Toward the end of Cobb, the hero suddenly starts coughing up blood. Death, which until now has been a second baseman to be charged, spiked and upended, is not going to drop the ball this time. It is a new experience for Ty Cobb. He has never encountered anything his psychopathic aggressiveness couldn't overwhelm. Tommy Lee Jones's utterly incautious performance -- he's pure attack dog -- permits his character a moment of naked panic. Then he looks in the mirror and accepts his fate, and calmly calls the hospital.
No one will ever confuse writer-director Ron Shelton's new film with The...