Will Red Sox fans actually go and see "Fever Pitch"?

[HuckleB]

Let's not even worry about the bizarre nature of a baseball movie with a title that relates to the soccer origins of the adapted story. (Though one must mention that the Colin Firth movie of Nick Hornby's book was actually fairly entertaining: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004YS58/ref=pd_sxp_elt_l1/104-9196458-8952723 , which does lead one to wonder how a Jimmy Fallon movie could ever be worth watching, but that's another topic altogether. Still, the book is the greatest book about fandom in sport ever written.)

The real question is: Can Red Sox fans forgive the Jimmy Fallon-Drew Barrymore smooch spectacle, filmed during the Sox World Series Celebration in St. Louis? Regardless of how good or how crap the movie turns out to be?

I'm not a Red Sox fan, but I'll probably be sticking to another re-read of the book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1573226882/qid=1111159038/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-9196458-8952723 , and, perhaps, another viewing of the original film version.

[joeybee12]

1. This Red Sox fan is slightly curious, but I doubt I'll go see it...

...I used to like the Farrelly Bros., but their last few movies have been pretty bad. Jimmy Fallon AND Drew Berrymore--sure recipe for a stinker!

I'll wait for video--it should be on the shelves pretty damn soon!

[HuckleB]

3. Yeah, I'm sure I'll check out the DVD, too.

Or, perhaps, hit a brewpub theatre on a rainy night, if it plays at one.

Having read the book a couple times, as well as having seen the original movie, I don't have any idea how they chose Jimmy Fallon for this role. Of course, it sounds like this film covers a very small portion of the book, as did the original film.

Salud.

[joeybee12]

5. So you've read the book twice, eh?

Sounds like a recommendation to me!

[HuckleB]

8. Yup. And I'm not the type that rereads many books.

I first read it during the summer of '95, when it primed and pumped all my childhood memories of growing up a baseball fan, even though the book is about Hornby's childhood (and adulthood) as a soccer fan. Somehow it helped make the 1995 Mariners cinderella season just that much more dramatic, including the game five ALDS win over the Yankees, and the ALCS loss to Cleveland, after the M's went up two games to one. I could go on about the memories it brought back, but it's better to leave those for your reading pleasure.

I read it again in the Spring of 2003, using it as my great non-alcoholic escape from the world outside of fandom, which was necessary for a few moments each day during the initial weeks of "shock and awe" and ugh.

Salud!

[joeybee12]

10. I'll have to find it at the library when I return from Europe--I leave on

Wednesday--bring the LOTR trilogy with me for my reading material. I'm not a big fan of LOTR--I like it, but I'm not crazed like some people are. But it is a good read, and long enough to pass many long plane flights and train trips!

[cruadin]

2. I just checked out the trailer at...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/fever_pitch/

it looks like a typically stupid Hollywood love story, but, as far as I'm concerned, if you had to take your significant other to a "chick flick" this would be the hands down choice.
Not because of Fallon or Barrymore, but due to the Fenway action that highlights the-- World. Champion. Boston. Red Sox ---ohh, yeah.

[WilliamPitt]

4. Hell no

[MessiahRp]

6. As a big time Sox fan...

I am torn... I think it might be an okay flick (although more Budget Theater material IMO), but I am still pissy that they were on the field filming during our World Series celebration. There's just no f'n way regular fans get onto the field during that without Security whooping their asses.

Plus Jimmy Fallon is a Yankees fan which is like casting a Jew to play Hitler as far as I'm concerned.

So I'll probably back off of paying to see it for that reason alone.

Rp

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

7. I'm an Arsenal fan

and the original "Fever Pitch" was about being an Arsenal fan. I loved Hornby's book so much I've never been able to bring myself to see the original movie, simply because I find it hard to imagine the book transformed into a movie. (Although having seen Colin Firth in a few other movies I must admit to feeling tempted to go find the DVD).

but the book transformed into a movie about baseball would be way too much of a stretch for me.

[HuckleB]

9. I can understand that.

The connection to Arsenal may be too great.

And movies do usually disappoint book readers. Still, the book's greatness is in its universal nature, in my opinion. The story Hornby relates in regard to his attachment to Arsenal so closely matches my attachment to the Milwaukee Brewers of the 1970s and early 1980s, that I couldn't put the book down. I relived the come from behind victory in the 1982 ALCS and the game 6 and 7 losses to St. Louis that followed in the World Series, not just in memory, but physically. And other U.S. readers have related similar experiences, usually in regard to baseball.

Salud.

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

11. I know it applies well beyond Arsenal

... in fact, being in Sydney, Australia I've never been to an Arsenal game, so I related to it in terms of my experiences as a fan of other sports closer to home anyway, so I can understand how you would've seen connections as a Brewers fan.

I was actually working for a sports organization and dealing with fans at the time I read the book, so the parallels that reached beyond soccer weren't lost on me at all. I felt like copying passages of it and sending it to some fans I corresponded with :-)

I just liked the book so much, and it was written in such a quirky, diary-like style, that I found it hard to imagine it done as a movie, that's all.