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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Coming Soon: Trouble with the Curve

What Didn’t Work:
Despite the likable cast, “Trouble with the Curve” has a lot of problems, and most of them can be traced back to the script. This is simply a very predictable, ‘by the numbers’ story. You can tell exactly how it will end by watching the trailers alone. There are no surprises, no clever characters, or anything else to give it any real life. The couple of times the story does try something different involving Gus and Mickey’s back story or a surprise baseball talent, it feels very forced. The story is also quite repetitive. Gus has some problem with old age, Mickey attempts to help him, he grouches at her, then she gets frustrated and storms out on him. They’re then back together in the very next scene. It happens numerous times and gets old (no pun intended) fast.

Along with that, the dialogue is very awkward. Gus talks to himself (and his penis) and it doesn’t flow well…..the dialogue or the penis.

Tripon Posted: September 18, 2012 at 12:49 AM | 36 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: movies

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1. UCCF Posted: September 18, 2012 at 09:40 AM (#4238889)

Based on the trailers and nothing else, I assume that Amy Adams is a figment of his imagination (a la A Beautiful Mind), and the whole movie is basically other people looking on quizzically while Eastwood yells at what appears to be a series of empty chairs.

2. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: September 18, 2012 at 09:43 AM (#4238893)

It looks like a few older entitled men got together to write a script about sports and aging and decided they had to use every cliche in the book to make it work.

3. Shooty is in the Trust Tree

Posted: September 18, 2012 at 09:46 AM (#4238896)

It looks like a few older entitled men got together to write a script about sports and aging and decided they had to use every cliche in the book to make it work.

It looks like one of those movies where you wonder why they bothered. At least the crew got paychecks.

4. Yeaarrgghhhh Posted: September 18, 2012 at 09:48 AM (#4238901)

It looks like a few older entitled men got together to write a script about sports and aging and decided they had to use every cliche in the book to make it work.

That sounds like a plan that's so crazy that it just might work.

5. squatto Posted: September 18, 2012 at 10:12 AM (#4238931)

It looks like a few older entitled

Why do you call them entitled? It's not how I usually see it used, so I'm curious.

6. JJ1986 Posted: September 18, 2012 at 10:19 AM (#4238937)

I thought this was another Eastwood-made movie, but it's actually from a first time writer, and a director whose credits are all as Clint's assistant director.

7. phredbird

Posted: September 18, 2012 at 10:30 AM (#4238946)

#1 ftw.

i have a friend who is a republican -- i'm not picky -- and the night of eastwood's rant, she was glowing about it, calling it 'satire at its finest' ... i missed it cuz i was at work, but when i saw a clip, all i needed was about 10 seconds to see what a mistake it was. eastwood himself was in the LA times this weekend admitting that he should have thought about it a little before doing it, or something like that. does anybody still think it was a good idea?

8. zonk Posted: September 18, 2012 at 10:55 AM (#4238970)

I thought this was another Eastwood-made movie, but it's actually from a first time writer, and a director whose credits are all as Clint's assistant director.

So saccharine has attained self-awareness?

This seems to have all sorts of implications for humanity.

9. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: September 18, 2012 at 10:56 AM (#4238973)

Why do you call them entitled? It's not how I usually see it used, so I'm curious.

They're baby boomers.

10. squatto Posted: September 18, 2012 at 12:07 PM (#4239053)

They're baby boomers.

Oh.

11. jingoist Posted: September 18, 2012 at 12:12 PM (#4239060)

Clint is hardly a baby boomer.

I think I will attend this movie disguised as an empty theatre seat.

I cant decide which I enjoyed more: Clint rambling on like an old codger in Tampa or the recently released Romney video about the unattainable 47%.

I will take further comments to a political topic should one be posted.

12. Bitter Calculus Instructor Posted: September 18, 2012 at 12:23 PM (#4239067)

Lots of negative comments in this thread. But I do want to see this movie.

13. PreservedFish Posted: September 18, 2012 at 01:36 PM (#4239163)

Gus talks to himself (and his penis)

Is this Eastwood's new thing now?

14. ellsbury my heart at wounded knee Posted: September 18, 2012 at 02:47 PM (#4239252)

Lots of negative comments in this thread. But I do want to see this movie.

I kind of do too. I like baseball movies, even though the majority of them aren't that great.

People thought Moneyball would be terrible too, but it wound up being pretty decent.

15. Dock Ellis on Acid

Posted: September 18, 2012 at 03:49 PM (#4239349)

If it's about baseball I will watch it. Shoot, I've seen that Keanu Reeves inner-city little league movie half a dozen times just because it happened to be on when I was channel-surfing.

16. Nasty Nate Posted: September 18, 2012 at 03:56 PM (#4239361)

Here's a gripe about baseball scenes on TV or in movies: When there is a swinging strike three, they always show the umpire making some dramatic showy strikeout motion and yell, whereas for almost all actual swinging strikeouts, the umpire barely moves because it would be unnecessary.

17. PreservedFish Posted: September 18, 2012 at 04:48 PM (#4239414)

If I was a director, making a great baseball movie would be one of my ambitions. I don't know how you do it, but I'm sure it's possible.

18. Walt Davis Posted: September 18, 2012 at 05:04 PM (#4239433)

Gus has some problem with old age, Mickey attempts to help him, he grouches at her, then she gets frustrated and storms out on him. They’re then back together in the very next scene. It happens numerous times and gets old (no pun intended) fast.

Along with that, the dialogue is very awkward. Gus talks to himself (and his penis) and it doesn’t flow well…..the dialogue or the penis.

Cinema verite then

19. Walt Davis Posted: September 18, 2012 at 05:05 PM (#4239434)

If I was a director, making a great baseball movie would be one of my ambitions. I don't know how you do it, but I'm sure it's possible.

Kubrick never got around to the sports movie did he?

20. zonk Posted: September 18, 2012 at 05:08 PM (#4239441)

If I was a director, making a great baseball movie would be one of my ambitions. I don't know how you do it, but I'm sure it's possible.

It's been done, though... Bull Durham is a great baseball movie (despite protestations that it's really a romance with a baseball backdrop). Any movie that makes Robert Wuhl watchable is by its very definition great.

21. Pasta-diving Jeter (jmac66) Posted: September 18, 2012 at 05:09 PM (#4239443)

Kubrick never got around to the sports movie did he?

The Killing--horse racing (well, sorta...)

22. Fred Lynn Nolan Ryan Sweeney Agonistes Posted: September 18, 2012 at 05:18 PM (#4239453)

It's been done, though... Bull Durham is a great baseball movie (despite protestations that it's really a romance with a baseball backdrop). Any movie that makes Robert Wuhl watchable is by its very definition great.

Wuhl is great in Bull Durham. Even the way he trots out to the mound for the "wedding present conference" is funny.

If I had a studio, I'd turn Spike Lee loose on Peter Schilling's The End of Baseball.

23. dr. scott Posted: September 18, 2012 at 05:26 PM (#4239457)

Guy Maddin (fascinating Canadian filmaker) turns out to be a huge baseball fan. I met him many years ago and asked him when he was going to make a baseball movie. He claims he went into film in order to make a baseball movie because he was so obsessed with baseball as a kid, but by the time he started making movies there had been three pretty good baseball movies (Natural, Field of Dreams, Durham), so he said he would wait. I then told him he needed to make the film of Charles Victory Faust, and that Pete Browning was the uncle of his favorite director Todd Browning. I was suprised to find that he knew about neither.

The Maddin Faust film would be awesome!

24. Moeball Posted: September 18, 2012 at 06:02 PM (#4239489)

If I was a director, making a great baseball movie would be one of my ambitions. I don't know how you do it, but I'm sure it's possible.

So what happened in the eighties that hasn't seemed to happen since? That one decade brought us movies such as The Natural, Bull Durham, Eight Men Out and Field of Dreams. After that - a long dry spell for decent baseball movies. Most of them are just awful.

(BTW, my favorite part from The Natural was probably Joe Don Baker as "The Whammer" - loosely based on Babe Ruth, of course - I think Baker did a better job of capturing the Babe's personality and swagger than anyone else I've seen.)

25. JJ1986 Posted: September 18, 2012 at 06:05 PM (#4239492)

That one decade brought us movies such as The Natural, Bull Durham, Eight Men Out and Field of Dreams.

and Major League.

26. Shooty is in the Trust Tree

Posted: September 18, 2012 at 06:23 PM (#4239514)

And Long Gone.

27. OsunaSakata Posted: September 18, 2012 at 06:36 PM (#4239533)

And A League of Their Own. My daughter watched that for one of her high school classes.

I don't think as much of Field of Dreams as other people. Having players of different eras play live on the same field is cool, but the rest of the movie was wish fulfillment for a person that wasn't and isn't me.

28. PreservedFish Posted: September 18, 2012 at 06:48 PM (#4239550)

I should have been more specific, but what I meant was, I would try to make a great baseball film where the action on the field is the focus. There are definitely baseball movies that I like. I want to see a baseball film that does something like Raging Bull did, where the actual sport is filmed in a beautiful and exciting manner.

The climax of Major League is actually kind of awesome, but I would remove all of the silly tropes for my serious baseball movie - the "representative" fans, the guys watching on tv in the bar, the play-by-play guy acting as narrator, the evil opponent, the slow motion everything gets quiet part, etc.

29. Dock Ellis on Acid

Posted: September 18, 2012 at 07:09 PM (#4239566)

Long Gone so needs to be issued on DVD. Imagine paying $15 for a VHS tape in this day and age, because that's the lowest price (including shipping) on half.com for a used copy that likely has old video store rental stickers all over it.

30. Fred Lynn Nolan Ryan Sweeney Agonistes Posted: September 18, 2012 at 08:05 PM (#4239613)

I should have been more specific, but what I meant was, I would try to make a great baseball film where the action on the field is the focus. There are definitely baseball movies that I like. I want to see a baseball film that does something like Raging Bull did, where the actual sport is filmed in a beautiful and exciting manner.

The game footage in Eight Men Out is about as good as I've seen in a baseball movie. Most of those guys look like they could actually play a little.

31. The District Attorney Posted: September 18, 2012 at 08:57 PM (#4239662)

Pete Browning was the uncle of his favorite director Todd Browning.

I didn't know this either.

32. Dock Ellis on Acid

Posted: September 18, 2012 at 09:08 PM (#4239666)

The game footage in Eight Men Out is about as good as I've seen in a baseball movie. Most of those guys look like they could actually play a little.

For the Love of the Game gets my vote. The actors they hired to fill out the fictional team were actually minor leaguers, which was a brilliant casting decision.

33. Crispix Attacks 2: Swag Airlines Posted: September 19, 2012 at 11:32 AM (#4240029)

Relieved to see this is not a thread about Republican politics.

A lot of classic movies of the 30s and 40s had better baseball action than one would imagine, because they got players from the Hollywood Stars and/or the PCL Angels to participate. Ernie Orsatti in Death On The Diamond, for example.

As for Trouble With The Curve, I'm more looking forward to The LOOGYloves and the Big Byrdak Adventure.

34. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: September 19, 2012 at 11:36 AM (#4240034)

The few baseball scenes I've seen of Trouble with the Curve actually looked pretty decent.

In fact, all recent baseball movies seem to have much better baseball scenes. Sugar I remember looking very authentic. For Love of the Game had great baseball scenes. How was Moneyball?

35. The District Attorney Posted: September 19, 2012 at 05:27 PM (#4240414)

Neyer linked an article about how a 15-year-old girl was Amy Adams' stand-in because Adams was afraid of the ball.

That is one of the few plausible situations in which a 15-year-old could body double for Amy Adams. (I am not trying to insult Amy Adams here. At all.)

36. Steve Treder Posted: September 19, 2012 at 06:08 PM (#4240452)

In fact, all recent baseball movies seem to have much better baseball scenes.

Indeed, but there was a certain bizarre beauty to the spectacle of LeVar Burton, Anthony Perkins, or Gary Cooper making fools of themselves.

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Coming Soon: Trouble with the Curve

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