The underdog story, usually based on true events, is a winning formula that plays up to the audience and never gets old. It sparks a note of hope, triumph and determination, and resonates with audiences worldwide. At least that's what I thought before viewing The Final Season. Never has an uplifting underdog film been so formulaic, dull, trite and uninspiring.

Kent Stock (Sean Astin) is invited to assistant coach the last few weeks for the Norway, Iowa high school baseball season, and is thrilled to rejoin his longtime friend and coach Jim Van Scoyoc (Powers Boothe). The state school board decides that, due to costs, it is necessary for the Norway school to be absorbed by the Madison District, thereby ending the Norway baseball team and its 19 years of winning the state championships. When Harvey Makepeace (Marshall Bell) strikes a deal with Scoyoc to allow one more season of baseball provided he retire from coaching, Stock steps up to take over and re-instill pride and determination to the discouraged townsfolk and their heroic baseball team.

Attempting to cash in on the successes of films like We Are Marshall and Invincible, The Final Season has finally forced the underdog film to strike out. Similar to the huge slew of Asian horror films remade for America that slowly dwindled away due to repetitiveness and monotony, The Final Season manages to destroy the bright spirit and winning combination of a crestfallen team paired with an unlikely coach set on taking them to victory.

In general these films are predictable, simply because it's not an underdog film if the main characters don't come from behind to win. But The Final Season takes repetition and generic qualities way past second base. The characters are all recycled versions of substandard cardboard cutouts, and the conflict in the film is pointless. The school isn't being threatened to be shut down it IS being shut down, so the only thing the baseball team struggles for is to go out on top. But that will only glorify a community pastime that is destined for extinction, and no sympathy comes from the real-life town. As evidenced by the final notes in the end credits, Madison High School has never won a state championship, and all of the schools in Iowa combined have never won as many baseball trophies as Norway. Way to rub it in Iowa's face.

And finally, perhaps the most noticeably horrific aspect of The Final Season is its acting. Powers Boothe delivers every line as if he's reading a teleprompter and delivers as much range and emotion as the grass in the outfield. Sean Astin likewise looks as if he was tortured into playing the role of Kent, and Rachael Leigh Cook is laughably clich. All of the characters and themes are overly preachy and nearly every line of dialogue sounds quoted from cutting room footage from other abominable films. The disgruntled young rebel ball player, Mitch, is unlikable and paltry, and his sudden reformation appears provoked by nothing more than a wink from a cute girl. All in all, The Final Season is a disastrously sub par film, caught trying to steal home plate and embarrassingly tagged out, marking the pleading death of these underdog films.

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