Film Review: TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE (2012)

Director: Robert Lorenz
Writer: Randy Brown
Running time: 111 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12

Genre: Drama/Sport
UK Release date: 30^th November 2012

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 15^th September 2013.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE UNINTENTIONAL SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Now baseball is not big here in the UK, in fact, other than it’s a bit like rounders and it’s really big in North America and the Far East, I know little about it. So why watch a film about it; well, I have seen a few films centred around the sport before and I’ve always found them quite interesting, so I thought I’d give this one a go. The fact it’s also got Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams in it, two of my favourite actors, is just incidental (honestly). I will give you my thoughts after this very brief summary.

When ageing scout Gus (Clint Eastwood) discovers his sight is failing him his estranged daughter, Mickey (Amy Adams) decides to go with him on a scouting trip to help him out. Mickey has a high powered job and is up for a promotion and so this trip could not have came at a worst time for her. Gus has issues with her coming along, apart from him being fiercely independent, he still sees her as a little girl sometimes. Whilst on the trip they meet Johnny (Justin Timberlake) who is a washed-up player who it trying out as a scout for another team. Johnny and Mickey eventually hit it off but it’s her relationship with her father that is important. Will it survive this trip or have those bridges already been burned?

Well made with many baseball references that went well over my head but that didn’t matter. The film isn’t about that, it’s about relationships and as such I found it an engaging watch. Both Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams were excellent in this; I admire them both as actors and they didn’t disappoint. Justin Timberlake gets better each time I see him, I just wish he’d stop making those awful records! (It’s a joke folks). Also worthy of note were Matthew Lillard as Phillip Sanderson, Robert Patrick as Vince and John Goodman as Pete Klein. It’s not a tear-jerker or a heart rending tale but I found it did strike an emotional chord with me. If, like me, you admire Eastwood and Adams then it’s well worth a look.

SteelMonster’s verdict: RECOMMENDED

My score: 8.1/10.

IMDb Score: 6.7/10 (based on 28,479 votes when this review was written).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087075/

MetaScore: 58/100: (Based on 40 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 52/100: (based on 182 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 66/100: (based on 41,982 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trouble_with_the_curve/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site (US): http://troublewiththecurve.warnerbros.com/dvd/
Trailer:

Film Review: IN TIME (2011)

Writer/Director: Andrew Niccol
Running time: 109 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12

Genre: Sci-Fi/Action/Adventure
UK Release date: 1^st November 2011

Watched on Sky+ Tuesday 20^th November 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is another film I have wanted to see for some time. I loved the ideas behind it and hoped it could deliver on the great promise it held. Sadly (for me at least) it only just made the mark but there were some great ideas and some interesting moments along the way (more of that later). The Writer/Director Andrew Niccol, who has worked on such films as; Gattaca, Lord of War and the rather excellent The Truman Show (amongst others), delivers here a ‘by the book’ action thriller with some elements of Robin Hood and Bonnie and Clyde thrown in. The interesting element is the fact that the currency everyone is trading in is the amount of time they have left to live. Here’s a very brief summary.

Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) lives in a poorer part of town with his mother, Rachel (Olivia Wilde). They find life hard, scraping enough time to last each day. A chance meeting with a rich man, Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer), who has a death wish leaves Will with over a hundred years to play with. His mother having ‘timed out’ he decides its time to get a little revenge on the rich who live in luxury in another zone of the city, New Greenwich. The police in the form of Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy) are interested in talking to Will about the death of Hamilton. He makes it to New Greenwich and there he makes a large amount of time playing poker with the exceedingly wealthy Philippe Weis (Vincent Kartheiser). With the police closing in Will kidnaps Weis’s daughter, Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried) and heads back home. And this is where I’ll leave it.

On the performance front, I thought Cillian Murphy and Amanda Seyfried stood out with Justin Timberlake lacking the required screen presence to carry it off (IMO). I thought Michael William Freeman who had a small role as bad guy Nardin did a good job of playing a very believable loathsome thug. With virtually everyone on screen being around the same age (25), barring the occasional kid, I found this one quite odd to look at (even a bit ageist! – just a joke, honest). It’s pretty well made with some great ideas behind the plot and even some great dialogue thrown in here and there but at the end of the day it just failed to get over that mark. It’s not that it’s a bad film, the problem is, it’s just not the great film it deserved to be.

SteelMonster’s verdict: RECOMMENDED… just.

My score: 6.4/10

IMDb Score: 6.6/10 (based on 127,563 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/

MetaScore: 53/100: (Based on 36 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 36/100 (based on 154 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 51/100 ‘Liked It’ (based on 59,584 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_time/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
[first lines]
Will Salas: I don't have time. I don't have time to worry about how it happened. It is what it is. We're genetically engineered to stop aging at 25. The trouble is, we live only one more year, unless we can get more time. Time is now the currency. We earn it and spend it. The rich can live forever. And the rest of us? I just want to wake up with more time on my hand than hours in the day.

Henry Hamilton: How old are you? In real time?
Will Salas: 28.
Henry Hamilton: I'm 105.
Will Salas: Good for you. You won't see 106, you have too many more nights like tonight.
Henry Hamilton: You are right. But the day comes when you've had enough. Your mind can be spent, even if your body's not. We want to die. We need to.
Will Salas: That's your problem? You've been alive too long? You ever known anyone who's died?
Henry Hamilton: For a few to be immortal, many must die.
Will Salas: What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Henry Hamilton: You really don't know, do you? Everyone can't live forever. Where would we put them? Why do you think there are time zones? Why do you think taxes and prices go up the same day in the ghetto? The cost of living keeps rising to make sure people keep dying. How else could there be men with a million years while most live day to day? But the truth is... there's more than enough. No one has to die before their time. If you had as much time as I have on that clock, what would you do with it?
Will Salas: I'd stop watching it. I can tell you one thing. If I had all that time, I sure as hell wouldn't waste it.

Sylvia Weis: How does anyone live like this?
Will Salas: You don't generally sleep in.

Ulysse: You'd steal from your own father?
Sylvia Weis: Is it stealing if it's already stolen?

Will Salas: No one should be immortal if even one person has to die.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Facebook: In Time Movie Facebook Page
Official Twitter: http://twitter.com/InTimeMovie
Official Site: http://www.intimecasino.com/
Trailer: