Ian (Flash Review)Ten minutes into this movie, I was thinking oh boy, this is clunky, forced and simplistic. But as it progressed the character development began to take shape. Not stellar by any means, many characters were stereotypical and the scenes used to illustrate those traits were…functional. The story was about a veteran baseball scout, think anti-Moneyball, who is matched up against a scout who only looks at statistics and whether or not a MLB team should draft a certain player #1 in the draft. The secondary storyline was the veteran scout's relationship with his daughter whom he gave sparse time to during her childhood. The story and dialog for the most part grew on me and as the father/daughter relationship began to take center stage it helped the movie. You also end up easily rooting for certain characters if you let yourself enjoy the film without picking apart the small details that aren't critical. Although, one did bug me. Where the daughter who apparently used to play baseball, was able to catch a top prospect's best fastball and curveball with ease. With that much time away from playing, those skills wouldn't immediately be finely honed. Anyway, fun sport drama with decent emotion and some cliché moments.

Screen_Blitz Clint Eastwood has established himself as a major Hollywood icon for the last six decades since the inauguration of his career. Even he falls victim to some less than remarkable roles whether he is working in front or behind the camera. This sports drama starring the aging star, pushing his 80s, in the lead role sees him putting on a good performance in what is nonetheless one of his weakest entries in his career in front of the camera. With his previous on screen role being the grumpy Korean War veteran in 'Gran Torino', Eastwood has struck the screen once again with Oscar nominee Amy Adams on his side, a movie dealing with the politics of major league baseball. It is only too bad the film falls short of emotional impact and drives with a story that is criminally underwhelming. Don't get me wrong, these are two of the Hollywood's most talented actors working on screen. That justifies how reasonable it is to believe they would collaborate on something more rousing. It comes to show the most golden stars are not always the winners. This film follows Gus Lobel (played by Clint Eastwood), an aging, widowed baseball scout struggling with his eye contact, who crosses paths with his estranged daughter Mickey (played by Amy Adams), a lawyer who is on her way being promoted to a higher position. Despite their dysfunctional relationship, she becomes his partner-in-crime on a scouting trip to North Carolina to recruit players for the Atlanta Braves. During the trip, they struggle to come to terms with their past relationship. Director Robert Lorenz does not have the film drowning in a total loss, there is still a small amount of grace to be admired in his execution. The film has its heart in the right place and lightens with a little charm and occasional humor to sugarcoat the mood. But when it comes to evoking interest in its story, that is when it leaves you desiring for something of a higher option. What transpires throughout the picture is a mixed mag of sappy family drama and the anxiety of fighting to make ends meet in the corporate office outside the baseball field; similar to what transpired in 'Moneyball', only this film lacks the dramatic coercion that made that film is hit. When the tackling on the family dynamics between the lead character and his daughter including the questioning of his abandonment during her childhood; the story is heart-filling enough, though it eventually loses its emotional steam. Don't expect anything of a tear-jerker. When shifting its focuses on Mickey with her work dilemmas, it gets plodding and uninteresting, not to mention cheesy. The best thing the film can walk away with is, of course, a strong performance by Clint Eastwood, playing in usual grumpy old man persona. As for Amy Adams, she is fine no less. Her chemistry with Justin Timberlake however, certainly doesn't sizzle in the way it wants to be. Sure, they have their moments, but they're definitely nothing special. John Goodman as one of the baseball managers and Gus's best friend is fine too as is Matthew Lillard as the antagonist drafters of the baseball team. Are they memorable roles though? Not Really. Trouble with The Curve is a fine sports drama with a little bit of charm to experienced, but nonetheless sees Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams acting in arguably their least remarkable roles in recent years. The movie is not necessarily a dud, especially as it will likely attract the attention for those who have fandom for major league baseball. On the other hand, there are better and more admirable options in the roster of baseball movies.

schollcs The movie Trouble with the Curve is a story about an aging baseball talent scout Gus played by Client Eastwood. Gus has built a reputation over the years of recruiting many talented players for the Atlanta Braves. An older man who, set in his ways, Gus is unwilling to change his style to fit with the recent technological changes in how baseball players are recruited, which relies mostly on computer technology. His nemesis is a younger manager Phillip, played by Matthew Lillard, who is convinced that Gus is ready for retirement. Pete, played by John Goodman, a longtime friend of Gus' enlists the help of Gus' daughter Mickey to keep an eye on Gus on an important scouting trip. Mickey, played by Amy Adams, who has not always had a good relationship with her father, is resentful that she has to take on the task of watching out for him. Amy is a driven and focused career woman and is competing for a partnership in the law firm where she works. She also has a nemesis, another lawyer who takes advantage of her absence at work to take her promotion as a partner. While on the scouting trip in North Carolina Gus and Amy meet up with another scout, Johnny, played by Justin Timberlake, was a former Major League baseball player, who was recruited by Gus. The theme of this movie centers around the three main characters and the conflicts they are experiencing in their personal lives. Gus had to raise a young daughter on his own after the death of his wife, and Amy is having to deal with resentment toward her father because he sends her away to live with distance relatives when she is younger instead of raising her himself. She feels abandoned by her father but does not understand the true reason behind his actions. While Gus and Amy are not close, their personalities are very similar. Driven and controlling individuals, they keep others at a distance for fear of being hurt or rejected. Johnny, who ended his Major League career due to a shoulder injury, is the catalyst that eventually draws Gus and Amy into a closer relationship helping them both realize they can open up to one another, in doing so Amy realizes the sacrifices her father made for her long ago. In the end, all the characters grow through their experiences with one another. A transition is made between father and daughter, and Gus sees that the time she spent with him in her youth on recruiting trips was beneficial to her, and Amy can again be involved in something she loves with her father.

firefalcoln This movie almost seems to exist in attempt to DE-legitimize Moneyball. However, Curve is so bad that it only cemented Moneyball as being anything but similar to terrible.Here's what happens: Clint Eastwood plays a stereotypical old baseball scout who cares only for old-school baseball knowledge and thinks typewriters are scary new technology. He is losing his vision, can't drive and wants the 1950s back. And despite alienating his daughter, he is hero of the story because his ancient baseball thinking, within their fiction, is always perfectly correct to make up for him being otherwise completely unlikable and wrong. In reality, no baseball philosophy is close to 100% correct all the time. Eastwood's daughter(Adams) is a lawyer who hates Eastwood on the surface because he didn't care for typical responsible or girly interests like her. She is roped into helping her dad out because she hates him or loves or who cares. The real confusing character is her love interest through the movie, played by Timberlake, who is (no joke) a former pitching prospect who never made it big due to injury, asked to prove himself as a good scout for evaluating one player in order to become a Red Sox play by play broadcaster. Even those who know virtually nothing about baseball must know that this makes no sense. It turns out that the player both Timberlake and Eastwood/Adams are evaluating is the definition of stereotypical entitled sports jock. His lines of douchbaggery are laugh out loud bad and on the nose. His character at one point insists another player gets hit by a pitch so he can bat in the 9th inning. Douchebag threatens his teammate by saying his at bat has future major endorsement deals for douchebag at stake. Of course the jerk player also is projected by Eastwood and Adams as being unable to play in the big leagues because they think he will fail against real competition particularly the good MLB curve-balls, despite having great current statistics in high school(this concept actually isn't too unrealistic, but the movie lacks a sense of reality because everyone evil is bad at playing and evaluating baseball and every good is a perfect baseball analysis or player. They convince Timberlake not to draft the stereotypical jock player either, but The organization that Eastwood reports to(the Braves) ignores their report and drafts him anyway, make Timberlake thing he was manipulated into making a bad decision. Shortly after this disaster draft, Adams sees a kind young kid(who was bullied by the drafted jock earlier in the film) pitching to a friend. She immediately sees him as a future MLB pitcher and somehow is able to convince the Braves to sign him despite the kid never playing at a competitive level and her only being the daughter of mistrusted decrepit scout. What follows is the new pitcher and hitter facing off and the hitter failing.Eastwood and his daughter are revealed to be brilliant. Adams and Timberlake reconcile, the end. The movie is really more like an irritating unrealistic feel good chick flix with some baseball and Eastwood playing baseball scout version of the same old character he has played the last 10 years.The story just fails to spark an ounce of the interest of Moneyball because the story is constructed to show that good analysts are those who see past statistics into a player's heart. Good players on the field are always good off the field, and bad people are those who are self centered entitle jocks or young analysts who trust statistics. If someone knows anything about baseball, they will see these characters as the complete unbelievable agenda driven stereotypes and that they are. Almost every scout in real baseball uses a great deal of both new age statistics and old school scouting tactics, and this movie didn't even conjure this common scouting value as an option.(in case you think Moneyball displays no middle ground either, it's important to remember that moneyball took place earlier when new age statistics weren't commonly used by scouts like they are now. The depiction of the jock player is the most blatant example of an unrealistic one dimensional character. He really is portrayed like a sports star from an SNL skit. Moneyball doesn't stick perfectly to the book, but it is a much closer depiction of a story which is both more interesting and based on truth. Also moneyball's humor is on purpose and displays the subtle realities and often poignant qualities of baseball's unreliability.