The Babe - 3 stars out of 10

The Babe - 3 stars out of 10

"The Babe" doesn't offer incredible acting or impressive sports action sequences, but it does tell the fascinating story of Babe Ruth's life.  From his delinquent beginnings at a Baltimore orphanage, moments of Ruth's life are brought to life by John Goodman.  I am assuming that Goodman was cast because of his physical appearance, but his personality also works well with Ruth's erratic lifestyle.  I didn't care for this movie because it seemed too sporadic.  Nothing really tied all of the events together, except for the fact that anytime they showed a short clip from a baseball game, you knew that the film was about to fastfoward through 4 years of Ruth's life.  I understand that they wanted to make the most of the controversial moments in his life, but we remember him as a baseball player so the film should have focused on the important baseball moments.  That being said, it was very magical to see the sequence with the boy in the hospital and Ruth's legendary calling of the home run brought to life.  This film's greatest draw is nostalgia but in the end, it reads more like a telling of several random moments in Ruth's life without enough baseball.  And even from a nostalgia stand-point, "Eight Men Out" is much more effective.