TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE

Warner Bros.

 Rated PG-13

 Running time: 111 Minutes



 Click below to watch the Trouble with the Curve trailer.

 

In Warner Bros. Trouble with the Curve, Clint Eastwood is an aging baseball scout, who had signed up some of the best ball players in the business, trying to convince everyone - including his lawyer daughter Amy Adams - that he can still scout baseball talent.

While in his last few movies, star and producer Eastwood has been playing characters who of course are old - this is the film that I have seen one of Eastwood's movie play up the fact that Clint Eastwood as being old the most. Directed by Eastwood's longtime associate Robert Lorenz in Lorenz's directorial debut - Eastwood came out of acting retirement for this role, and I think the role most suits him. This is the first time since In the Line of Fire that Eastwood has not both directed and starred in a movie.

The Trouble With the Curve mostly concentrated on Eastwood's decreasing eyesight and his possibly not being able to perform his job anymore, especially as Eastwood tries to scout a new high school "green power hitter" Joe Massingill in a small town in North Carolina as Eastwood and Adams stay in a local motel. The concern of Eastwood's boss and best friend John Goodman and Eastwood's daughter Amy Adams over Eastwood's condition showed their love for Eastwood, despite the dysfunctional father-daughter relationship Adams and Eastwood have throughout most of the movie, as Adams leaves home to go with her father Eastwood to look after him. Even young baseball scout Justin Timberlake's admiration and respect for Eastwood's experience added to Eastwood's aging and his inability to adapt to the changes in the business of Major League Baseball. Despite the high tech aspect of baseball, the fact that everyone still travels in cars instead of airlines while scouting shows that the game of baseball really still has not changed.

The juxtaposition between Adams and Eastwood's jobs on the line hit home to me for both father and daughter as smarmy General Manager wannabe Matthew Lillard, with his computerized tracking system of players, wants Eastwood with his old-school scouting experience of scouting real players out of the organization - and Adams is threatened by another lawyer taking her presentation her client as well as the lawyer taking her spot as a partner in her lawyer's firm.

This is a nice role for Timberlake. Timberlake is such a nice guy in the movie as a young baseball scout for another team that gruff Eastwood practically pushes his relationship-challenged single daughter Adams at his young prodigy Timberlake. I guess it was keeping baseball all in the family as Adams grew up with baseball - and has learned quite a lot from Eastwood - and also assists Eastwood in scouting and recruiting talent, despite not always being with her single father Eastwood as she was growing up. It was great to see Robert Patrick as the owner of Eastwood's baseball team the Atlanta Braves - but we really did not get to know Patrick as the owner, which I think is a shame. The other aging baseball fans were also a delight to see. Actually, I am not sure if they were fans or were scouts as well since I did not recall seeing them take notes.

There was definitely an older crowd for this movie when I saw the film. I am sure most of them were there for Clint Eastwood rather than were actual baseball fans. That is how I felt about the audience for Eastwood's Space Cowboys, where the audience were more of a fan of Eastwood rather than of NASA. While I understand movie reviews have been mixed for Trouble With the Curve - as a fan of both Eastwood and baseball, I enjoyed this sports movie. It would be a shame if more of the younger generation do not see Trouble With the Curve.

Rated PG-13 for violence, language, sexual situations. Running time: 111 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

J. Edgar

Warner Bros.

Rated R

Running time: 137 Minutes



In the true story of Warner Bros. J. Edgar, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - J. Edgar Hoover, Leonardo DiCaprio, dictates his life's story to varous Federal agents.

Based on the true story of Hoover's life, and Directed and with Music by Clint Eastwood, this film is a very dramatic history of both J. Edgar and the FBI. It is amazing how much forensic proceedures J. Edgar developed in both library research and criminal science. These proceedures were very critical in the solving of the Charles Lindbergh baby kidnapping case. The film makes references to various criminal related cases the FBI was involved with, such as the notorious gangsters as well as the Charles Lindberg baby kidnapping. Throughout the 20th century, these cases of the FBI helped make J. Edgar a national hero. The private files J. Edgar supposedly kept of various political figures, including Presidents also made J. Edgar notorious and a person you did not want to make a political enemy of.

When a bomb explodes at the home of his boss, J. Edgar (DiCaprio) becomes driven throughout the rest of his life in dealing both with radical groups, as well as the subversives against America, and also in dealing in criminal science - such as having criminal's fingerprints being registered and centralized at the FBI. J. Edgar is soon made Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and has a career that lasts half a century and eight Presidents. The film goes back and forth between the mature characters of the present, and their younger selves. J. Edgar struggles in gaining respect for the Bureau, in that he has strict standards for his agents, getting proper jurisdiction and funding for the Bureau during Congressional Hearings - as well as getting loyalty and respect for himself. As a result, J. Edgar's biography "The Untitled FBI Story" is rather embellished with stories about J. Edgar.

The film also deals with J. Edgar's relationship with his mother Judi Dench, and his "daffodil" relationship with agent Clyde Tolson, Armie Hammer. While I knew of this relationship from various studies, the relationship was subtly played in the movie. Although it is interesting J. Edgar originally wanted a relationship with his new secretary Helen Gandy, Naomi Watts. However Watts only wanted a business relationship with J. Edgar. As a result, J. Edgar becomes uncomfortable with girls, and has a different relationship - although the FBI continues to deny any such portrayals of J. Edgar. It is ironic of having Armie Hammer in the movie when Armie Hammer's great-grandfather, tycoon Armand Hammer, was suspected by J. Edgar Hoover of having Soviet ties.

There was definitely an older crowd for this movie in the theaters. I am not sure if that is because of Clint Eastwood, or that the older crowd is more familiar with J. Edgar Hoover. Most probably it is because of the relationship the older crowd has with J. Edgar despite the star power of Leonardo DiCaprio. J. Edgar was the reason I saw the movie. I would not be surprised if DiCaprio is nominated for an Oscar for his performance in this movie.

Rated R for langauge, violence, and sexual situations. Running time: 137 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews