SummaryA romantic love story set in the dirt and grit of minor league baseball. Sarandan is a groupie for the Carolina Durham Bulls who chooses a protege each season to school in the art of love. This season she picks the team's untameable pitcher but eventually abides her true passion, the team's catcher, Costner. (MGM)
Directed By:Ron Shelton
Written By:Ron Shelton
Bull Durham
Metascore
Generally Favorable
73
User score
Generally Favorable
7.1
My Score
Drag or tap to give a rating
Hover and click to give a rating
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
73
81% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
13% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
6% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
100
Shelton has written the wittiest, busiest screenplay since Moonstruck, and his three stars do their very best screen work. [20 June 1988]
90
The movie evokes Howard Hawks (in spirit if not to the letter) with its tight focus on a snug, obsessive world of insiders and camp followers where the exchanges between buddies and sexes have a euphoric stylishness and a giddy sense of ritual.
User score
Generally Favorable
7.1
69% Positive
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
27% Mixed
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
4% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Feb 8, 2019
7
Baseball lifers will get -- and probably already have gotten -- a kick out of the many specific truisms littered throughout this light, yet refreshingly sardonic romp through minor league baseball. As a fan of the sport myself, I found it to be an ultimately rewarding experience. As a fan of filmmaking, however, I found it to be slightly less so. The dialogue is supremely sharp and the authenticity behind the story is evident, but I just couldn't nail down these characters' motivations, attitudes, and traits. I suppose that helps in that I couldn't necessarily tell what was going to happen next. But I also ended feeling as though I didn't really ever know any of these people. And my emotional investment in them took a subsequent hit as well. An enjoyable movie overall, but a fleeting experience as well, I fear.
Nov 29, 2024
6
The flat narrative, unfocused plotlines, and poorly crafted characters that fail to resonate make Bull Durham fall far short of expectations.
88
A loopy, loving nine innings full of comic curve balls, emotional home-runs and euphoric, summertime music.
80
You may catch yourself trying to remember where you parked a little before the end.
75
Successfully avoids the grandiose mythmaking that has been the bane of the baseball movie from ''Pride of the Yankees'' to ''The Natural.'' Rather than a vapid national epic, it is a warm, droll, deftly cracked romantic comedy. [15 June 1988]
40
Dialogue that strains to be colorful, indiscriminately piled-on pop songs, plot developments that aren't followed through on, and minor aspects of motivation that are never known.
25
In a word, bull - cruddy, foul-smelling and fly-specked, an excuse for a series of cheap sex scenes and single-entendre gags. [15 June 1988]
Feb 20, 2023
6
This one missed the mark a little for me. Besides Crash and Nuke the rest of the team is pretty limp personality wise. Costner is good and is clearly actually good at baseball, but his big speech in the movie is I dunno, completely insane??
Aug 24, 2015
6
I loved all of the baseball aspects of the movie. Both Costner and Robbins were great. I disliked every moment Sarandon was on the screen. She just rubs me the wrong way. She has no chemistry with any of the other characters.
Production Company:
- Orion Pictures
- The Mount Company
Release Date:Jun 15, 1988
Duration:1 h 48 m
Rating:R
Tagline:A Major League Love Story in a Minor League Town
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 2 Nominations
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
