THE SCOUT  -  1994 

THE Scout remains one of the greatest examples of a film that is birthed with so much promise but then dies a horrible death. 

Albert Brooks plays AL PERCOLO a talent scout for the NEW YORK YANKEES who travels alone to College baseball games across the 

nation looking for as he calls it KONG. from his favorite movie the original KING KONG which he watches in his 

tiny hotel room before going out the next day to live out his mantra of finding the new star. 

"You go into the jungle you come out with Kong, you're a hero."

Among his fellow Scouts for opposing MLB teams Al is a maverick who skirts the rules. he hides in his car after games 

and gets young players it's illegal for him to speak to alone and gives him his spill in hopes to persuade them to

sign with him. in one instance he manages to get himself invited to one such prospects parents house for dinner. 

Knowing the family are devout Catholics Al pulls out all the cons. wearing a giant silver cross around his neck at the dinner table 

and spouting off about how the Yankees are very geared in the same religious beliefs as there own

He tells them, Mickey Mantle's sister was a Nun, Her name was mickey also, but with an "i" sister Micki Elizabeth Mantle, "some nun" he shines. 

The scene is hysterically funny and the comic brilliance of Albert Brooks is there in full force ready to gain steam and then inexplicably 

The Scout flies off of the rails and the train wrecks. Al gets his man  but the newly signed star washes out in his first game, becoming

 so nervous he throws up on the mound in front of Yankee Stadium and runs out of the stadium up the new jersey turnpike and back 

home to his parents. 

 Al is brought into the G.M's office where he is taken off of u.s assignments and banished to Mexico 

the movie is weighed down in The Steve Nebraska characters idiotic lunacy. Not even a movie

 character would be this dumb he's not crazy he's just stupid. It's like being on a great trip with someone who's company you really 

enjoy but then there's this other guy around and nobody knows why he's there and he won't go away.  Throw in some slightly funny 

scenes with brooks and dianne wiest who plays psychiatrist who Al only finds because she's listed in the phone book under 

Doctor H. Aaaron. "hammerin Hank."  

The movie is loaded with ridiculously syrupy music as we're supposed to be actually concerned that steve is really crazy and

that eventually will do something nuts to ruin he and Al. Something crazier than being at a tonny bennet concert and standing up and

 siinging "i left  my heart in san francisco"  which happens in the film.  by the time that scene is over i had was wishing 

 "I left myself in another theater with a different movie." 

 The movies just gets more pointless from there the climax of the movie is almost unbearable as the heart of the characters 

are abandoned in favor of a forced and phony heartwarming baseball movie as Steve pitches in his first major league game 

which also happens to be game 1 of the world series. The sequence is beyond corny and embarrassing. including Fraser yelling 

to Al in the stands after pitching a perfect game while beating his chest like Kong and yelling "Al, i did it!" a bit that may have

 worked if anything leading up to it made any sense at all. How does Steve know about Al's "Kong"  we have no idea because

 we never hear him reference it to him because halfway through the movie the train that crashes is turned straight towards east hell

like a bo jackson homerun. 

 

The scout was released the summer of the baseball strike of 94 and its as if the studio was banking on getting 

baseball fans asses in the seats to substitute for their beloved game being in limbo for the duration of the summer

 instead of making a real movie. you can almost hear them in a meeting after watching daily's  "We need a big game, here"

Unfortunately what makes the scout work in the beginning is not about baseball at all it's about a lonely man who only through his job 

has contact with people and will do anything to succeed, the comedy comes from that idea as does the only natural drama and heart which happens organically

 in the film seemingly unbeknownst  to the filmmakers who unfortunately abandon the fact that this man is truly alone in the world. 

If he's not on the hunt for the next big thing he's alone in his new york apartment or in lonely hotel rooms scattered across america

he's the real story and it could have been one of the classic characters in movies. How to explain the disappointment of The Scout. 

I can only try.

 Sometimes a gift falls right into your lap maybe too close for you to see. 

The makers of the Scout has a gift ready to 

be opened and cherished instead the wrapping comes off and whatever amazing gift could have been in the box simply vanishes

 into thin air.