Based on a true story that took place in the spring of 1991, "The Final Season" is a soggy, inspirational drama about a sports-obsessed town that plays like a baseball version of "Friday Night Lights" – minus the lights, minus the Friday nights, and minus the quality, that is.
Sean Astin plays Kent Stock, the assistant coach of the Norway Tigers, a team that's won the Iowa state championship nineteen years running, despite the fact that the school has only 101 students and the town itself only 586 citizens. When the dastardly powers-that-be vote to close the school and fire the coach, the far less experienced Stock steps into the breach to lead the team to its twentieth and final state title. Powers Boothe costars as the legendary ex-coach who spends most of his time delivering corny speeches about how baseball has been bery, bery good to him. To add spice to the drama, Michael Angarano is a troubled teen whose recently widowed, work-obsessed father (Tom Arnold) brings him to Norway to live with his grandparents, whereupon the recalcitrant lad becomes a key player on the team and turns into a model citizen.
The simpleminded screenplay by Art D'Allesandro is riddled with stereotypes and clichés, while David Mickey Evans' plodding direction drives what little drama there is in the story straight into the ground. And a likable cast is left high and dry with nothing of substance to work with.
Tune into the latest weekly installment of FNL instead.
Sean Astin plays Kent Stock, the assistant coach of the Norway Tigers, a team that's won the Iowa state championship nineteen years running, despite the fact that the school has only 101 students and the town itself only 586 citizens. When the dastardly powers-that-be vote to close the school and fire the coach, the far less experienced Stock steps into the breach to lead the team to its twentieth and final state title. Powers Boothe costars as the legendary ex-coach who spends most of his time delivering corny speeches about how baseball has been bery, bery good to him. To add spice to the drama, Michael Angarano is a troubled teen whose recently widowed, work-obsessed father (Tom Arnold) brings him to Norway to live with his grandparents, whereupon the recalcitrant lad becomes a key player on the team and turns into a model citizen.
The simpleminded screenplay by Art D'Allesandro is riddled with stereotypes and clichés, while David Mickey Evans' plodding direction drives what little drama there is in the story straight into the ground. And a likable cast is left high and dry with nothing of substance to work with.
Tune into the latest weekly installment of FNL instead.