Moneyball

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 133 Minutes

















Click below to watch the Moneyball trailer.



In Columbia Pictures Moneyball, the major league baseball team Oakland A's general manager Brad Pitt tries to build a winning World Series team in 2002 by building a team of misfit ball players using statistics.

Based on a true story, this is not your typical baseball film in that the film is about the "Business" of baseball instead of about the players "playing a 'children's game.'" The players in the film are treated like commodities instead of athletes as Pitt uses the player's statistical skills to build a winning team the A's can afford instead of paying for expensive talent. In a world where big franchises can afford to pay millions of dollars to get players, that is an intriguing business decision when you only have hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for your players - or using baseball scouts searching for talent. The sports analysts like Bob Costas get on Pitt for using this experimental system on baseball - but totally ignore, or are at least are unaware, that Pitt is operating under a very small budget to produce a World Championship team. Pitt had also been the product of a talent search, which did not turn out well. This is one reason why he is going with this approach.

It was nice to see Jonah Hill play an adult role for once as Pitt's statistical assistant responsible for Pitt's entire team strategy. This is also one of Pitt's best roles and I would not be surprised at talks of an Oscar nomination. The writing by Aaron Sorkin definitely helped Pitt's performance. Several of the actors playing ballplayers has had baseball experience, which adds realism to their roles - especially as the team heads for the playoffs, although the film does not spend that much time in the ballpark.

I do not see why the movie is Rated PG-13. I do not recall any language and the only violence is when Pitt throws furniture around when he is angry. There are locker room scenes, but I do not recall anybody being really undressed. The rating kills an additional audience that would relate to Pitt's daughter Kerris Dorsey when Pitt is at home. The movie is over 2 hours, which makes the movie drag at the end of the film. A couple of scenes at the end of the film could have been deleted and made the movie tighter.

Rated PG-13. Running time: 133 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Apollo 18

Dimension Films

Rated PG-13

Running time: 88 minutes

Click below to watch the trailer for Apollo 18.



In Dimension Films Apollo 18, a secret documentary from NASA and the Department of Defense shows the two organizations actually sending a classified Apollo mission to the moon - with horrifying consequences.

A combination Apollo 13, The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and Alien, the movie is more of a suspense film than a horror film. I freely admit that there were a few times where I did jump and flinch - but I was not really scared, just startled. The film starts out with a crawl stating that Apollo 17 was the last Moon landing mission, but then the crawl states that in 2011 hours of documentary footage was uploaded onto the web at http://www.lunartruth.org/ and that this movie of the recovered footage of Apollo 18 is the edited result. The quality of the footage looks like 1970's 16mm footage that would have been in use during the time. Make no mistake - despite the documentary style, and NASA confirms it - this film is a work of fiction.

Clicking on the lunartruth website is not worth it as the website says the footage has been censored. There are no links or anthing on the site except that disclaimer. This site is apparently not available anymore. The website that has the Apollo 18 conspiracy is http://lunatruth.com/. And while not noticing a Saturn V rocket on a launch pad could be justified for the movie, a night launch that was shown is much harder not to notice. I once was at Cape Canaveral for a Discovery space shuttle launch, and we had to pass through a security gate. After driving for a distance through the complex, we parked at a public viewing area. From across the lagoon, I could just barely see the launch pad without my telephoto camera lens. Aside from the noise, and even with the noise, it is quite possible not to notice a Saturn V rocket launch from a distance as the whole area is quite isolated and secured.

The various noises in the lunar module makes you think that the aliens are already around - but the astronauts hardly paid attention to them, so it is difficult to tell if the noises are natural lunar module sounds or the aliens crawling around. The sounds are pretty scary when you consider how empty and lonely the moon is.

Apparently there is an entire species on the moon with the aliens metamorphosing from rock to alien, which apparently got to a previous Soviet lunar mission. You never really get a good look at the aliens, but they appear to be small insect-like creatures instead of man-size creatures, so one astronaut being suddenly dragged away does not make sense. Lloyd Owen being infected by these creatures is reminiscent of Alien. With Warren Christie wanting to go home to his family, and not having a lonely death in space, you could feel Christie's desperation as the situation deteriorates rapidly towards the end.

The sets and effects of the spacecrafts and the lunar surface were very good and realistic in that you could easily believe that this was real footage from NASA.

President John F. Kennedy's classic speech about choosing to go to the moon was a nice touch.

While supposedly set during Christmas time - there are hardly any references to Christmas, with the most notable reference as the Christmas carol instrumental music played during the end credits.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 88 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

I Don't Know How She Does It

The Weinstein Company

PG-13

Running time: 89 Minutes



In The Weinstein Company's I Don't Know How She Does It, working mom Sarah Jessica Parker tries to balance career and motherhood.

Parker loves her work, but her devotion to her family gets in the way. With office rival Seth Meyers ready to pounce on her achievements - Parker possessively goes after mature partner Pierce Brosnan, for whom she is developing a dynamic new investment fund for, who is in their New York office. As the major breadwinner, now that husband Greg Kinnear left his job and is going out on his own as a freelance architect, the pressure increases for Parker for her to succeed and still take care of her family. It does make Parker feel extremely guilty that she is missing out on what is important in her children's lives at home, especially when she has to travel from city to city during the holidays.

The film is full of asides to the audience and interviews of the characters as they comment on Parker and their lives in general. While it seems hard to believe that Parker's company would be involved in developing a brand new fund as most investments are already in place, it seems almost appropriate that it would take that long to develop a brand new fund.

Rated PG-13 for language and sexual situations. Running time: 89 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Rated PG-13

Running time: 105 minutes



In Twentieth Century Fox's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, James Franco develops a new experimental retrovirus for a corporation to cure brain damage like Alzheimer's Disease - with a by-product of increasing intelligence. Testing on apes begets Ceasar, Andy Serkis, the leader of the Apes.

A combination of Charly and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, this is an intelligent story of the beginning of how the apes became the dominant species in the Planet of the Apes series. Not surprising since the novels Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys and Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, of which Charly and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes are based on and suggested by, are classic literary books. What makes the movie work is Franco's love and devotion to his father John Lithgow - who is suffering from a degenerative brain disease. Although they do not specifically mention that Lithgow has Alzheimer's, just that he has a disease. This is one reason that Franco pushes for the development of the serum. Despite his obsession, Franco does soon realize that the serum is still experimental and that there could be side-effects.

The computer graphics of the apes were very good. The chimpanzee Ceasar was very cute when he was younger, especially when he was home, but very serious as an intelligent adult played by Andy Serkis. This is shown when the older Ceasar is first shown in the San Francisco Redwoods. The beastial nature of all the apes - most of which, if not all, are performance-capture artists - in the animal shelter compound can get to you if you are not used to that much raw emotion.

Tom Felton of Harry Potter fame was quite good as a sadistic animal controller assistant.

A classic line from the series is priceless.

Stick around when the end credits begin as there is a scene and graphics which leads to the development of the entire Planet of the Apes series. Wait for the graphics to be complete. The lost of a manned Mars space mission also hints at the series, as well as other homages to the series.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 105 minutes.

See the movie review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes by UFO Bob:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz5R6MJEPP0&feature=colike

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Cowboys & Aliens

Universal Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 118 minutes



Set in the old west, Universal Pictures Cowboys & Aliens has amnesiac Daniel Craig waking up with an alien weapon strapped to his wrist and soon comes up against aliens from space.

When Craig arrives in a frontier town, the townspeople realize he is a wanted criminal and the sheriff arrests him. Cattle rancher Harrison Ford wants revenge on Craig for what Craig did to his son and wants Craig for himself, but before Craig can get shipped off to a larger town for trial - aliens arrive and kidnap some of the townspeople, including Ford's son, the no good Paul Dano. Mysterious Olivia Wilde convinces Craig to go after the townspeople which would in the process help Craig recover his lost memory. Craig joins Ford as they go on a quest to bring Ford's boy and the rest of the townspeople home from the aliens.

This film is True Grit meets Battle Los Angeles with the film being mostly a western. There is hardly any hi-tech gadgetry aside from Craig's wrist gun and the foo fighters.

The reason the aliens are here is not really explained aside from the initial reason - nor the reason why the beastial aliens kidnapped people in the first place, although Craig looks like he was part of an experiment. With Ford turning out to be a former Army officer, the movie soon turns out to be an Indiana Jones meets James Bond movie, although I accepted British Craig as an American. Soon, all the various human groups - townspeople, cattle ranchers, stage coach robbers, and native americans - join forces against the aliens in a battle for survival.

I was upset the dog was not used more throughout the movie. What should be obvious with the dog, but then he would just be there, then disappear, then show up again and that was rather irritating for a such a neutral character. Other than those things, I thought this off-beat movie was pretty good.

The director Jon Favreau also insisted the film should only be shot on film since this is a Western, so I do not think there will be any 3-D versions of this film.

See UFO Bob's video review of Cowboys & Aliens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-6dQO6d74E

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 118 minutes.

Pancho

All people smile in the same langauge.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Paramount/Marvel Studios

Rated PG-13

Running time: 124 minutes

Set during World War II, Marvel's Captain America: The First Avenger has 98 lb. weakling Chris Evans becoming the subject for an experimental super-soldier serum - and then becomes Captain America.

After being discovered in a block of ice in the present day arctic ruins of a huge flying wing plane, the film then tells the World War II story of Evans. Although it is a simpler time, the country is at war. Despite his physical unfitness as a recruit, Evans is determined to be accepted into the Army. When discovered by scientist Stanley Tucci, Evans is given the chance to develop his natural human potential in a top-secret defense project. After Evans is processed with the super-soldier treatment, Tucci is then killed by an agent of The Red Skull Hugo Weaving - the head of Nazi Germany's research department and their own version of a super-solider accidentally created by Tucci. Weaving uses the Cosmic Cube from the movie Thor to create a series of high tech energy weapons to arm his army of HYDRA in his pursuit for world domination. Without Tucci's support, the now muscular Evans becomes an American USO poster boy punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the jaw. Despite the support of British agent Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper the inventor - and father of Iron Man - who supplied Evans his iconic bullet-proof American shield, Colonel Tommy Lee Jones consigns Evans to the USO. Disgruntled at this branding role Jones has put him in, Evans soon goes off to rescue his captured best friend Sebastian Stan - as Captain America.

The cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in present-day New York City sets up for the superhero team movie The Avengers. At the end of the movie is the trailer for The Avengers. Too bad the movie leads up to The Avengers as Captain America sets up The Howling Commandos during World War II, a series I would have liked to have seen.

Although initially I was not that interested in watching a World War II comic book movie, despite my being a fan of Captain America, this is the best of the comic book super-hero movies of the 2011 summer. Evans character as Steve Rogers/Captain America may seem a little two-dimensional, but his sincerity and drive eventually makes you care about him and towards the end he starts to have a little dimension to him - especially when you discover he has become a fish-out-of-water.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 124 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Horrible Bosses

New Line Cinema

Rated R

Running time: 98 minutes



In New Line Cinema's Horrible Bosses, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis are employees with horrible bosses - psycho Kevin Spacey, nympho Jennifer Aniston, and druggie slacker Colin Farrell. So the guys decide to kill their bosses.

This is one of the funniest movies I had ever seen. I was surprised at how funny it was to me. A very politically incorrect movie as the guys are so fed up with their bosses, enough to kill them, and enlist the help of ex-con Jamie Foxx to be their murder consultant. Kevin Spacey was great as usual as a psycho and the movie focuses more on how bad he is, as compared to hot Jennifer Aniston's and druggie Colin Farrell's small roles. A combination of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train and Throw Momma from the Train, this film concentrates more on the guys doing things, such as breaking into homes as they search for a way to kill their bosses as well as their comedic consequences. Although this movie is similar to Throw Momma from the Train, this movie is much funnier. One of the funniest scenes is when Charlie Day does an internet search for an assasin.

Cameos by Donald Sutherland and Bob Newhart were cute. The outtakes at the end of the movie were cute, but not as funny as the movie.

Rated R for violence, langauge and sexual situations. Running time: 98 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same langauge.

Pancho's Movie Reviews