Movie Review - FEVER PITCH

Another Date Night folks, another harmless Romantic Comedy. Fever Pitch is a solid film that breaks no new ground and but is still entertaining, exactly what I expected from it.
But considering this is a film from Peter and Bobby Farrelly, that's saying something. These brothers brought gross-out and whince-inducing comedy to new highs in the 90's with a string of classics like Dumb & Dumber (1994), Kingpen (1996), There's Something About Mary (1998) and Me, Myself and Irene (2000). They stumbled a little after that, trying their hand at animation with Osmosis Jones (2001), fat suits in Shallow Hal (2001) and conjoined twins in Stuck on You (2003). So in keeping with the theme, let's try something new again, non-offensive, non-gross RomCom. They grabbed the script based on the book by Nick Hornby which was actually about soccer. Cast solid female veteran lead Drew Barrymore and up-and-coming male lead Jimmy Fallon, mix, bake and serve.
Fallon plays Ben, a high school math teacher who take his class on a field trip to this huge corporation where they are shown around by high powered business girl Lindsey, played by Barrymore. Fallon asks her out, she wonders whether she should stoop so low as to date a teacher, but decides to give it a try. They date all winter and everything is cool until spring. Baseball Season. It turns out Ben is an obsessive Red Sox fan and between March and October his only love is the Boston Red Sox. Hijinks ensue.
Fallon does a better then expected job here. My expectaions were low going in to this film, so that was a pleasent surprise. He actually displays some decent acting. Barrymore is cute and ok, but this is not a real stretch for her. The romance aspect is done well, and they're both two extremely likable characters.
The baseball aspect is hit or miss. Here's the behind the scenes story. A major aspect of the film is that the Red Sox never win, and always let down the fans. The film was originally intened to end with the Sox losing, just like normal. Only while they were filming, the Sox made a playoff run. And WON! And played the most incredible post season in the history of baseball. The filmmakers scrambled to re-write the ending, and shot Fallon and Barrymore at the actual playoff games. During game 4 of the World Series, the stars had tickets and were in the stands and charged the field when the Sox won. Here's the problem. The film ends during game 4 of the ALCS, when the Sox turned it around against the Yankees. That's good. But then we're treated to a "Well, you know what happened next" montage. That lasts about one minute. It feels rushed and tacked on, and it could have been so much more. What a waste of a once in a century opportunity.
More Red Sox winning it all would have pushed this film from good to great. Still, you could do much worse then renting this on a saturday night. On a final note, in true Farrelly style, this films has on of the best vomitting scenes in movie history. It's not a visual gross out, but it is hillarious on the strength of the sound and situation. I was rolling.

The Sneaky Cheetah's Grade: C+