The Zen of Bobby V (2008 TV Movie) User Reviews

Quality documentary even a non-baseball fan can like

[breffington · 10/10 · 3 May 2008]

Color is gorgeous, offers a great window into Japan of today. Bobby Valentine, the American coach of a Japanese ball club, is a fascinating guy in this documentary. He's great fun, a great coach and he inspires people. Even if you're not a baseball fan see this one. I saw it in New York City yesterday during the Tribeca Film Festival. They had the three producers there fielding questions from the audience. Great fun. The guys mentioned they imported a bicycle built for two into Japan so they could follow Valentine around filming him when he went out on bike rides. One guy pedaled while the other filmed. This is not your high budget production. These are three 21-year-olds recently graduated from New York University's Tisch Film School. They winkled a contract out of ESPN and made it work. And this is a very professional piece of film. The Tisch School of the Arts at NYU has turned out many of the great producers in the states. On May 13, if I remember rightly, it will be shown on ESPN. See it.

Excellent documentary

[david-4805 · 10/10 · 17 May 2008]

I really enjoyed this documentary. It's amazing seeing Japan in the sense of their baseball world, which I never knew all that much about. I'm a huge baseball fan, and I think the bigger baseball fan you are the more you'll enjoy this movie because you'll know about some of the players they talk about.

The filming style is great, and overall the documentary is very fascinating. I can't understand how it has gotten such a poor score on here, but the only thing I can think of is non-baseball fans might be slightly bored by it. But I truly believe that any mild baseball fan who watched it will thoroughly enjoy.

Great, enjoyable, insightful documentary!!!

[mooseman26 · 14 June 2008]

even though "zen" aired a while ago i feel compelled to comment on it because of undeserved negative comments. this film was extraordinary...as long as you can get past your personal biases. obviously this film isn't ken burns baseball set in japan. however i think the point of it was to capture what Bobby V has been doing in Japan the past five years. this film delivers on that and more. it's not only entertaining watching bobby, but who knew it could be so much fun to watch other people watch baseball. the Japanese fans are insane!!! The film had me from the moment bobby gives a team speech before a playoff game at the beginning of the film, which I read is unprecedented footage! Japanese media isn't allowed in Japanese clubhouses. so if you don't have some sort of beef with bobby or the filmmakers, chances are you'll enjoy this film.

another student film

[yage-search · 1/10 · 19 May 2008]

I do not know what the filmmaker tries to focus on. The film only shows a baseball season in Japan with chronological order, that is boring. I am not convinced why and how Bobby Valentine has been accepted in Japan. Bobby's wife thinks he is fluent in Japanese and Bobby himself considers his Japanese conversation skill is sixth grade student level. However, he barely speaks Japanese. He only speaks the sentences he remembers. He speaks Japanese like a four- year old kid. There must be reasons Bobby made a great success and acceptance in Japan although he cannot communicate well in Japanese. However, the film shows Bobby climbing up Mt. Fuji and his ace pitcher talks about gaining weight. There are so many meaningless scenes and sound bites in the film. Probably, I should not expect much from student films.

Boring disorganized Student film

[jterry2000 · 1/10 · 6 June 2008]

This film is about a boring washed up irrelevant figure in a boring irrelevant sports league - can you say "Dead on Arrival"?? Its an unfocused look at Japanese baseball that really doesn't explore below the surface of the Japanese baseball league. Clearly the fact the filmmakers were American and not Japanese means they could not really give real insight into the Japanese culture. The film just relies on Valentines vague comments on Japanese society. Its just a student film with cameras following around Bobby Valentine, who is way too boring to carry a film by himself. You probably wont even get past the first 10 minutes of the film on ESPN without flipping the channel. Better luck next time guys.