Farrelly brothers’ ‘Fever Pitch’ makes it over the plate

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In theaters

FEVER PITCH, directed by Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly, written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, 98 minutes, rated PG-13.

The funny new comedy, “Fever Pitch,” comes from the Farrelly brothers, makers of “There’s Something About Mary,” “Dumb & Dumber,” “Osmosis Jones” and “Stuck on You,” but don’t let that encourage you if you’re a fan – or discourage you if you aren’t.

The film finds the Farrellys leaving behind their trademark gas-and-gross-out gags in favor of something more traditional – romance. The purest kind.

OK, so not always so pure. There is, for instance, a scene in which poor Drew Barrymore, looking better than ever, vomits uncontrollably after eating spoiled food. But the Farrellys, embracing something that borders on restraint (at least for them), allow the vomiting to occur off-screen.

Sure, we hear Barrymore gurgle and belch as she tosses her lunch, but the Farrellys don’t subject us to the remains of that lunch. We never see it – and when it comes to these two, who created a pop-altering sensation with their infamous hair gel scene in “Mary,” that’s something of a leap forward, to say the least.

Loosely adapted from Nick Hornby’s novel about a man obsessed with soccer, “Fever Pitch” is about love – love for the game of baseball, specifically the Red Sox, and the love that grows between Barrymore’s Lindsay Meeks, a corporate executive on the climb, and Jimmy Fallon’s Ben Wrightman, a high school teacher and Red Sox fanatic.

Let’s define fanatic. For Ben, it means he has attended every single Red Sox home game for the past 20-plus years in the choice seats his uncle left him at Fenway. It also means he sleeps on Red Sox sheets, drinks from Red Sox mugs, wears Red Sox underwear and uses Yankee toilet paper just so he can rub in the point of how he feels about that team.

Obviously, there is a downside to such obsession and for Ben, it’s this – by spending so much time rooting for the Sox, he has yet to connect long-term with anyone save for a few male friends, also Sox fanatics. Likable as he is, the man is emotionally stunted, his priorities screwed up.

Outside of his unwavering love for the Red Sox, he has yet to have a significant love affair – and where has that gotten him? As one character succinctly puts it, “The Sox have never loved you back, Ben.”

As written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, “Fever Pitch” rides the rails of formula, offers few surprises and leans hard on last year’s Sox World Series win to give it a final lift. Still, I enjoyed it. Throughout, the writing is solid and often clever, the chemistry between Barrymore and Fallon is undeniable, you come to care for the characters, which is key, and the robust, wholly unbelievable ending is earned.

Are there better reasons to like a movie?

Not where this one is concerned.

Grade: A-

On video and DVD

OCEAN’S TWELVE, directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by George Nolfi, 120 minutes, rated PG-13.

Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s Twelve,” a sequel to 2001’s superior “Ocean’s Eleven,” is a self-conscious, self-indulgent heist movie you watch from the sidelines, looking in at all the A-list celebrities having a grand time being A-list celebrities while you yourself are stuck having a C-time.

Its plot has the distinction of being tertiary to everything else onscreen. It’s weak and convoluted, fraternity filmmaking that features mainstream actors snubbing their noses at mainstream moviemaking in a film ironically targeted for the mainstream.

Go figure. It’s a big slumber party in Europe for them, a colossal bore in the States for us.

Since the plot’s many intricacies don’t matter – if they did, the movie would really be in trouble – we’ll glaze over them: Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), owner of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, wants to reclaim from Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his thieves (Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Elliott Gould and Carl Reiner among them) the $160 million they stole from him in the last film.

Instead of going deeper into hiding or putting up a fight, as the Ocean’s 11 from the first film would have done, this Ocean and company inexplicably decide to pay Terry back. It doesn’t make a lick of sense, but there they are, plotting to steal artifacts from around the globe in an effort to get Terry back his cash – along with interest. It’s up to Catherine Zeta-Jones as one of the most expensively well-dressed detectives in history to put an end to it all.

The movie isn’t without its pleasures – there’s a twist involving Julia Roberts as Danny’s girlfriend, Tess, that’s fun, two unbilled cameos that are a surprise, and an acrobatic ballet through a sweeping minefield of laser beams that is well done. But mostly, unnecessarily, “Ocean’s Twelve” is unabashed celebrity stargazing, with Soderbergh again trying to reignite that old Rat Pack feel with a cast that’s working overtime to be hip.

Thing is, being hip isn’t something you can manufacture. It’s more than just the clothes one wears or the ride one drives – it’s an intangible extension of personality.

Either you have it or you don’t. These folks don’t.

Grade: C-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO-DVD CORNER

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

Those listed in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Alfie – C-

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy – B+

Bad Education – A

Being Julia – B+

The Bourne Supremacy – B

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason – C

Cellular – B+

Closer – B-

Collateral – B+

Dawn of the Dead – A-

De-Lovely – B

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story – B

Elektra – C-

Ella Enchanted – B

Envy – D

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – A-

Exorcist: The Beginning – F

Fat Albert – C+

Finding Neverland – C

Flight of the Phoenix – C-

The Forgotten – D

Friday Night Lights – B+

I Heart Huckabees – C-

Hotel Rwanda – B+

The Incredibles – A

I, Robot – B+

Kill Bill Vol. 2 – B

King Arthur – B

Ladder 49 – B

The Manchurian Candidate – B+

Maria Full of Grace – A

The Motorcycle Diaries – A-

Napoleon Dynamite – B+

The Notebook – B+

Ocean’s Twelve – C-

Ray – A

Saw – D

Shall We Dance? – B

Shark Tale – B-

Shaun of the Dead – B+

Sideways – A

Spanglish – D

The Spongebob Squarepants Movie – C

Taxi – D+

Vera Drake – A

The Woodsman – B+