2K Replay: FEVER PITCH (2005)

 by Adam Riske

Nominated for “Best International Actress” (Drew Barrymore) at the Irish Film and Television Awards. She lost to Gillian Anderson in The Mighty Celt.

• Best Scene/Moment (tie): The scene where Jimmy Fallon gets his season tickets in the mail and starts splitting them up with his friends (real ones will get it…. just beautiful sheets of tickets to baseball games) and the ending when Drew Barrymore runs onto the field at Fenway Park to get to Jimmy Fallon before he sells away his Red Sox tickets. It should have been one of those AFI 100 Cheers moments. I love when she tells him that if he loves her enough to sell his tickets that she loves him enough not to let him. How can you not be romantic about baseball?

• Best Song: “Who Killed Tangerine?” by Tears for Fears.

• Best Merch: A “2004 Fever Pitch Set Used Film Slate…” for $500.00. This would be fun to have around. You could find ways to work clacking this slate into your life like “Time for work (clack)” etc. Just don’t kiss the slate. Josh did that in The Blair Witch Project, and they were all screwed shortly thereafter.

• Director Grade: Fever Pitch (2005) was directed by Peter & Bobby Farrelly.
Great Movies: Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin
Good Movies: There’s Something About Mary, Fever Pitch (2005), Champions
OK Movies: Me, Myself & Irene, Shallow Hal, Hall Pass
Bad Movies: Stuck on You, The Heartbreak Kid (2007), Movie 43, Dumb and Dumber To, Green Book
Unseen By Me: Osmosis Jones, The Three Stooges, The Greatest Beer Run Ever, Ricky Stanicky, Dear Santa
Overall Grade: B

• Double It with This 2005 Movie: The Bad News Bears (2005)

• Year 2005 Movies to Trailer Before Them: Kicking & Screaming, The Longest Yard (2005), The Ringer

• Never Talk to Strangers or Fever Pitch (2005)? Fever Pitch (2005)

• Mall Movie? It’s borderline but I’ll say it wouldn’t initially play at the mall. However, it might make it there a couple of weeks into its release.

• Only in 2005: I went to Boston. It wasn’t because of this movie; it was for work, but it was just a month after Fever Pitch (2005) came out and I remember wanting to see the movie in Boston to see if it played even better there. I didn’t have time so instead I took a cab to Fenway Park (when there was no game) just to walk around outside the stadium and Yawkey Way. It was really cool.

• Scene Stealer: Fenway Park. It looks beautiful and I want to go there to see a game one day.

• I Miss: Baseball movies released theatrically.

• I Don’t Miss: Jimmy Fallon in movies. I’m just not a fan. He’s alright in Fever Pitch (2005) but still irks me at times. Drew Barrymore is so good at romantic comedy that she can make virtually any on-screen love interest somewhat likable.

• 2005 Crush (tie): Drew Barrymore and KaDee Strickland.

• 2025 Crush (tie): Drew Barrymore and KaDee Strickland.

• What I Thought in 2005: I didn’t want to see Fever Pitch (2005) at first but an A grade in Entertainment Weekly (dating myself there with that reference) convinced me to give it a try and I ended up loving it. It was one of my favorite movies of 2005 at the time and made me very excited for the 2005 MLB season, which as it turned out was pretty freaking great since my Chicago White Sox won the World Series that year.

• What I Think in 2025: Aside from some weird extras work and music intro/outros, I’m still won over by Fever Pitch (2005). It’s up there with my favorite baseball movies and it gets a lot right about fandom. The chemistry between Barrymore and Fallon is really good, too, and I like the specificity of the setting in and around Boston. It feels lived in. Fever Pitch (2005) is such a pleasant watch and still one of my favorite movies of 2005.