Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

jimjames1 I watched this movie back when it first came out and I did not write anything then. I watched it again today and it was not a very good story. Although they put in a few facts, the story line was ridiculous. John Goodman is a fine actor but he was twice the weight of Ruth during his prime. The Babe during the first 10 years of his career was 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed ONLY 215 pounds. He was big but still lean compared to what Goodman portrayed. Ruth never hit and infield pop fly that went for a home run. Ruth was a very good pitcher for the Red Sox from 1915-1919 he won 89 games pitching and 3 world series games. Although he was controversial in his manner, he still loved kids. After all, he was one himself. Ruth was a great athlete but not manager / leader material. In the movie, they made Ruth look very awkward when swinging the bat. He was a natural athlete yet they made him look funny. Maybe Goodman never played baseball or he was right handed. He looked uncoordinated when swinging the bat. Ruth was very well coordinated and smooth when hitting. I will leave it here. Thank you.

bkoganbing Back in 1948 when Babe Ruth was dying of cancer a small independent film The Babe Ruth Story came out with William Bendix as the star. It was based on Babe's own G rated memoirs with the same title ghost written by Bob Considine and ghost ghost written by Fred Lieb. It was how I'm sure Ruth wanted to be remembered. But even people knew then the facts said otherwise.John Goodman in the title role of The Babe is a lot closer to the swaggering hedonist who was just a kid at heart who never out grew his childhood. Abandoned and left to the care of the Christian brothers at St. Mary's Industrial School in Baltimore, the over-sized trouble-making youth was saved from probably a criminal existence by the way he could both hit and pitch a baseball. One of the many things forgotten was how good a pitcher he was and the crucial decision made by Ed Barrow his manager at the Red Sox to put Babe exclusively in the outfield to keep his bat in the lineup every day. When Ruth left for the Yankees, Barrow followed him and he's not even a character in this film.So much in this television film is left out and just plain made up. Third baseman Joe Dugan was Ruth's teammate on the Yankees, never the Red Sox as in this film. Played by Bruce Boxleitner he was not especially close to Ruth, as close to him as any of his other teammates which was not. The Babe partied hearty with them, but was not a soulmate per se.Trini Alvarado and Kelly McGillis play his first and second wives and their portrayals ring true. Wife number one Helen Wofford was just a nice kid from the country who liked country life and Ruth was a city boy all the way. Claire Hodgson Ruth was a showgirl and a very shrewd manager of the money the free spending Babe liked to shovel out as fast as he made it. She also managed the image we have of him for the rest of her life.Colonel Jacob Ruppert is done a terrible disservice in this film. To me Colonel Ruppert was the ideal owner of a sports team, in fact baseball and sports in general would be better with more Rupperts running things than Steinbrenners. Ruth got it in his head he wanted to manage, I think because contemporary stars like Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and Rogers Hornsby all got to manage. Ruppert was quite right and we saw a whole film showing how much Ruth couldn't manage himself. It never happened that Claire Ruth slapped Ruppert, NOBODY did that to him. But she knew better than anyone how much the Babe couldn't manage himself and she was not going in the dugout with him.Some good acting featured in The Babe. But it contains way too many inaccuracies for a higher rating.

brooksrob1 If you're watching this as a biography, you're in the wrong theater! The Babe is just a great story based on a great baseball player. It has some inaccuracies, that's true, but Goodman pulls off a performance equal to or better than the best of character actors!Goodman was born to play the Babe and while it's a bit over the top, he captures the cadence and presence of that time in America...This movie was made in 92. It was a totally different America; we still went to the theaters in droves. The internet was still a decade from exploding...Nobody had cell phones...This movie was panned in that era because there was lots of competition and the schmaltzy Hollywood fare was put on the back burner for movies like Stroker's Dracula, Reservoir Dogs, Last of the Mohicans, A few Good Men, etc...In that class, Babe is sitting the bench! This recently watched movie made me appreciate the life work of J. Goodman and his larger than life screen presence... Sit back and choose your poison...A very entertaining movie!

djbell1 My wife watched this film with me for the first time after I had seen it a couple of times. She had some good questions, including what the Babe did after his retirement from Baseball in 1935 up to his death in 1948. The end credits mention he never managed in Baseball. I really find it hard to believe that someone in Major League Baseball, if not the Yankees, would not have hired the Babe to manage. The film seemed to display an overall sentiment that Baseball was not very kind to Ruth. The attitude of the owner of the club in their meeting toward the end of the movie is unbelievable. How could he have turned against someone who probably helped make him wealthy? You would think he would have offered him something in the organization if he truly did not believe he was management material.Anyway, I thought the film was adequate and probably captured the spirit of the man he was on and off the field. John Goodman did a good job in his leading role. Although he did seem overweight, in some of the scenes he bore a striking resemblance to the Babe in the photos and film I have seen.