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Pretty Good

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

For the first half hour I hated this. I thought it was a total dud, an esoteric Woody-Allen-ish stream of consciousness designed for hip NYC urbanites who exist in a world of $10-a-cup coffeehouses. I almost shut it off, but I stuck with it because it was a rainy day and the only other thing on TV was "Nacho Libre".I think it was the powerful scene with Harris Yulin (a great, underrated actor whose face appeared on practically every TV series in the 70s) portraying an over-the-hill stage actor with a 'parasite' in his brain. That scene snapped me to attention, and suddenly the entire movie began to fall into place. At about the same time, the plot shifts gears from neurotic Woody Allen to a suddenly darker, menacing and suspenseful tone. The story, the themes, the words & acting slowly gain momentum, paralleling the tense final innings of the World Series Game 6 which is shown concurrently with the action on screen.Indeed, I realized that this film is much like a baseball game with it's slow & usually uneventful start, slowly changing to a tense, passionate, heart-stopping experience as we go into extra innings. It reminded me a lot of the excellent Oliver Stone film "Talk Radio" with its minimal setting yet its power to bring our blood to a feverish high. By the time it was over, I realized that this innocuous little flick really packs a punch, in story, theme and technique.Imagine my astonishment when I learned that this film was done on a budget of 500k. To put that in perspective, consider that the average film has a budget of at least 10x that ("Crash" which won best picture in the same year 2005 had a budget of $6.5 million). But then I realized that the low budget was the reason why this movie was so effective. The budgetary limitations led the director & crew to use creative techniques which are what make this such a great film by any standards. You might miss it upon 1st viewing, but there are some subtle, surreal moments that give the film its unique style. For example, there's a scene in a bar where two characters are talking, and in the background keep an eye out for a NYC hazard team cleaning up an asbestos leak in slow motion. In the commentary, the director mentions that this was done simply because they couldn't afford to rent a bar set in downtown, so they had to shoot elsewhere & superimpose a plate glass window in post production. The slow motion background was an afterthought but a brilliant one which emphasizes the theme of asynchronicity & disconnection we see throughout. There are many such examples, but I'll leave them to you to discover.This film was an extremely satisfying experience for me. If you like films that are artistic, entertaining & challenging at the same time, you should definitely check this out. Similar movies are "Talk Radio", "Buffalo 66", "Adaptation", and the Japanese film "Shiki Jitsu", all worth watching.

Taken into account their extremely low budget and tight filming schedule, Game 6 is quite an achievement. It is a zany, delightful little slice of life film set around the prolific World Series '89 in which the much maligned Red Sox struggle to end their curse.Michael Keaton is a welcome return as Nicky Rogan, a successful writer whose play is debuting the same night as Game 6. But, throughout the day, Nicky struggles with his mistress, his rebellious teen daughter, his apparently put-upon wife, his old friend, his ailing father, and an eccentric critic famous for sinking plays and ending writer's careers. Nicky's faith is in the Sox, however, but what happens if and when the Sox fail...seek out this little film, it's worth a viewing. All of the acting is top-notch and, with a film of limited means, the acting is what ultimately saves the day.

I don't like the idea of calling every movie I don't like a "bad movie." I rate films on how they appeal to me, on the chemistry that I have with the movie. For me, this movie was like hearing about a person who had everything in common with you, but when you meet them, NOTHING. Zippo. No chemistry at all.This film takes place in NYC and centers around the 1986 World Series between the Mets and BoSox, a writer, Nick (MICHAEL KEATON), plagued by a bad review and living in fear of another one by the notoriously harsh (and oddball) reviewer, Steven Schwimmer (ROBERT DOWNEY, JR.). Rather than attend opening night of his play, Nick goes to a bar to watch the series on TV. As other people have provided far more detailed summaries, I won't repeat those efforts.I lived in New York in 1986, was a die-hard Mets fan, and seeing parts of the series again was maybe the best part of the film for me. In 1986, I was in a local bar, two minutes from the stadium, watching the real game 6 of the series.So, I'm a writer, I love New York, I saw every play of that series as it actually happened -- but the film did absolutely nothing for me. Little bits and pieces were of passing interest, but they faded. I didn't relate to Michael Keaton's character, or really understand him, at all. Therefore, I didn't care what happened to him.Maybe I let Ebert & Roeper's "TWO THUMBS WAY UP" sway me into thinking I'd at least like this film, but alas, I don't always come close to agreeing with them. I should learn my lesson! Some will love this film and I suspect others will have a similar reaction to mine. My recommendation is to see this film and decide for yourself. If I were the umpire, I'd call this movie out on strikes. But that's just me.

GAME 6 (2006) *** Michael Keaton, Robert Downey, Jr., Bebe Neuwirth, Griffin Dunne, Catherine O'Hara, Harris Yulin, Tom Aldredge, Ari Graynor, Roger Rees, Shalom Harlow, Lillias White. (Dir: Michael Hoffman)"There's no crying in baseball! : Keaton shines in his love of the game turnMichael Keaton is one of my favorite (and largely underrated) actors. He hasn't been making a lot of films in the past few years but whenever he pops up you immediately are focused on his kinetic energy, the arched eyebrows not unlike Nicholson's (side note: I always thought it was divine intervention when they were cast in BATMAN since they had so many mirror image physical ties!) and glib, self-deprecating wit that acts as a shield from his inner demons his characters often try to keep at bay. His latest is no exception.Based on a story by acclaimed author Don DeLillo (who adapted the screenplay), Keaton stars as a New York bred playwright who's latest work is to dawn on the fated October 1986 evening of the World Series where his beloved Boston Red Sox' lifetime curse gets re-enforced by the infamous ball-between first baseman Bill Buckner's legs.But I'm getting ahead of myself.Nicky Rogan (Keaton) is facing many cross-roads: his new play is about to premiere on Broadway but Rogan's dilemma is whether to avoid the possible public crucifixion by the notorious critic Steven Schwimmer (Downey in a wonderfully daffy turn) whose perchance for theatricality (he attends his works in masquerade since he has been virtually vilified by all who know him) sharpening his fangs to sink into his baby or watch the drama unfolding of his aforementioned team in the defining moment of baseball. Along the way he is avoiding his family, namely his wife Lillian (the equally gifted O'Hara) who is requesting a divorce and their teenage daughter Laurel (a great Graynor) whose dabbling into the punk era underscores her dad's rebellious nature in namely a heated affair with Joanna Bourne (a nubile Neuwirth) who is also giving Nicky an ultimatum. To make matters worse he runs into an old colleague, Elliot Litvak (an unkempt and funny Dunne) who is downward spiraling fast after a devastating debacle in the form of his last attempt at a play that was skewered by the hated Schwimmer to the point Litvak can quote chapter and verse of the bilious critique that has him fixated to the extent of dementia. Nicky grows increasingly wearier as the day becomes night and after a short visit with his father ("The Sopranos" ' Aldredge) figures to ditch the premiere after all (especially when his leading man - the always welcome vet Yulin - whose addled brain can't get its grasp on a key line reading) and ducks into a local bar to add insult to injury and watch with melodramatic hubris his beloved Sox get theirs.Filmmaker Hoffman does a yeoman-like job in getting fine quality performances from his gifted ensemble and in his star, Keaton gets a few juicy yet low-key turns as well balancing the tension that is leading to a possible fall-out. Smartly shot on location in Manhattan the city acts as a character as it normally does providing just enough backdrop to its proceedings at hand.DeLillo has a fine gift for his literations and the parallel of Nicky's play - a quasi-autobiography about his relationship with his working class dad - with Nicky's family life shows a man, flawed, yet genuinely wanting to make things work. The same can be said of this little gem of a film.