Trouble with the Curve (2012)

[Edgy MD]

Clint Eastwood, appearing in a movie he didn't direct for the first time in two decades, plays an aging baseball scout in sort of an anti-Moneyball movie.

I'm sure as a baseball movie, it'll be crazy stupid. And my wife finds Amy Adams to be way too squeaky, but I'm putting all that aside and lining up for this to-NITE.

Actually, I'd have loved to have gotten a chance to write this movie:

"You can't scout a ballplayer with a computer. What you've got to do is go up to the kid and punch him in his fucking face. Kick him a few times and call him a pussy, and then you... What's everybody looking at?! You want a ballplayer, don'tcha? How do you think I knew how Eddie Murray would turn out? I punched him in his fucking face! Jack Clark, Tom Niedenfuer... all the greats. I punched Brien Taylor in the face and he laid on the ground crying. I knew that kid was for shit, I told the Yankees so, and they went and drafted him anyway. WHAT THE FUCK IS EVERYBODY LOOKIN' AT?!! Jesus!!"

Writes itself.

[Vic Sage]

It might be shit but, heck, I'd watch Clint talk to an empty chair.

[Frayed Knot]

Vic Sage wrote: It might be shit but, heck, I'd watch Clint talk to an empty chair.

Yeah, like anyone would write a script like that.

And my wife finds Amy Adams to be way too squeaky

The brief reviews I've heard so far involve Amy Adams - who's arguably been at least decent in several other roles - maybe not having enough 'grit' for this part.

[Guest themetfairy]

It's On Golden Pond plus baseball, right?

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Vic Sage wrote: It might be shit but, heck, I'd watch Clint talk to an empty chair.

In this movie, you get to see Clint sign a bench player and a table setter.

[Edgy MD]

God, I hope I'm not too late. Listen, this is an embarrassingly bad movie and a worse baseball movie. I'm sorry to all of you that I even brought it up. Stay away. Watch Clint talk to the chair. Watch the Mets. Just don't watch this.

I'll give it two stars, maybe one and half, because I generally reserve lower ratings for things that are Satanic, and this isn't malicious, so much as horribly and hamfistedly rendered. But, well, you might get angry. I did.

That scene I wrote up top. That would have improved this film. And i say that as no compliment to myself.

On second thought, I'm giving them too much credit. Being that the working title of the movie was probably Fuck You, Moneyball, it kinda was conceived in malice, at least to some degree. One and half stars for you, Trouble with the Curve, and it gives me no pleasure to say so. My scouting judgment is that you look like an A-ball flameout.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I've heard that he actually does converse with furniture, too. Izzat so?

[Edgy MD]

I guess you can look at it that way. His eyesight is going, and he occasionally trips over furniture and curses it. But I don't want to give too much away, do I?

It's sort of overbaked and underwritten in a Disney way, in that you know after Act One about 97% of what's going to happen in Act 5. You know how I wrote in the Gran Torino thread how Clint finds a way to take bits of his other movies, rearrange them, and make them new? This takes bits of his other movies and slap them back in more crassly and cheaply and makes them seem all tired.

And shouldn't Amy Adams be playing his grand-daughter?

[Edgy MD]

This is directed by Robert Lorenz, Eastwood's long-time production partner, so maybe he's our new Sandra Locke and Eastwood just has a blind spot with the guy.

If you told me that this was a Disney production, it would explain a lot --- the parallel rom-com plot featuring Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake (both Disney properties at least in part), profanity lite, larger-than life John Goodman, coupling without copulating, and absurdly over-drawn villains with a condescending attitude toward minorities (who get the arrogant whities' goats just by being the innocent angels they are). It's also easy enough to spot hastily re-assembled bits and themes from other movies --- Gran Camino, Moneyball, Crazy Heart, and others I guess.

[seawolf17]

A baseball movie with Amy Adams? They combined two of my favorite things. I'm stunned that this turned out so terribly.