Where to watch Ed
1 Star
Its kind of amazing that Ed was not only produced in the first place but was given a wide theatrical release during the spring of 1996. It is written by David Mickey Evans who penned the baseball set Sandlot four years before. Apparently, after The Sandlot became hit studios were eager to make anything Evans had, and this stinker is bottom of the drawer material. It’s so lazy and half-concocted that Evans doesn’t even bother to throw in an antagonist for the plot. Everybody is generally sweet to one another and literally, nothing of danger or note happens. The film’s high point has to be when the titular chimp farts so hard he levitates off a couch momentarily.
Ace pitcher Jack Cooper (Maat LeBlanc) is in a major bind when he makes it on to a minor league baseball team. He has a habit of getting stage fright on the mound and he develops a talent of choking. Back on the farm, he’s dynamite; in front of a crowd, he’s horrendous. But good fortunes arise when he’s paired up with a hairy hero. Jack’s new teammate and roommate is Ed, a chimpanzee who turns out to be a natural-born ballplayer.
Friends star Matt LeBlanc makes a unmagnanimous debut as a leading man in this bomb for the ages. Ed is a film that doesn’t know much about baseball or apes. Sports films were in their heyday during the 1990’s resulting in an animal subgenre that includes Airbud. What a strange time that decade was. Look for Dodger’s manager Tommy Lasorda in the film’s climax. Ed rightly deserves it rotten reputation.
Director: Bill Couturié
Stars: Matt LeBlanc, Jayne Brook, Bill Cobbs, Jack Warden