Glistening vein of ore uncovered in sports history: the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, formed when the boys were away for World War II, and continuing for ten years after the inaugural year chronicled here. Unhappily, the pickaxe is in the hands of Penny Marshall, with her penchant for forced comedy ("Let's make like a bread truck and haul buns") swamped by gushing sentiment — much of it off-the-rack feminism. The coda at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown gushes to flood proportions. Geena Davis, as the heavy-hitting catcher, has the rail-straight posture and the tight-lipped expression of a Randolph Scott, but neither she nor her teammates (nor, for that matter, most male actors who have played baseball players) look very good in the field. And the cinematography by Miroslav Ondricek doesn't look very good anywhere. With Tom Hanks, Lori Petty, Madonna. (1992) — Duncan Shepherd
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