once upon a time hollywood produce live action and g rat movie without foul language and immorality and and gore splatter violence . these movie neither insulted your intelligence no manipulate your emotion . the hero differ little from the crowd . they share the same feeling and bore the same burden . since the 1970s and the film industry have pretty much write off g rat movie for adult . basically and modern mature audience demand large dos of embellished realism for their cinematic diet and lace heavily with vile profanity and mattress thump sex and and knuckle bruising fisticuffs . these ingredient constitute the difference between g rat movie and those rat either pg or pg 13. miraculously and director john lee hancock and who pen script for clint eastwood a perfect world ( 1993 ) and midnight in the garden of good and evil ( 1997 ) and hit a home run with this g rat and feel good and four bagger of a baseball epic that not only celebrate america favorite summer time sport and but also extol the competitive spirit of the game . essentially and the rookie resemble the 1984 robert redford saga the natural about an old time slugger who make a comeback . unlike the natural and the rookie shun swear and sex and and violence . moreover and rugged dennis quaid play a real life individual . jim morris autobiography and the old rookie represent big league dream from a small town guy and serve a the basis for mike find forrester ) rich unpretentious and norman rockwell style screenplay about white and middle class aspiration . morris attain his dream when he debut on the mound a a relief pitcher in 1999. although it doesn not belong in the same league with the inspirational james stewart classic the stratton story ( 1949 ) and the rookie qualify a the kind of movie that hollywood rarely make anymore because audience find them antiquate . hancock and rich encapsulate their entertaining oddball biography in a halo of mysticism . a wildcat oil prospector convinces two catholic nun back in the 1920s to bankroll a west texas well . fear they have blow their buck on an ill advise fantasy and the sister blanket the arid terrain with rise petal and entreat st. rita patron saint of hopeless cause to intervene . the well gush . the town of big lake emerges and and roughneck swat at baseball when they aren not drill hole in the terrain . the spirit of baseball ooze from the earth like petroleum . meanwhile and year later and the u. s. navy doesn not keep jim morris and sr. and ( brian co of manhunter ) and his family in one place long before uproot them . the constant moving take a toll on jim junior . jim dad show little sympathy and berate baseball . nevertheless and jim have baseball in his blood and enough so that when he accept a high school chemistry teacher job in his texas hometown and he organize a baseball team . like the foul mouth bad news bear and the rookie chronicle jim triumph at turn loser into winner . morris promise the team if they reach the divisional playoff and he will try out for a professional baseball team . predictably and morris student maintain their end of the bargain . at age 35 and jim stun the big league scout when he hurl fastball at 98 mile per hour . the rookie never foul out .