True story of Kent Stock, who in the early 90's, gives up a job and ditches his wedding plans 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.
Genre(s): Drama, Sport
Runtime: 119 minutes
Rating: 6.5/10 (1,330 votes)
Release Date: 12 October 2007
Country: USA
Languages: English
Company: Final Season, The
Sound: DTS, Dolby Digital, SDDS
MPAA: Rated PG for language, thematic elements and some teen smoking.
Director(s): David M. Evans
Producer(s):
Sean Astin – executive producer
Carl Borack – executive producer
Kenneth Burke – line producer (as Kenneth P. Burke)
Vaughn Halyard – associate producer
Steven Schott – producer
Terry Trimpe – associate producer
Michael Wasserman – producer
Herschel Weingrod – producer
D. Parker Widemire Jr. – producer
Tony Wilson – producer
Writer(s):
Art D'Alessandro – (story)
James Grayford – (screenplay) and
Art D'Alessandro – (screenplay)
Cast:
Sean Astin – Kent Stock
Jesse Henecke – Principal Halbestrom
Powers Boothe – Jim Van Scoyoc
Owen Patchen Evans – Owen – The Batboy
Brett Claywell – Patrick Iverson
Nick Livingston – Kevin Stewart
Roscoe Myrick – Sammy Wilson
Alexander Roos – Steve Myers (as Alexander 'Sandy' Roos)
Jonathon Stoner – Jason Steffen
Christopher Cyronek – Brett Griffin
Music: Nathan Wang
Tagline: How Do You Want To Be Remembered?
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I was at Tribeca the weekend of 4-28 & 4-29-07 and saw The Final Seasonthe first night. A large number of the audience were from Norway, Iowa,some appearing in the movie as extras so during the opening scenes,they were cheering not only the movie but themselves and their town aswell. It was quite touching to see.
The Final Season is the true story of the 1991 Norway High Schoolbaseball team's attempt to win a 20th consecutive state title beforetheir school merged with a larger district nearby. Sean Astin in thelead role plays Kent Stock, the head coach for this final season ofplay after the previous head coach had been removed. *Mild Spoiler* Theearly part of the movie sets up the excellence of the previous team soafter the new coach takes over, things are different, the kids becomediscouraged and challenge him, forcing Sean (Stock) to quite literallystep up to the plate. (Sean speaks about this scene at the Q & Aafter-wards) This is an upbeat, feel-good sort of movie and at times Ifound myself on the edge of my seat and at the ending I applaudedenthusiastically with the rest of the audience.
I liked all the performances of the actors; Tom Arnold and PowersBoothe were both good. I think Michael Angarano who played the part ofMitch Akers a young troubled player stole every scene he was in; he wasoutstanding! Sean's role is under-stated but believable as the coachand I can envision him in this role in real life (with his daughters).He has a couple of too brief love scenes with Rachel Leigh Cook.
I just saw it tonight at a sneak preview in Baltimore and it was great.I borrowed my best friend's husband as my date since he's into baseballand she's not. I expected it to be okay but schmaltzy and waspleasantly surprised. It never got too hokey, the humor was great andevery character "popped" from the bald reporter (Larry Miller) to thebat boy who got laughs every time just by nodding his head. Thegrandparents were especially cute the way they picked on each other. Ithink my favorite part was seeing the pastor with a "doo rag" on hishead as a disguise. The performances were uniformly excellent. SeanAstin was great as usual and Michael Angarano has really grown intoquite the performer. Highly recommended.
The story of a small town high school baseball team in the school'slast year. The school, against the wishes of the towns people will beclosed and the students transferred to another town's larger school.Sean Austin looking and acting like Vic Morrow has to pull together thedepressed, fragmented team. The whole cast contributes. The focus is onthe baseball team but it gives a nice picture of life in a smallfarming community. Tom Arnold is really effective in a small role. Thisshows what can be done with a small budget and no special effects. Iwill definitely buy this when it comes out on DVD.
The movie has the climax in the big state championship game. The factthat a town with 500+ people could have a high school state championbaseball team once is something but this one had 19. The opposing teamspitcher was unbeaten in the regular season. The person playing thepitcher was excellent. He just had one line but the expressions andbody language was very effective. I liked it quite a lot.
I am sorry to say that I never saw this advertised and I think therewas 3 other people in theater. The only reason I saw it was because Ihad a free pass and the movies I really wanted to see weren't acceptingpasses yet. After the movie I felt like going back and giving them the$8. It's a good movie but due to either no big stars or no money foradvertising most people will never hear of it.
The underdog story, usually based on true events, is a winning formulathat plays up to the audience and never gets old. It sparks a note ofhope, triumph and determination, and resonates with audiencesworldwide. At least that's what I thought before viewing The FinalSeason. Never has an uplifting underdog film been so formulaic, dull,trite and uninspiring.
Kent Stock (Sean Astin) is invited to assistant coach the last fewweeks for the Norway, Iowa high school baseball season, and is thrilledto rejoin his longtime friend and coach Jim Van Scoyoc (Powers Boothe).The state school board decides that, due to costs, it is necessary forthe Norway school to be absorbed by the Madison District, therebyending the Norway baseball team and its 19 years of winning the statechampionships. When Harvey Makepeace (Marshall Bell) strikes a dealwith Scoyoc to allow one more season of baseball provided he retirefrom coaching, Stock steps up to take over and re-instill pride anddetermination to the discouraged townsfolk and their heroic baseballteam.
Attempting to cash in on the successes of films like We Are Marshalland Invincible, The Final Season has finally forced the underdog filmto strike out. Similar to the huge slew of Asian horror films remadefor America that slowly dwindled away due to repetitiveness andmonotony, The Final Season manages to destroy the bright spirit andwinning combination of a crestfallen team paired with an unlikely coachset on taking them to victory.
In general these films are predictable, simply because it's not anunderdog film if the main characters don't come from behind to win. ButThe Final Season takes repetition and generic qualities way past secondbase. The characters are all recycled versions of substandard cardboardcutouts, and the conflict in the film is pointless. The school isn'tbeing threatened to be shut down – it IS being shut down, so the onlything the baseball team struggles for is to go out on top. But thatwill only glorify a community pastime that is destined for extinction,and no sympathy comes from the real-life town. As evidenced by thefinal notes in the end credits, Madison High School has never won astate championship, and all of the schools in Iowa combined have neverwon as many baseball trophies as Norway. Way to rub it in Iowa's face.
And finally, perhaps the most noticeably horrific aspect of The FinalSeason is its acting. Powers Boothe delivers every line as if he'sreading a teleprompter and delivers as much range and emotion as thegrass in the outfield. Sean Astin likewise looks as if he was torturedinto playing the role of Kent, and Rachael Leigh Cook is laughablycliché. All of the characters and themes are overly preachy and nearlyevery line of dialogue sounds quoted from cutting room footage fromother abominable films. The disgruntled young rebel ball player, Mitch,is unlikable and paltry, and his sudden reformation appears provoked bynothing more than a wink from a cute girl. All in all, The Final Seasonis a disastrously sub par film, caught trying to steal home plate andembarrassingly tagged out, marking the pleading death of these underdogfilms.
- Mike Massie (MoviePulse.net)
What I find tired and Cliché' about all this is the critics response.Though not necessarily an Oscar film, the movie is enjoyable and thoughobviously some of the story was embellished, the things that they wouldsay are cliché' actually happened. The reviewer posted in the IMDb pagecalls it a rub in Iowa's face. As an Iowan, I didn't feel that way. Itdoes however point out the idiocy of allowing politicians be in controlof education and schools, they always seem to think Money = goodeducation, sports is a big part of the education process and obviouslythis was not a good choice for a town that loves its baseball. Sorrybut I don't share the opinion that this pleads the death of underdogfilms. It points out an Amazing accomplishment, against all the oddsand that is exactly the attraction of underdog films… Unfortunatelyit seems that there was a lack of good planning on thepromoting/advertising of the film.
This film tells the story of the Norway High School baseball team, whois looking to end their baseball dynasty with their 20th statechampionship. As an Iowa native, I knew I had to see this film, and Iwas not disappointed one bit. I will use the same line Boston Celticlegend Larry Bird used when he described the movie Hoosiers "Those guysgot it right". A lot of the lessons that Sean Astin's character learnsfrom the old coach are the same lessons that our head coach at SpaldingHigh School taught us. It showed the passion that the people of Norway,just like the fans in many Iowa small towns (Lansing, Granville,Bancroft, etc) will drop everything to go to the games on Friday nightsand will travel hundreds of miles to see their teams play for a statechampionship.
Baseball is the perfect metaphor the American Dream: effort = success,anyone can play, and winning is a metaphor for life.
The Last Season is a nice effort by Sean Astin. It is pretty muchexactly what a good sports underdog movie should be.
The film about Norway, based on fact, a tiny town of 500 or so thatproduced team after team that went onto win the State Championship forHigh School baseball. When threatened with politics and closure due tolack of funding the team does what it knows best, goes in to bat forone last season.
Have to be honest though and say it's not as inspiring as it would liketo be in places, it does hit some good home runs by the end, butoverall it is a little too clichéd to really succeed.
If sports movies are your thing then you'll enjoy it, but I don't thinkthis will become anyone's (Outside of Iowa) favorite ever movie.
It is a nice effort, and watchable, but as I said it ain'toutstanding…
This is one of the best baseball movies I have ever seen. It is notonly very inspirational but heartwarming and asks a very personalquestion that we must all answer-"what do you want to be rememberedfor."
Kent Stock takes a very difficult situation of having to motivate theplayers of Norway High School with them facing their final season ofthe baseball program, let alone, the final year of their high schoolever existing again, and motivates his players to play up to their bestpotential in capturing an astounding record 20th state championship inIowa baseball.
This movie should be shown to every high school baseball team whetherthey be a large, medium, or small school, as well as shown to everycoach, no matter what level of athletes they coach.
Come on people, it is what it is. Show me some where else in the USthis has been done. I would have preferred to see someone else in theroles of Kent Stock and Jim Van Scoyc, someone who actually cared aboutthe roles, but from someone who grew up in this town, it was very nicethat anyone even bothered. Evans does a super job with the baseballscenes. Let it be for God's sake. If you hate it, don't watch! If youlike it watch away. Someone cared enough to let us have our littlemoment in the sun. Maybe someday, you will have one of your own. Welived through all the highs and lows of baseball in Norway, and weenjoyed it all. It's really a shame that some of the older fans whowere so devoted to the teams through the years, were not here to seeit. That's the tragedy. Maybe another movie will come out soon you canfocus your venom on.
Based on a true story with the expected liberties. A refreshing storyof a small town with a legacy about to die. The Norway High SchoolTigers baseball team, led by legendary Coach Jim Van Scoyoc(PowersBoothe), has won 19 Iowa State Championships, but rumors of a mergerwith a neighboring school district has the citizens of Norway veryupset with the school authorities…fearing the town will witherwithout the pride in their traditional baseball team. Coach Van Scoyocis fired and his assistant for a half of a season, Kent Stock(SeanAstin)is hired to coach the team for its final season. Going againstheavy odds, Norway will get the chance to revel in glory one last timeand go out a winner in 1991. Character development is not all thatgreat. And a clean cut PG flick just doesn't always garner cheers andovations. But THE FINAL SEASON does have what it takes to entertain andinspire everyone. Besides Boothe and Astin there is some quality workturned in by Michael Angarano, Rachael Leigh Cook and James Gammon.Also in the cast: Tom Arnold, Larry Miller, Danielle Savre and BrettClaywell.