The Babe 1992

Dave Kehr, Chicago Tribune: It doesn`t matter that these things really happened, because the thin staging and sentimental exaggeration make them seem extremely phony in any case. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times: It's not a bad movie. But its sentiments are faster than its reflexes. By the time it tries to uncoil a home-run swing, the ball has already vanished. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Like Goodman's attempts to connect with the ball, The Babe lacks follow-through. Read more

Misha Berson, Seattle Times: Thanks to Goodman and the great Ruth mystique, The Babe does maintain a median level of entertainment. But somehow you want a movie about a fellow this big-natured and mythic to hit a home run. What we have here is more of a solid base hit. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: An honestly unheroic view of a hero, with a grand-slam performance by John Goodman. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Goodman inspires extraordinary empathy. Read more

Michael Sragow, New Yorker: Goodman should have been perfect for the title role: like Ruth, he's a regular Joe of hugely irregular proportions in appetite and accomplishment. Too bad Hiller and Fusco cut him down to size. Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: The Babe, set mostly in the 1920's, has an elaborate period look, but it is held together almost entirely by Mr. Goodman's performance and Ruth's penchant for miracles. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Aside from being superficially written, aside from being shot with little sense of time or place, the movie portrays Babe Ruth as a man almost completely lacking in the ability to have, or to provide, happiness. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: What could have been the Raging Bull of baseball movies becomes the nibble of a mouse on the legend of a giant. Read more

Stephen Garrett, Time Out: Surprisingly interesting, even if you don't know a home run from a stolen base. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Despite Haxell Wexler's alluring lensing, this thinly dramatized, overly episodic Babe Ruth biopic resembles a telepic that has lost its way onto the big screen. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Everything's played so big, there's no room for singles, small details that show touching moments. In Babe, everything's got to be a homer or nothing. Read more

Rita Kempley, Washington Post: The Babe is a muddy field of dreams fertilized with a whole lot of Bull Durham. Read more