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Director: Robert Lorenz
Year: 2012
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour, 51 minutes
Gus (Clint Eastwood), an aging baseball scout for the Atlanta Braves, who is losing his eyesight, is in danger of being forced into retirement because of shifts in management. Gus chooses the old tried-and-true method of scouting players by going town to town to visit and watch the talent, trusting his instincts and what he knows about baseball. The new, younger management team relies heavily on computer statistics to make their draft picks.
After a call from Gus' friend and head of scouting Pete Klein (John Goodman), Mickey (Amy Adams), Gus' lawyer daughter who doesn't necessarily see eye-to-eye with her father, begins accompanying him on scouting trips to North Carolina to help with his lack of vision. Along the way, a former baseball prospect of Gus' and now scout for the Boston Red Sox named Johnny (Justin Timberlake) befriends Gus and hits on Mickey and keeps them company on the road while watching the same prospects. Gus desperately wants to show he is still valuable and that computers can't always compare to a good old-fashioned hunch.
This movie should be called "Clint Eastwood hates his daughter because she got herself into a bad situation after his wife/her mother died, and instead of being a father, was just a dick and resented her. #grumblegrumblegrumble"
This film is the anti-"Moneyball." "Moneyball" showed a younger man who relied 100% on statistics to decided what players to trade and to keep; this movie shows a much older man scoffing in the face of statistics in lieu of the human factor and being able to tell more than what statistics show. The movie overall is pretty predictable, you can pinpoint the scenes before they ever happen. Clint Eastwood plays his normal, grumpy self a la every Clint Eastwood movie in the last 20 years. Amy Adams is a queen and wonderful as always. Justin Timberlake is developing into a decent enough actor, and one we don't mind seeing on screen.
We say this a lot, but this movie is poorly paced. Again, we like "Gone with the Wind," so no passing judgement on our abilities to keep still for 111 minutes. Length doesn't matter, it's pacing paired with a so-so script and passable tugs at your heart strings. There's not a whole lot there, especially considering "Moneyball" was so much more successful and compelling in 2012. How many damn baseball statistic movies do you need per year??? There are a lot better baseball movies out there to watch (See: "THE SANDLOT." Don't expect too much or anything new from this film.
My Rating: 6/10
BigJ's Rating: 5/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 52%
Do we recommend this movie: BigJ says meh, I say sure, why not?
I'm so glad I didn't see this in the theater. There was a time when this was out and I didn't see any other movie that interested me so I was going to "settle" on this movie. But something told me I would be disappointed. After reading your review, I'm even more glad I saved the $ and time.
ReplyDeleteI just added this on DVR though. I figure I'll have a go at it on cable. :)
Yeah, it's definitely a "watch at home while cutting some loaves/painting your nails/doing anything else" sort of movie. Nothing too pressing that requires attention, either! :) Let me know what you think!
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