Warning this review has spoilers!A wonderful film that revisits the days of women in professional baseball at the onset of World War II. Reluctantly, Dottie Hinson played by (Geena Davis) along with, sister Kit Keller played by (Lori Petty) are recruited and make the cut to join an All-American Girls Baseball League, alongside Mae Mordabito played by Madonna and Doris Murphy played by Rosie O'Donnell. Their team the Rockford Peaches is managed by former baseball great Jimmy Dugan played by (Tom Hanks). Throughout the film there are struggles with the complexity of human relationships and each character makes the most of their newly found roles as women baseball players during the war.Dottie struggles with the idea of attending a reunion of former players and her sister Kit, whom she hasn't seen in many years, at the first induction of women players in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The motif that is represented in this film is a bus. Dottie returns to the Doubleday Field and reunion on a newer Greyhound Bus. After Dottie arrives she began to reminisce of the time that she spent as a Rockford Peach. The more modern music soundtrack that is playing transitions to the music of an old Columbia Movie-Scope clip that gives headway to what the baseball league is going through during the war efforts, Black and white film is also used to show how this portion of the film clip is a flashback. During their time as a Peach several of the women's husbands were away at war, including Dottie's, and women began playing professional baseball to keep the league going so it could help support the war. Although, Dottie did not want to leave her home in Oregon and her traditional role of a wife, she chose to leave home so that her sister Kit could have a chance to play in the league. With the use of invisible sound, the train whistle breaks the silent thoughts of Dottie when she decides to take Kit up on pleads to try out for the league. Kit had to work through the problem of low self-esteem, because the league did not want to recruit her without her sister. Kit was self-conflicted because Dottie was haled as the "better" sister, taller, faster, prettier, smarter, bossier and a better baseball player. Whereas, in the film Death at a Funeral brothers Aaron, the older brother, played by (Chris Rock) and Ryan, the younger brother, played by Martin Lawrence had a similar struggle with their relationship but the roles were reversed.During the era of the war, in the year of 1943 it was very nontraditional for women to be ball players. They were subjected to heavy scrutiny because they were taking on roles of men, by playing baseball and traveling from town to town on buses. Several of the players endured receiving telegrams telling the fate of their husbands in the war, Doris met a pair of new love interests and let her old relationship go, all the while of living in transition traveling from town to town on a bus. However, Dottie's husband returned from the war and she decided to leave the team to return to Oregon with her husband, because living the life of a professional ball player was too hard.Enduring the change of the times, relationships, love, marriage and losses being a woman playing professional baseball in 1943 was a very liberating but hard thing to do. "It's supposed to be hard, if it wasn't hard everyone would do it, the hard is what makes it great!" stated Jimmy Dugan as the team leaves for the first Women's World Series (Abbott, 1992).

I was always surprised this film did so well at the box office. If you are a baseball fan it is almost unwatchable. I like Tom Hanks but he mostly snarls and growls in the film. Madonna is a complete anachronism and painful to watch. Most of the other women are simply irritating. Only Genna Davis is worth watching. Completely fails to capture the spirit of the wartime America. Don't waste your time with this turkey of a film.

This was on More than Movies last night and since I am a fan of Tom Hanks for a very long time I decided to check it out. The film also stars Madonna,Geena Davis(from Stuart Little franchise),Bill Pullman(from While You Were Sleeping and teamed up with Tom Hanks a year after this film was made for Sleepless In Seattle),and Rosie O Donnell(also in Sleepless in Seattle as Meg Ryan's BFF).The movie is based on the fictional story of an All American Girls Professional Baseball Tournament and tells the tale of a group of women(one led by Genna Davis who is an excellent baseball player btw) who's husbands are out during World War II and they join a baseball tournament where Tom Hanks's character Jimmy Duggan trains them for baseball. They of course have to battle it out with other professional baseball players to see will they go further in their team and win the tournament, but can they win the tournament in 1943?The film is set in 1943 and its been told in flashbacks since the film is taken place in 1992 and 1943 where we see an old Dottie(now played by Lynn Cartwright,while the younger version of her is played by Genna Davis)who visits her old buddies since her husband passed away and she quit the tournament a long time ago and we see her at the grand opening of a museum about their lives and on the All American Girl's Professional Baseball Tournament near the end of the film which was pretty interesting.Bottom line I enjoyed this movie as it tells you that it doesn't matter what gender you are you can do anything and also you can play baseball at any gender. Also the supporting cast is great and Tom Hanks was great in this movie as I consider him a very good actor as any film he is in he delivers his performances very well in each role he does. The movie also has some very funny moments and some touching moments too.Overall its a 7/10Also keep an eye out for Garry Marshall who stars in this movie too. The film is also directed by Big director Penny Marshall.

Let me start out by saying that A League Of Their Own is a fun movie. Geena Davis fulfills the role of "baseball dolly" and seems believable while Tom Hanks as washed up coach plays to the crown to everyones delight. Is there anyone out there who doesn't know that there's no crying in baseball? Even the Jon Lovitz scout was peppered with great one-liners and lovable schmaltz. Unfortunately the rest of the movie is unlovable schmaltz. The sports scenes seemed to be created for TV, as if it didn't matter if the positioning of balls, catches and players made no sense. The pushing of Madonna gave us one current pop culture moment from Rosie (I'm supposed to be an athlete, but maybe nobody noticed that I don't belong) O'Donnel stating, Mae, do you think there's any man left in America who hasn't seen your bosoms? Penny Marshall handled some scenes that worked and others that felt like Happy Days. Maybe it was her father on the set, but this plays like a "Laverne and Shirley" extended episode.