.

5 out of 5 stars A tale well-told.......2006-01-13

"The Natural" is a another example of fine story-telling brought to the big screen. Like "Field of Dreams" this film is fine story-telling from beginning to end. Actually, while "Field of Dreams" comes closest to it, "The Natural" has a feel uniquely its own. It has an ethereal, dream-like feel to it and, for anyone who has seen this movie even just once, I would bet that they would recognize it from a ten-second clip taken from any part of the movie. Robert Redford is not my favorite actor; I don't dislike him - I'm just not usually impressed by him. And, he is a bit old for this particular part. However, in "The Natural," he finds what I think is his defining role. If I were his agent, I'd advise him to study his performance in this movie and use it as a model for all of his work. For all of the supernatural components in "The Natural", Redford is entirely believable in his search for simple truth, honor, and decency. The viewer can tell that this movie is based upon good literature because almost everything has layers of meaning to it, which is another reason why Redford's straightforward, no-nonsense character shines like a beacon in a cloud of scheming and personal politics. Watchable and memorable magic.

4 out of 5 stars Circular cricket..........2005-12-20

I approach reviewing the movie 'The Natural' with some fear and trembling -- not being someone raised on American sports, baseball has often held the image in my mind as being a sort of circular cricket game. However, beyond the basic mechanics of the game is the psychology, and, by and large, there is a very different mindset to athletics in America than there is outside of America (though this is changing over time); certainly as I was growing up, I had no sports-figure heroes, nor did I ever consider professional sports as a potential career even in a fantasy.

Beyond the general psychology of sports in America, baseball has a ranking with pride of place, being a national pasttime. To this end, to further my research for this review, I treated myself to that most American of activities, a baseball game, on that most American of holidays, the fourth of July. Being nearest to Indianapolis, there are no major leagues in town, so I went to the minor league game (Indianapolis Indians against the Louisville Riverbats -- the Indians won handily 7-2). I finally began to have some insights into what could be interesting and exciting and fun about baseball. I am certain that my reflections on 'The Natural' would be very different without that experience.

Perhaps it is a fantasy of many Americans to be a natural at sports in general, and some sport in particular. Baseball, having been woven into the history of the country, gives a particular insight into what can be best and worst in life through the game -- honour, glory, happiness; greed, betrayal, vice.

Barry Levinson's 1984 film, 'The Natural', shows the love of the game in full force. Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs, an almost mythically inspired character, complete with mythic instruments (a bat that is made from a lightning charged tree, perhaps a bat 'anointed by the gods', as it were). Having been a natural from childhood days, he suffers an injury by a mysterious woman in his young manhood that (so far as we know in the film) cuts short a promising career. Is she the Delilah that cuts down a Sampson? If so, why (other than to set up the rest of the film).

Many years later, a much more mature Hobbs returns from out of nowhere to lead a desperate team to victory, overcoming the greed and corruption that big-time money injects into the game for a riveting, round-the-bases having hit out the lights home run that brings the fans to their feet and the puts the bad guys to shame.

What could be more natural than that?

While this is a good story and ends with a happy, yet somewhat incomplete scene of Hobbs playing ball with with a boy (will he be a natural, too?) while a rescued woman (oh yes, did I forget the love story? -- my mistake -- Glenn Close turns in a reasonable but far from her best performance as the love interest on the sidelines while Kim Basinger plays the sultry temptress intertwined in the murky dealing with the power brokers) watches, there are too many unexplained events and tenuous connexions for me to think of this as a great film. Unanswered questions abound.

However, the movie is good entertainment, even for someone who hasn't been to a baseball game. The pace is leisurely (like a baseball game), and the action goes from slow to riveting to gentle to exciting and back again. The dialogue is not inspired, but adequate for the plot. Some judicious editing might have made the movie hold together a bit better.

I can see the love of the game over all other considerations, and I can sense that in Hobbs character. And I can see the reality in many of the other characters. However, this is not executed well enough in philosophic terms to be a morality tale, and underdeveloped in human terms.

In the end, like the baseball game I attended on the fourth of July, I'm glad I saw it, but alas, I didn't fall in love with it. Perhaps I'm just a cricket man at heart.

5 out of 5 stars One of my all time favourites...........2005-05-13

and it works on so many levels.There is the sporting theme(baseball the American game, set in an innocent era,) The potential, and innocence of youth. Dreams that never die, as well as an indicment of the press(build em up to knock them down) but at the end of the day it is an enjoyable film. Would have given it 5, but you could say that the end is corny, but in the same way that you are caught up in the emotion, of say a Rocky film, this film leaves you with a warm feeling inside. Try it and see.
The Natural [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • coulda been a contender...
  • Circular cricket...
  • A tale well-told
  • Circular cricket...
  • One of my all time favourites....
The Natural [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Robert Redford , Glenn Close , Kim Basinger , Wilford Brimley , and Barbara Hershey
Director: Barry Levinson
Manufacturer: Columbia TriStar
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

All Drama All Drama | Drama | Categories | DVD | Video
All Sports All Sports | Sports | Categories | DVD | Video
Region 1 Region 1 | Special Features | DVD | Video
DVD DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. Eight Men Out [1988] Eight Men Out [1988]
  2. The Rookie [2002] The Rookie [2002]
  3. For Love Of The Game [2000] For Love Of The Game [2000]
  4. Field of Dreams [1989] Field of Dreams [1989]
  5. Best Shot [1986] Best Shot [1986]

ASIN: B000056WQX
Release Date: 2001-04-03
The Natural [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Amazon.co.uk Review

Director Barry Levinson treats The Natural as a kind of shrine to America's national pastime, baseball, complete with all the possible mythic resonance that can be gleaned from the subject. Fans of the Bernard Malamud novel may be dismayed, but anyone who fell for the similarly mythic Field of Dreams will be hooked. Levinson displays an unabashed devotion to the game, although the film could use more of the realities of chewing tobacco and pine tar. The story opens as a young man (Robert Redford, in soft lighting) emerges from the sun-dappled heartland as maybe the best baseball player anybody's ever seen. On his way to the majors, he is waylaid by an enigmatic black widow (Barbara Hershey) and vanishes for many years. When he re-emerges, a silent mystery, he lands a spot with a New York team and begins tearing up the league--he's still the natural. Redford is fine, and Kim Basinger and Oscar-nominated Glenn Close are effective as the women in his life. The crowning touch is the soaring, extraordinary music by Randy Newman, the singer-songwriter turned orchestral composer. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars coulda been a contender..........2006-11-08

I'm a film fan. Someone who watches a lot of films. But I used to play a lot of sport...and wasn't too bad at some of them.

You don't have to be like me to enjoy this film...(which was hugely)...but it might help if somewhere along the lines you thought..."what if...?"

For the intellect there is a raft of mythological/historical references...the lightning struck tree...Thor=God of Thunder and the hammer...a mighty strike... One critic has even pronounced on the fact that Roy is phonetical close to 'Roi'...sumat Frenchified for Royal....i.e. is Roy a prince among men?

For the aesthete the sepia tones rival The Godfather in terms of 'Period Peice' and evocation of a dusty bygone era.

For the actors workshop...well where do you start?

For the naive child in everyone...triumph over adversity, the little guys win by playing well and fair, the bad guys lose, the greedy are defeated and all ends well.

Watch it. Enjoy it. Love it...and you don't need to be sports fan let alone a baseball fan.

I've only ever had the same level of 'warm and fuzzy' feeling after watching 12 Angry Men...

4 out of 5 stars Circular cricket..........2006-03-15

I approach reviewing the movie 'The Natural' with some fear and trembling -- not being someone raised on American sports, baseball has often held the image in my mind as being a sort of circular cricket game. However, beyond the basic mechanics of the game is the psychology, and, by and large, there is a very different mindset to athletics in America than there is outside of America (though this is changing over time); certainly as I was growing up, I had no sports-figure heroes, nor did I ever consider professional sports as a potential career even in a fantasy.

Beyond the general psychology of sports in America, baseball has a ranking with pride of place, being a national pasttime. To this end, to further my research for this review, I treated myself to that most American of activities, a baseball game, on that most American of holidays, the fourth of July. Being nearest to Indianapolis, there are no major leagues in town, so I went to the minor league game (Indianapolis Indians against the Louisville Riverbats -- the Indians won handily 7-2). I finally began to have some insights into what could be interesting and exciting and fun about baseball. I am certain that my reflections on 'The Natural' would be very different without that experience.

Perhaps it is a fantasy of many Americans to be a natural at sports in general, and some sport in particular. Baseball, having been woven into the history of the country, gives a particular insight into what can be best and worst in life through the game -- honour, glory, happiness; greed, betrayal, vice.

Barry Levinson's 1984 film, 'The Natural', shows the love of the game in full force. Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs, an almost mythically inspired character, complete with mythic instruments (a bat that is made from a lightning charged tree, perhaps a bat 'anointed by the gods', as it were). Having been a natural from childhood days, he suffers an injury by a mysterious woman in his young manhood that (so far as we know in the film) cuts short a promising career. Is she the Delilah that cuts down a Sampson? If so, why (other than to set up the rest of the film).

Many years later, a much more mature Hobbs returns from out of nowhere to lead a desperate team to victory, overcoming the greed and corruption that big-time money injects into the game for a riveting, round-the-bases having hit out the lights home run that brings the fans to their feet and the puts the bad guys to shame.

What could be more natural than that?

While this is a good story and ends with a happy, yet somewhat incomplete scene of Hobbs playing ball with with a boy (will he be a natural, too?) while a rescued woman (oh yes, did I forget the love story? -- my mistake -- Glenn Close turns in a reasonable but far from her best performance as the love interest on the sidelines while Kim Basinger plays the sultry temptress intertwined in the murky dealing with the power brokers) watches, there are too many unexplained events and tenuous connexions for me to think of this as a great film. Unanswered questions abound.

However, the movie is good entertainment, even for someone who hasn't been to a baseball game. The pace is leisurely (like a baseball game), and the action goes from slow to riveting to gentle to exciting and back again. The dialogue is not inspired, but adequate for the plot. Some judicious editing might have made the movie hold together a bit better.

I can see the love of the game over all other considerations, and I can sense that in Hobbs character. And I can see the reality in many of the other characters. However, this is not executed well enough in philosophic terms to be a morality tale, and underdeveloped in human terms.

In the end, like the baseball game I attended on the fourth of July, I'm glad I saw it, but alas, I didn't fall in love with it. Perhaps I'm just a cricket man at heart.

5 out of 5 stars A tale well-told.......2006-01-13

"The Natural" is a another example of fine story-telling brought to the big screen. Like "Field of Dreams" this film is fine story-telling from beginning to end. Actually, while "Field of Dreams" comes closest to it, "The Natural" has a feel uniquely its own. It has an ethereal, dream-like feel to it and, for anyone who has seen this movie even just once, I would bet that they would recognize it from a ten-second clip taken from any part of the movie. Robert Redford is not my favorite actor; I don't dislike him - I'm just not usually impressed by him. And, he is a bit old for this particular part. However, in "The Natural," he finds what I think is his defining role. If I were his agent, I'd advise him to study his performance in this movie and use it as a model for all of his work. For all of the supernatural components in "The Natural", Redford is entirely believable in his search for simple truth, honor, and decency. The viewer can tell that this movie is based upon good literature because almost everything has layers of meaning to it, which is another reason why Redford's straightforward, no-nonsense character shines like a beacon in a cloud of scheming and personal politics. Watchable and memorable magic.

4 out of 5 stars Circular cricket..........2005-12-20

I approach reviewing the movie 'The Natural' with some fear and trembling -- not being someone raised on American sports, baseball has often held the image in my mind as being a sort of circular cricket game. However, beyond the basic mechanics of the game is the psychology, and, by and large, there is a very different mindset to athletics in America than there is outside of America (though this is changing over time); certainly as I was growing up, I had no sports-figure heroes, nor did I ever consider professional sports as a potential career even in a fantasy.

Beyond the general psychology of sports in America, baseball has a ranking with pride of place, being a national pasttime. To this end, to further my research for this review, I treated myself to that most American of activities, a baseball game, on that most American of holidays, the fourth of July. Being nearest to Indianapolis, there are no major leagues in town, so I went to the minor league game (Indianapolis Indians against the Louisville Riverbats -- the Indians won handily 7-2). I finally began to have some insights into what could be interesting and exciting and fun about baseball. I am certain that my reflections on 'The Natural' would be very different without that experience.

Perhaps it is a fantasy of many Americans to be a natural at sports in general, and some sport in particular. Baseball, having been woven into the history of the country, gives a particular insight into what can be best and worst in life through the game -- honour, glory, happiness; greed, betrayal, vice.

Barry Levinson's 1984 film, 'The Natural', shows the love of the game in full force. Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs, an almost mythically inspired character, complete with mythic instruments (a bat that is made from a lightning charged tree, perhaps a bat 'anointed by the gods', as it were). Having been a natural from childhood days, he suffers an injury by a mysterious woman in his young manhood that (so far as we know in the film) cuts short a promising career. Is she the Delilah that cuts down a Sampson? If so, why (other than to set up the rest of the film).

Many years later, a much more mature Hobbs returns from out of nowhere to lead a desperate team to victory, overcoming the greed and corruption that big-time money injects into the game for a riveting, round-the-bases having hit out the lights home run that brings the fans to their feet and the puts the bad guys to shame.

What could be more natural than that?

While this is a good story and ends with a happy, yet somewhat incomplete scene of Hobbs playing ball with with a boy (will he be a natural, too?) while a rescued woman (oh yes, did I forget the love story? -- my mistake -- Glenn Close turns in a reasonable but far from her best performance as the love interest on the sidelines while Kim Basinger plays the sultry temptress intertwined in the murky dealing with the power brokers) watches, there are too many unexplained events and tenuous connexions for me to think of this as a great film. Unanswered questions abound.

However, the movie is good entertainment, even for someone who hasn't been to a baseball game. The pace is leisurely (like a baseball game), and the action goes from slow to riveting to gentle to exciting and back again. The dialogue is not inspired, but adequate for the plot. Some judicious editing might have made the movie hold together a bit better.

I can see the love of the game over all other considerations, and I can sense that in Hobbs character. And I can see the reality in many of the other characters. However, this is not executed well enough in philosophic terms to be a morality tale, and underdeveloped in human terms.

In the end, like the baseball game I attended on the fourth of July, I'm glad I saw it, but alas, I didn't fall in love with it. Perhaps I'm just a cricket man at heart.

5 out of 5 stars One of my all time favourites...........2005-05-13

and it works on so many levels.There is the sporting theme(baseball the American game, set in an innocent era,) The potential, and innocence of youth. Dreams that never die, as well as an indicment of the press(build em up to knock them down) but at the end of the day it is an enjoyable film. Would have given it 5, but you could say that the end is corny, but in the same way that you are caught up in the emotion, of say a Rocky film, this film leaves you with a warm feeling inside. Try it and see.
Cult Fiction: C.H.U.D. [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Cult Fiction: C.H.U.D. [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
    Starring: Frank Adu , Ray Baker , Graham Beckel , Beverly Bentley , and Brenda Currin
    Manufacturer: Sony Pictures / Starz
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

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    ASIN: B001320RJ8
    Release Date: 2008-03-04
    Cult Fiction: C.H.U.D. [1984] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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