
True story of Kent Stock, who in the early 90's, gives up a job to take over as head coach as the Norway High School baseball team. Kent must win over his players and convince them and himself that he can fill their former coach's shoes and that they can go out winners. In the summer of 1991 Norway High's baseball tradition ended on a triumphant but sombre note.... (Full plot summary below)
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True story of Kent Stock, who in the early 90's, gives up a job to take over as head coach as the Norway High School baseball team. Kent must win over his players and convince them and himself that he can fill their former coach's shoes and that they can go out winners. In the summer of 1991 Norway High's baseball tradition ended on a triumphant but sombre note.
Leave your thoughts about The Final Season.
| Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaThere's a sign on the way into Norway, or at least a sign that somebody from the film crew put up: "On the eighth day, God created baseball." If amen is your answer to that, then The Final Season is the movie for you. |
| TV Guide MagazineKen FoxYes it's as corny as Kansas in August, but this admittedly formulaic sports drama is base on a true story and has something important to say about the fate of many small Midwestern American towns whose popular sports teams fall victim to school consolidation. |
| Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean AxmakerThere are too many unearned runs to fully embrace this underdog triumph. |
| L.A. WeeklyTim GriersonFormulaic but not cynical, The Final Season has some sweet, thoughtful passages in what is otherwise just one more well-meaning inspirational sports movie. |
| Miami HeraldRene RodriguezExactly the formulaic, by-the-numbers movie it appears to be. These Tigers deserved better. |
| Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesThis takes place in the same sort of pathologically sports-obsessed hamlet as "Friday Night Lights," though in contrast to that movie's grim honesty there's enough heartland schmaltz here to embarrass John Mellencamp. Remarkably, the movie rights itself once the actual season begins, focusing on game strategy more than the usual heart-stopping pep talks. |
| Washington PostMike MayoNathan Wang's score borrows blatantly from "The Natural" and is slathered on thick in all the big emotional scenes. They establish the right nostalgic mood, but it's broken with that loud "ping" of a metal bat every time a kid gets a hit. |
| ReelViewsJames BerardinelliEvans' goal is to do for high school baseball what "Hoosiers" did for high school basketball, but to mention both titles in one sentence is almost an insult to a picture that many rank as the first or second all-time sports film. |
| VarietyJohn AndersonThere's not quite as much corn in The Final Season as there is in the Iowa farm fields that run through it, but it's close. |
| Boston GlobeTy BurrThe movie is decent and heartfelt, and it eventually settles into some sharp diamond action, but the small-town homilies are dropped like an anvil. If you thought 1993's "Rudy" was too spare and unsentimental, Final Season is for you. |