Bull Durham

Susan Sarandon plays Annie Savoy, a slightly older woman who is a Durham Bulls groupie of sorts: once a season she picks out a promising young player and begins an affair with them. During that season the promising young player has the year of his life and gets called up to the big leagues, leaving Annie to look for next year's promising young player.

The Bulls also have a million-dollar prospect of a pitcher with a right arm who the gods reached down and turned into a thunderbolt. He also has less control than a seven year old with hyperactive attention deficit disorder without his Ritalin. He's as likely to throw it over the backstop as throw a strike, although his "stuff" is like Nolan Ryan or Randy Johnson. Tim Robbins brings "Nuke" LaLoosh to life in his best comic performance.

Kevin Costner, in the best of his many baseball-movie appearances, plays "Crash" Davis, a power-hitting catcher with enough talent to be a leader on minor league teams, but only 21 days in "The Show" in years of minor league work. Crash is not only a competent minor league catcher though - he also knows the history of the game, and he knows how to get into the heads of players who have mental blocks preventing them from achieving all they can as baseball players.

Crash, meet Nuke. Both of you - meet Annie.

The dialogue is so witty and sparkling that more than a decade after the film's release, it still shows up frequently in discussions about baseball movies and on ESPN. Crash envies Nuke's god-given talent, and by degrees the clueless Nuke begins to appreciate Crash's baseball wisdom. Annie has the hots for both of them, and they for her, and the way this triangle evolves and resolves makes for a very satisfying baseball movie watching experience.

The movie would be worth watching if only for the hilarious little scenes that happen out on the playing field between catcher Costner and pitcher Robbins. Nuke has the million-dollar arm and the ten-cent head. Crash knows his job (and everyone elses as well) like the back of his hand. Whenever Nuke starts trying to think for himself, he quickly gets into trouble, frequently with active assistance from Crash.

Crash "calls" the game - signalling to the pitcher which pitches to throw. When Nuke listens things go well. When Nuke doesn't listen, Crash whispers to the hitter what pitch is coming so that the batter can tee off on the pitch. Then as the batter circles the bases after his home run Crash goes out to the mound to remind Nuke not to try thinking for himself. "Boy, the last thing I saw fly out of here like that had a stewardess and passengers on it!"

Supporting parts are performed to hilarious perfection as well, with particular kudos to Trey Wilson as the manager and Robert Wuhl as a team coach. They have many entertaining scenes, including the one following Nuke's minor-league debut - when he struck out 18..... but also walked 18 - both league records! A must for grown-up baseball fans.


I hate Susan Sarandon   May 16, 2004
Chris (St.Louis,MO)
0 out of 5 found this review helpful

Not one of the best comedies that would be Mr.Adam Sandler are someone this was average at best and she sucks very badly watch other movies this is just alright nothing to special.
Acting 8/10 Story 7/10 Direction 3/10 Action 3/10 Entertained 3
Overall 24/50 A little Predictable 3 stars


A fantastic script in a dated film.   April 7, 2004
D. Knouse (vancouver, washington United States)
4.5 stars. Time passes, and what was once a sparkling 5-star film in the year 1987, shows its age. However, the script is still spectacular! There is so much quotable dialogue here as to seem ridiculous. But there is also a fine cast of excellent actors who bring the words and characters to life, even though they have eighties haircuts and wardrobe. This is a charming film about baseball, romance, (...) baseball, breathing through you eyelids, and baseball. This is smart filmmaking in every respect.


Baseball + Sex = America's Two Favorite Pastimes...   February 29, 2004
Mitch Weaver (Houston, TX)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The story revolves around a woman named Annie Savoy ( Susan Surandon). Every year she selects one member of the Durham Bulls to sleep with, and teach him about the finer things in life. This year gets interesting for Annie however, when she meets an up- and- coming pitcher named "Nuke" Laloosh ( Tim Robbins), and a veteran minor league catcher that is assigned to train Nuke named Crash Davis ( Kevin Costner). She informs the two, that they are this year's "draft picks". When Crash passes up the offer, Nuke eagerly awaits to start up with Annie. But Crash's jealousy soon takes over, and he convinces Nuke that sex with Annie will jinx the Bulls winning streak...

"Bull Durham" has been a favorite of mine for a while now. The baseball action is realistic and fun to watch. The overall story of Nuke and Crash fighting over Annie is great. Not to mention the fact that Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins, and Susan Surandon are all outstanding. The best thing about the film perhaps is the relationship between Nuke and Crash. They are best friends one minute, and fighting each other the next. You gotta love Costner telling the hitters what's coming for Nuke shaking him off. Susan Surandon gives the best performance of her career with Annie Savoy. She is intelligent, extremely sexy, and hillarious. Watching her relate sex to baseball is outstanding. One of the funniest things you will ever see, is when she convinces Nuke to wear garders to enhance his sexual energy on the playing field. But the film has one MAJOR flaw, which is why I could not give it five stars. While I do enjoy the games played in the bedroom, I am a baseball fan first. "Bull Durham" is a love story with baseball thrown in. I would have liked it better if there was more focus on actual baseball.

Overall, "Bull Durham" is a great film. The baseball action is realistic, there is non stop laughs, and the acting is superb. If there could have been a little bit more baseball, it would have been as good as "Major League". The Special Edition DVD has some pretty good extras. The making of documentary was great, and I absolutely loved the commentary with Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins! Great stuff there. This is definately a must own for anyone's DVD collection.