Since I haven't been posting any of my inimitable film criticism lately, I thought I'd share some I heard on the radio today while running errands and listerning to the Twins. Apparently Kevin Costner was attending the game, and Cory Provus, the play-by-play guy, and sidekick Dan Gladden began naming movies he'd starred in. Of course the baseball ones came first. Then Gladden said he'd always enjoyed Tin Cup. Provus mentioned Waterworld, which was followed by a few seconds of dead air. The batter cooperated with the rising drama by not putting the ball in play. Finally, Gladden spoke. "Yeah," he said, "Bert Blyleven got me to watch that one." He paused for effect, then: "You really have to like water to enjoy it."
As a critical put down, it ranks right up there with Pauline Kael's scoffing dismissal of Dances with Wolves: "This is a nature-boy movie, a kid's daydream of being an Indian. . . . Costner has feathers in his hair and feathers in his head."
We don't have time for movies at our house. When the kids have been bathed, read to, and tucked in, I watch the Twins, unless Amanda is watching Bravo, and, if it was a day game, we cue up an episode of Downton Abbey. On Sundays, we watch Mad Men, a long habit yielding diminishing returns.
About that Twins game. The situation was eerily similar to the one I made up for yesterday's post. Twins lead, 4 to 3, in the eighth inning at Cleveland. Jared Burton is in to pitch, and he gets into trouble. With two on and two out and Perkins warming in the pen, Burton gets the last out of the inning on a check swing dribbler before Perkins pitches an uneventful ninth. Twins win! Gardenhire's a genius!
