The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The Rookie is a wonderfully done underdog story, a film that easily wins us over and has us cheering in the protagonist's corner in the first act. Dennis Quaid plays Jimmy Morris, a blue blooded baseball fanatic who grew up with the game running in his blood and a bucket load of talent, but never the time to pursue it growing up. His working class father (Brian Cox) discourages that kind of ambitious and adopts a vaguely bitter worldview. And so he grows up, starts a family and the dream fades. His skill resurfaces when he coaches the town's high school baseball team. They take notice of his wildfire pitching arm, and make him a deal: if they win one championship, he takes a crack at the major leagues talent scout circuit. It's a pleasure watching an old dog like Quaid take a triumphant eleventh hour shot at success, and it makes for a fine film. Morris's fastball is a 90 plus mile an hour wunderkind and he is immediately drafted into the MLB despite his age. His family is overjoyed and he is filled with a new energy and love for life spurred on by his second chance at his passion. It's great stuff. Rachel Griffiths is solid as Jimmy's eternally supportive wife, Beth Grant is sweet as his mother and adorable Angus T. Jones makes good work of his doting son. It's Brian Cox who quietly steals the show as his father, a man soured by his own misplaced trajectory, who takes his damn time to come around and show some pride is his son. Cox is a deeply gifted pro who provides pools of gravity and anchors the film back on solid ground every time it veers towards excessive sentimentality. Especially his final, wrenching scene. A golden entry in the sports genre.

A rather likable and old fashioned tale. Its a film in two halves where you first see Dennis Quaid as a High school baseball coach who is persuaded to try out as a professional pitcher late in life.The second half of the film is his search to be the oldest Rookie in the major league. Armed with a demon pitch, he can thrown the ball at over 90 miles per hour, he is taken seriously from the off.The film defies expectations, there are no villains, not much of the old timer jokes, very little in the way of chicanery. A rare films where everybody is nice to each other and a genuine lack of cynicism, especially as it is based on a true story.

OK first off, this is by NO means a bad movie. Not at all. It's actually a good movie trapped in an awful movie's DVD. Mainly because it's stupid. OK just so you know, I'm in high school, so I can really understand how flipping unrealistic all those scenes that involve high schoolers are. OK you know in the district championship game when Rudy is pitching to the "bad guy" in red hair? THERE IS NO WAY THAT GUY IS IN HIGH SCHOOL. even the seniors at my school look like toddlers compared to the kid. Also, during the seen in the beginning of the flick the protagonist is a kid aged 10-12, but later he is 30-40, so obviously the characters have all aged 20-30 years, but the 3 weird old guys he always hangs out with don't change at all in appearance! frank's hair turned white, but other than that there the exact same! it's like the just returned from the set of tuck everlasting. when the young morris goes into the store, all those old guys are between 40-60. Twenty to thirty years later, they look the same. dumb. so does the dad, the exact same.also during the seen when he's posting the newspapers clippings on his bulletin board, i paused it and went up the the TV and read that newspapers, and IT Wasn't ABOUT BASEBALL.also this nonsense with the tryouts, tell me the last time you saw a huge billboard that said "hey have you ever wanted to play in the MLB? well then come here at this time!" for him to even a freaking shot at the majors he would need an agent! the music in the this film sucks too, particularly when he's timing his pitches with the car radar thing.also, why is the kid ALWAYS WITH THE DAD? i mean did he get divorced and take custody? that punk is always with him, even at practice. my freshman basketball coach ALWAYS brings his kids (all 3 of em) to our practices, and my teammates HATE IT and the last thing we would want is for one of them to come party in the locker room with us, like "Hunter" does.

This movie is a good family movie that has the usual rags to riches story. If you are an avid baseball enthusiast, you are going to be disappointed. This movie very poorly portrays the game of baseball. The story is quickly moving sometimes, and other times it is very slow. T he camera work is way to flashy at many points and is a good cause of a headache. The acting is OK, but not as good as expected for Dennis Quaid. The fact that the movie is set on a true story, many things seem unrealistic and very Disney like. Overall, the movie is a disappointing film that seemed to be over hyped and very average. This movie is average but is a good family movie to waste a rainy day.