Hardball (2002)

There was no reason to expect much from a movie starring Keanu Reeves as a luckless gambler paying off his debts by reluctantly coaching a baseball team full of foulmouthed ghetto kids. After all, its basic formula was already getting tired before the ''Bad News Bears'' went to Japan. But with some inner-city grit and some flashes of genuine heart (and thankfully without an obligatory big-game finale), Hardball rises above, say, ''The Mighty Ducks.'' Reeves will never be as good as Walter Matthau was, but working with these urban moppets, he hits his stride.