Description

Sparky Smith is a baseball coach with a future in the game - behind him. Now Sparky?ll work for anyone who?ll hire him - and that just happens to be a Russian baseball team who barely know their way around a diamond! ' 'Sure to drive home some laughs.' ' - Chicago Sun Times ... Read more

Reviews (4)

This one was very funny !
Come on guys ! This one was very funny ! Joe Mantegna teaching baseball to Russians ?! In Russia !? I am already louphing !
And some of the russians get offended ??? It is a comedy , with using GROTESQUE at it's best ! The " russian party " , after winning a game against cubans ( the fact itself - russians beat cubans in baseball , already hilarious ), when they drink vodka out of the bottles , than everybody sleeping and snoring ! Isn't it already a clue for you - it is A comedy . And it is a good one .

not horrible
a fun movie. my biggest problem was with joe mantegna...i just couldn't picture him as a baseball player. i'm a huge baseball fan, and think you would like this film more if you are not really into baseball, but just have a general knowledg of the game. it certainly wasn't a "good" movie but it has funny scenes, and is playful. certainly not in the league of other baseball movies, though.

Another Great Baseball Movie
This is not the greatest movie of all time, but whenever it replays on HBO, I can't NOT watch. Joe Mantegna is great in this, and it has a wonderful, sappy appeal. Why are movies about baseball so good, and the sport itself so booooring?

Comrades of Summer RULES!!!
This is the best movie of all time. Watch for the guy who jumps about 30 feet after hitting a home run with his mom watching. And when Boris cleares a 20 foot fense to catch a foul ball and falls 30 feet to the concrete and still holds on to the ball. This is the most realistic movie ever!!! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

a film about mistaken idenitdy means this film is a mistake
Not at all a well done thriller boring and rather unclear about a young man`s visit to russia and is mistaken for a killer. Too many loopholes with the plot to be actually taken seroisley. A bad film all the way not worth anything to write about it. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

A overlooked Russian film on youthful rebellion
During the late '80s in Gorbachev's Soviet Union most film's took advantage of the liberalizing climate to address problems and realities that were often ignored in more oppressive times. Little Vera is one result. The story of a young rebellious girl in a dysfunctional Russian family confronted with adult decisions.

Natalya Negoda is wonderful as Vera, a confused and angry teenager growing into adulthood. Equally excellent is Yuri Nazarov as her alcoholic father. Vera self-destruction steers herself, her lover and the family into flurry of difficulties, including run-ins with police and pregnancy.

This is one of the more realistic depictions of life in Russia that I've seen on film (though most Russian families aren't this dysfunctional). In the midst of Vera's calamities and rebellion we see some genuinely touching scenes with her father, who in spite of her shortcomings and his own alcoholism loves her.

With excellent acting and directing, I highly recommend Little Vera.

Good and honest film .
Good , honest , depressing , truthfull film . But it deserves only 3 stars ... not a bit more . The reason why it was a big hit in US :
1. It was depressing anouph to be used in propaganda compain in US .
2. The 2 nude scenes in it , what was BIG deal for Soviet films then , and perfect for male population of the US .
As result , Natalya Negoda get couple good roles in American films . Check out " The Comrades of Summer ".

from an American looking in
I saw this movie when I was in Leningrad, before Gorbachev resigned Christmas Eve, 1991. The state-run television station ran it one evening, and I watched it with my Russian friends, who insisted it was a "porno". After the movie, the same people who thought they'd be able to see explicit sex scenes ended up sitting around the kitchen table discussing the movie over vodka and pickles as if it were an obscure painting of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Whatever, the movie gave me, as a United States citizen, an insight on Russian family, lifestyle, fears and hopes. To many Russians, it seems they consider the film effluvium to be dismissed as they are probably used to so much state-sponsored affect flotsam and jetsam. But to some of us "uneducated", it was enlightening and funny/ironic toward the end, with that "HAAA! HAAA!" attempt at mental escape.
Not to mention, Natalya Negoda is hot! Or should I say, sovsim garyatchaya...

It was big
When it first came out in the movie theaters in Soviet Union, my mother wouldn't let me go to see it because I was 17 and suposly "they had sex" in the movie. Anyhow, I saw it and it was ok. Most people did talk about famous sex scene but I was more suprised how depressing it was, and how dysfanctional but yet common Vera's family was.
I think it was one of the first attemps of Soviest filmmakers to show something different from traditional.
It was a big hit as far as I can remember but I am pretty sure it is outdated by now.

Good when first came out, now outdated
I saw this mivie in Russia when it first came out. It was one of the first films of its kind. Now it would only be relevant and interesting for very serious Russian cinema buffs. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

This one was very funny !
Come on guys ! This one was very funny ! Joe Mantegna teaching baseball to Russians ?! In Russia !? I am already louphing !
And some of the russians get offended ??? It is a comedy , with using GROTESQUE at it's best ! The " russian party " , after winning a game against cubans ( the fact itself - russians beat cubans in baseball , already hilarious ), when they drink vodka out of the bottles , than everybody sleeping and snoring ! Isn't it already a clue for you - it is A comedy . And it is a good one .

not horrible
a fun movie. my biggest problem was with joe mantegna...i just couldn't picture him as a baseball player. i'm a huge baseball fan, and think you would like this film more if you are not really into baseball, but just have a general knowledg of the game. it certainly wasn't a "good" movie but it has funny scenes, and is playful. certainly not in the league of other baseball movies, though.

Another Great Baseball Movie
This is not the greatest movie of all time, but whenever it replays on HBO, I can't NOT watch. Joe Mantegna is great in this, and it has a wonderful, sappy appeal. Why are movies about baseball so good, and the sport itself so booooring?

Comrades of Summer RULES!!!
This is the best movie of all time. Watch for the guy who jumps about 30 feet after hitting a home run with his mom watching. And when Boris cleares a 20 foot fense to catch a foul ball and falls 30 feet to the concrete and still holds on to the ball. This is the most realistic movie ever!!! ... Read more