Major League

  • Review Date: May 26, 2007
  • Rated: R
  • Genre: Comedy
  • Release Year: 1989
  • Running Time: 107 minutes

Common Sense Media says

Crowd-pleasing '80s underdog sports comedy.
  • Review Date: May 26, 2007
  • Rated: R
  • Genre: Comedy
  • Release Year: 1989
  • Running Time: 107 minutes

Age(i)

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Quality(i)

 
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What parents need to know

Positive messages

Even when faced with nearly impossible odds and no confidence from their owner, the ragtag team pulls together to give the season their best shot.

Violence

Dorn and Vaughn push and shove each other, and in another scene Dorn punches Vaughn in the face. A couple of players give each other menacing looks.

Sex

There's asexual partial nudity in the team locker room (bare butts are visible). The female team owner slaps a couple of players' butts. Two sets of characters have off-screen sex (the viewer sees just foreplay and afterglow). A player is caught cheating on his wife in a televised news segment.

Language

This is major-league cursing: More than two dozen "F"-words and "s--t," along with "ass," "Goddamn," "dick," and one "motherf--ker." There's even cursing in Spanish, courtesy of Cerrano.

Consumerism

Major League Baseball: Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees

Drinking, drugs, & smoking

The guys drink cocktails and beer. Cerrano (and Jobu) smokes cigars and drinks rum.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this R-rated sports comedy includes a great deal of foul language. In some scenes nearly every other word is an obscenity. The rest of the movie is pretty tame, however. You'll find some drinking and cigar-smoking, plus there are a couple of discreet love scenes and some glimpses of players' backsides in the locker room.

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What's the story?

When the greedy widow of the Cleveland Indians' owner decides she'd rather relocate the team to Miami, she assembles an awful roster to ensure game attendance is at an all-time low. The team starters are a bunch of has-beens and never-will-bes like over-the-hill catcher Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger), "wild thing" rookie pitcher Rick Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) and cocky base-stealer Willy Mays Hayes (Wesley Snipes), none of whom knows they've been set up to lose. After an unexpected winning streak, the team discovers the owner's plans and vows to win at all costs -- even praying to the Afro-Cuban player's (Dennis Haysbert) voodoo god Jobu, who accepts fine rum and cigar offerings.

Is it any good?

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These days feel-good sports flicks are usually historical dramas about the first team to overcome racism, poverty, or devastating odds. Major League is a refreshingly fictional and light story about a very real team: the Cleveland Indians.

Sheen shines as the rockin' closer with a lot of attitude. As his foil, Corbin Bernsen is perfectly vain as the all-business pro athlete who's cashing in off the field but is checked out on the field. Even 18 years after its original release, the movie is still a fun, lightweight sports flick. When Berenger leads the team to a predictable championship victory, it's impossible not to grin.

Families can talk about...

  • Families can talk about determination and overcoming obstacles. What starts out as a group of "losers" without a chance turns into the little team that could. How does the owner's lack of confidence affect the players? Why is it so compelling to root for the underdog? Kids: name your favorite sports movies.

Movie details

Theatrical release date:April 7, 1989
DVD release date:April 10, 2007
Cast:Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, Tom Berenger
Director:David S. Ward
Studio:Paramount Pictures
Genre:Comedy
Run time:107 minutes
MPAA rating:R

This review of Major League was written by

Sandie Angulo Chen

About our rating system

  • ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
  • PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.
  • OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
  • NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids of any age.

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Quality

Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Learning ratings

  • Best: Really engaging, great learning approach.
  • Very Good: Engaging, good learning approach.
  • Good: Pretty engaging, good learning approach.
  • Fair: Somewhat engaging, okay learning approach.
  • Not for Learning: Not recommended for learning.
  • Not for Kids: Not age-appropriate for kids; not recommended for learning.

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Adult Written bykalleyeope April 9, 2008
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Teen, 13 years old Written byLandshark April 9, 2008
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HILLARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!

this is crazy but funny! i loved it and so did my sister i like the KFC bucket part.
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Kid, 12 years old November 30, 2009
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