Recently we’ve seen several solid biographical sports dramas come down the movie pipeline. The latest is “The Hill” from director Jeff Celentano. It stars Dennis Quaid who is certainly no stranger to said biographical sports dramas. Written by Angelo Pizzo and Scott Marshall Smith, the film seeks to tell the inspiring true story of Rickey Hill who refused to let his physical disability stop his pursuit of a baseball career.

“The Hill” is a heartfelt and well-intended feel-good feature that is more of a melodrama than a full-on sports story. Obviously baseball plays a key part. But it’s much more about a close-knit yet struggling family, particularly the relationship between a stern and overprotective father and his gifted and determined son. There’s plenty of good material there to work with. But the wildly uneven handling of it leaves the movie oscillating between sincerely touching and overly sentimental.

Since he was a child Rickey Hill (played by Jesse Berry and later by Colin Ford) had a knack for hitting a baseball. But a degenerative spinal disease put him in leg braces as a child making his dream to play in the Major Leagues seem unreachable. Rickey’s strict but well-meaning father James (Dennis Quaid), a small town Texas pastor, discourages him from pursuing baseball out of fear of serious injury. He’d rather Rickey follow in his footsteps and preach. But over time his hardline orthodoxy does more to push his son towards his dream than discourage him from it.

So “The Hill” follows two paths – Rickey’s and his father’s. To its credit, the movie takes its time developing the family dynamic and showing the hardships they faced in 1970 rural Texas. Rickey’s path is one of trials and challenges, but also of unwavering confidence and resilience. James’ path is one of spiritual conflict and stubbornness. But James is no villain. The film does a good job showing how his actions, though often misguided, are rooted in a genuine love for his son.

Several other characters do a good job filling out these two central stories. Gracie (first played by Mila Harris and later by Siena Bjornerud) is Rickey’s self-proclaimed girlfriend who proves to be his biggest encourager. Joelle Carter is really good playing James’ supportive yet frustrated wife Hellen. And it was great seeing Scott Glenn pop up later as the gruff big league scout Red Murff (Scott Glenn). But at the same time the movie is hampered by some really bad performances in smaller yet reoccurring roles. They can be a real distraction.

After a shaky first 30 minutes the movie eventually hits its stride only to be tripped up in a painfully mawkish final 20 minutes that sees Celentano attempt to yank every emotional string, hit every schmaltzy cue, and lean on every baseball movie cliche in the book. There are a couple of surprising cameos in the last 15 minutes including an appearance by the real Rickey Hill. But the movie wraps up on such a false note which ends up being too much for the film’s better moments to overcome. “The Hill” opens in theaters August 25th.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

I can honestly say that of all the possible team-ups for a new action buddy comedy, Jackie Chan and John Cena wasn’t a pairing that would have ever crossed my mind. Yet that’s what we get in “Hidden Strike”, a new Chinese-American produced film that recently debuted on Netflix. The movie is directed by former stuntman Scott Waugh who’s also helming “Expend4bles” (aka “Expendables 4”) set to come out later this year.

Unfortunately “Hidden Strike” doesn’t have enough to tide over anyone who might be looking forward to a new “Expendables” movie. It’s a stale and charmless misfire that’s funny in all the wrong ways. The CGI-heavy action is too preposterous to be even remotely thrilling, and the humor languishes thanks to the patently unfunny dialogue and the complete absence of comic chemistry between Chan and Cena (it’s telling when the end credits blooper reel is 10x funnier than anything in the actual movie).

Not that story matters much, but it goes something like this. After repeated attacks by mercenaries on a Chinese-owned oil refinery in Iraq, ex-special forces soldier Luo Feng (Chan) and his team are sent to evacuate and escort the civilian employees and their families from the refinery to a safe zone. To do so they’ll have to travel the hilariously direct Highway of Death. A character actually tells us it’s “the most dangerous road in the country”, as if its goofy name didn’t make that abundantly clear.

Meanwhile former US Marine turned bighearted meathead Chris Van Home (Cena) has found a home in a small Iraqi village where he plays a lot with young orphaned children just to show us he’s a swell guy. The village has been in desperate need of water since a nearby dam was built and in order to get it flowing they need $100k. So Chris reluctantly agrees to help his injudicious mercenary brother Henry (Amadeus Serafini) on a job to earn some quick cash for his village.

It turns out Henry is working for an old acquaintance of Chris’ named Owen Paddock (Pilou Asbæk) and the job is to attack the convoy of civilians Luo Feng is escorting and kidnap a highly valued scientist. Chris quickly comes to realize he’s being used for nefarious purposes. But of course it takes one face-off between the film’s two stars before they realize they have a common enemy. And their only chance of taking that enemy down is by working together. Yeah teamwork!

Aside from the swings and misses at humor and the incredibly bad lines of dialogue, the movie is hampered by several other blunders. For starters the performances are pretty dreadful, especially from Cena who isn’t the slightest bit convincing no matter what he’s doing on screen – fighting, joking, trying to show actual feeling. Nothing about the performance works. Then you have the story itself and its flimsy attempts at showing a human heartbeat. There is the half-baked tension between Luo Feng and his estranged daughter, Mei (Chunrui Ma). And then you have the scenes between Chris and Henry. None of them ring true.

I will say that even though the CGI is overused to the point of being almost cartoony, there is some artistry involved and Waugh, along with the digital effects team, create some eye-popping and undeniably fun shots and sequences. But the computer-generated bombast is hardly enough to cover the movie’s shallow script, bland performances, and the bone-dry chemistry between its two leads. “Hidden Strike” is now streaming on Netflix.

VERDICT – 1.5 STARS