Movie Review: Ed (Joey's Masterpiece)

Joey from Friends. A child in a chimpanzee suit. Minor league baseball.

Not exactly the recipe for an Academy Award, but a surprisingly entertaining movie experience? You bet.

Matt LeBlanc (Joey) plays Jack ‘Deuce’ Cooper, a down-on-his luck pitcher with a terrible curveball in the minor leagues. He is depressed with his pitching performances, his apartment is an absolute mess, and he is lonely.

Just when it all can’t get any worse, Deuce has to shelter the team’s new mascot in his apartment; the aforementioned child in the chimp suit.

It is supposed to be a real chimp in the movie’s reality, but the costume looks as if they bought it at Party City. However, I can’t fault the studio for going with the child-in-the-chimp-suit strategy especially after that 200-pound chimp in Connecticut went absolutely crazy. 

The chimp, known as Ed, partakes in all sorts of semi-hilarious hijinks such as swinging on a light fixture or stealing Deuce’s food. Ed trashes the apartmment numerous times because he’s a wild animal, but one day, he saves the coach from a line drive.

The coach slaps a glove on Ed and voila! He’s the new thirdbaseman and star player! He’s so good that even Deuce starts to pitch better and the team begins to win.

The plot is terrible and the acting is not much better. This movie did not help anyone’s career (see LeBlanc in Joey or Charlie’s Angels). But surprise surprise! Jim Caviezel played the role of Dizzy Anderson. Caviezel was hardly on screen but his performance must have convinced Hollywood execs to cast him as Jesus in Passion of the Christ…

There is also a small love story woven into the plot. Deuce lives next to Lydia, a single mom (Jayne Brook of countless minor TV appearances) who he is too shy and to preoccupied with baseball to ask out. But Ed the chimp and Lydia’s daughter become best friends, helping Deuce and Lydia connect in the end.

If you go in expecting a life-changing cinematic experience, you will be sorely disappointed by this movie. But the unintentional comedy factor saves this movie.

For instance, one of the players was out all night before a game. The veteran coach gives him some ‘energy’ pills to fire him up. What? This movie was given a PG rating! Amphetamines were a major problem in pro baseball and it’s hilarious that a movie with a chimpanzee playing baseball  would include performance enhancing drug use.

The mere presence of Caviezel in a movie such as this is also incredibly funny. Lastly, the dialogue is surprisingly well-written. There are some great insults and cut downs between the players and when Ed misbehaves, Deuce simply and eloquently states, “I’m gonna spank that monkey.” Scorcese couldn’t write any better!

Ed is a bad movie. But I saw it on HBO the other day, and I actually laughed out loud a few times so that’s why I wrote the review. In the end, the baseball scenes are pretty bad, the acting isn’t great, the love story is forced, and there is a child in a chimp suit who is an amazing baseball player. You can definitely amuse yourself by making fun of the movie with some friends.

Amazingly though, Ed is LeBlanc’s masterpiece. His Apocalypse Now or Citizen Kane if you will.