In theaters

HARDBALL, directed by Brian Robbins, written by John Gatins. Rated PG-13.

Sometimes, even the most shameless, formulaic movies can be lifted by a performance, a scene or a moment that transcends the material and turns it into something that’s at least, in part, worth watching.

Such is the case with Brian Robbins’ Little League heart-warmer, “Hardball.” The best thing about the movie is the inner-city kids Robbins has gathered to play the game – they’re wonderful, natural, first-time actors, giving the film a depth and a soul it never would have had without them.

In the film, Keanu Reeves is Conor O’Neill, a hard-luck gambler thousands of dollars in debt to a group of musclehead bookies eager to get their money back. After being beaten to a pulp for refusing to pay off one of his debts, Conor has an epiphany: His life might literally be hitting the skids – which is why, after a forced series of events, he finds himself coaching a Little League team in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project for $500 a week.

For the boozy, complacent Conor, it’s an easy gig – all he has to do is show up, collect his check and pay off those looking to lynch him. But as he comes to know this ragtag team of underdog players, he predictably grows to love them as he himself grows as a person.

In the film’s trailer and television ads, “Hardball” looks like a squeaky-clean, fun-loving family film, which it certainly is when its young players aren’t being subjected to shootouts, asthma attacks, murders and funerals – or, perhaps more notably, when they’re not unleashing a stream of expletives at the screen.

The film is based on Daniel Coyle’s gritty book, “Hardball: A Season in the Projects,” and Robbins, working from a script by John Gatins, has wisely retained some of its sourcebook’s inner-city edge.

Still, the results are mixed. The film, which feels like a cross between “The Bad News Bears” and “Boyz N the Hood,” works best when it sticks to the lessons learned on the playing field. But when it gives in to the manipulative demands of the Hollywood marketing machine and starts firing off rounds of purple prose, rampant sentiment and a cliched love story between Reeves and Diane Lane, the film bats itself – and audiences -straight into the most desolate corners of left field.

Grade: C+

On Video and DVD

AMORES PERROS, 153 minutes, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, written by Guillermo Arriaga. Rated R. In Spanish with English subtitles.

In the unforgettable film, “Amores Perros,” Mexican-born director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu presents a harrowing, powerful movie about three seemingly unrelated stories that collide after one horrific car accident in Mexico City.

Loosely translated, the film’s title means “Love’s a Bitch,” which is fitting since the film finds its emotional core in its characters’ close relationships with their dogs.

Beginning his film with a disclaimer that suggests no dogs were harmed during the filming of his movie (something that’s impossible to believe), Inarritu sinks us almost immediately into the violent underworld of dogfights with the story of Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and his sister-in-law, Susana (Vanessa Bauche), whose sexual attraction becomes their undoing.

As Inarritu shows in one of his film’s several flashbacks, it’s Octavio, on the run from a man who tried to murder his dog, Cofi, whose reckless driving is the cause of the film’s opening car wreck.

The woman he hits, Valeria (Goya Toledo), becomes the source for the film’s second act, “Daniel and Valeria,” in which Valeria, a leggy model, not only must suffer the physical ramifications of the car accident and the loss of her modeling job, but also the disappearance of her treasured dog and the gradual decline of her relationship with Daniel (Alvaro Guerrero), something on which she’s staked everything.

Fans of Luis Bunuel’s 1970 film, “Tristana,” will see the director’s influence all over this vignette, but Inarritu nevertheless makes it his own as he eventually connects it to the film’s final act, “El Chivo and Maru.”

Marked by its superb performances and direction, “Amores Perros” never comments on the ongoing build-up of horror and desperation presented on screen; instead, it’s content to just observe. That decision lifts the film, for sure, but what makes it linger in the mind so long after the final reel has played, is the ongoing sense of fragility and sadness that underscores everything.

Inarritu’s world is a place that’s just barely being held together, but the catch here is that nobody can figure out how to keep it from falling apart.

Grade: A

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO CORNER

Renting a video? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores.

Amores Perros ? A

Crocodile Dundee in Los

Angeles ? C-

Driven ? D

The Luzhin Defense ? B+

Startup.com ? A-

The Widow of St. Pierre ? A-

Spy Kids ? A-

Blow ? D+

Someone Like You ? D

The Dish ? A-

Exit Wounds ? D

Memento ? A-

The Tailor of Panama ? A-

Joe Dirt ? D+

See Spot Run ? F

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate

Factory ? A-

Hannibal ? C+

Say it Isn’t So ? D

15 Minutes ? D+

Blow Dry ? C+

Enemy at the Gates ? C

An Everlasting Piece ? B+

Get Over It ? B-

Josie and the Pussycats ? F

Say It Isn’t So ? D+

Tomcats ? F

Chocolat ? A-

The Mexican ? C-

3000 Miles to Graceland ? D

The Brothers ? B

Head Over Heels ? D

The Trumpet of the Swan ? C+

Pollock ? A-

Sweet November ? D-

Valentine ? F

The Gift ? B+

Family Man ? D-

Saving Silverman ? F

Down to Earth ? D

Monkeybone ? D

Thirteen Days ? A-

Unbreakable ? C+

The Wedding Planner ? D+

You Can Count on Me ? A

Proof of Life ? C-

Save the Last Dance ? C-

State and Main ? B

O Brother, Where Art Thou ? A-