Trouble with the Curve

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Justin Timberlake, Amy Adams
Directed by: Robert Lorenz
Rating: It Was OK

After seeing Brad Pitt's Moneyball last year, the next baseball movie I knew the next baseball movie I watched would be under pretty heavy scrutiny.  I was right.  This movie isn't bad, but it's not great, and in comparison to Pitt's, it just doesn't measure up.

The two movies cover different sides of the same topic, too.  In Pitt's movie, he's pioneering the use of statistics and computers as a way to pick your MLB team.  Eastwood's movie is all about trouncing that idea as voodoo that's never gonna work.  In each movie, the hero, Pitt and Eastwood, are both right.  So, what does that tell you?

The Good:

• I haven't seen a lot of movies that Adams has been in, but I think she did a great job here.  Playing hard on the side of the story that is her dysfunctional relationship with her dad, Gus (Eastwood), she shows her emotional side well.  
• I like Timberlake in most of his roles, and this one was no different.  
• Eastwood has accepted his age better than a lot of actors.  I mean, Eastwood was never a huge action star like Willis, Stallone, or Schwarzenegger, but he's definitely found a way to choose roles that coincide with the fact that he's getting older.  
• The story in and of itself is pretty good.  You always want to root for the underdog that's been doing his job the same way for so many years that he's so good at it a computer can't beat him out of it.  
• Gus explains to Mickey at one point that even though he can't see what's happening because of his fading eyesight, he can still hear it.  He tells her there's that pure sound a ball makes when it hits a glove or a bat.  I really relate to this idea across several aspects of life.  It goes back to that idea of finding your rhythm.  
• John Goodman also has a slightly smaller role in the movie as do a handful of other actors I like, and they all do a great job, too. 

The Bad: 

• The movie's a little predictable...no, it's really predictable.  Everybody likes a happy ending I guess.  
• Eastwood's voice is getting really hard to understand the older he gets.  It worked pretty well for Gran Torino, but it's a little out of place in most movies.  I know there's not a lot to do about it, just an observation.  

The Ugly:

• Matthew Lillard seemed like he was doing pretty well in this movie all the way.  It wasn't until the last few scenes that I started to see that guy that reminded me why they chose him to play Shaggy in the live action Scooby Doo movie.  I just find it really hard to take him seriously.