THE HILL Movie Minute Review

This is Paul Salfen with your KLAK Movie Minute. In theaters now is The Hill, the incredible true story of Rickey Hill, a Texas kid with braces on his legs that had a dream to play professional baseball and despite the odds and being told he couldn’t do it his whole life, he did it. Now, of course, this leads to most critics claiming the movie to be too predictable or cliche, but they don’t make movies about people that quit or didn’t quite do what they dreamed of, do they? So yes, Rickey gets drafted to the majors and although there isn’t a World Series win or some well-known legendary legacy, it is an incredibly inspirational and touching movie that of course pulls at the heartstrings but it sets out what it was meant to do: honor the subject of a unique story and give hope and inspire. That’s why the critics score will be wildly different than the audience score – this is a crowd pleaser for the moviegoing audiences after all, not closed-minded critics that roll their eyes at the sign of faith-based storytelling but there was no way to get around it: Rickey’s dad was a pastor, who is played in a best-in-years performance by Dennis Quaid, who wanted his son to become a pastor and Rickey wanted to play baseball AND become a pastor and that was not going to fly with his father so this is the story of their family struggle. Go in with an open mind and open heart and appreciate that we have people like this that make an impact while they’re here. That’s it for this week. Join me next week and every week for another Movie Minute right here on 97.5 KLAK, AMFM Magazine, and RECRD.