Back of the Trailer

Trailer Review: Moneyball - Quantifying Success

I've heard about "Moneyball" being in development for a long time because it was too smart. Based on a book by Michael Lewis, about the turnaround of the Oakland Athletics using overlooked statistics to make decisions about recruiting better players to win games, it was the type of text in vogue the last decade - how mathematics can solve problems. "Moneyball" was a bestseller because Lewis was able to geek-out sports. It's a combination that usually doesn't mix.

So when I heard about the struggles to get it onto the screen I assumed it was because the appreciation of data-mining and statistical analysis from the book wasn't fitting into the tired Hollywood sports mold of underdogs coming from behind. Judging from the trailer, it fit just fine. The movie shows Brad Pitt as the burnt-out coach (he overturns his desk) who hires a young kid, Jonah Hill, who convinces him to not buy players but buy runs. This scene of dialogue is the most exciting and I'm sure the book rested and expanded on this theory, but the trailer uses that sequence to basically be another excuse to assemble a bunch of misfits and show their struggles to become a real baseball team, on and off the field.

We've seen this "Bad News Bears" formula play forever, and for good reason, but I was hoping the subject of "Moneyball" would change the usual game this time. By the end, everyone's telling Pitt his strategy isn't working, he's thrown a chair, but then players start believing in themselves and rounding bases to home. Instead of a new type of sports movie about the digital age, we get the same old movie about playing by the same old rules.

Opening September 23, 2011, Verdict: Wait for the Critics

Review: Invictus - Victory and Reconciliation

I remember watching Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" at home while casually reading a magazine at the same time. As the movie progressed, the magazine was put to one side and all my attention was centered on the screen. By the end, I was surprised again that Eastwood managed to make a moving story about an old man and his neighbors in a changing suburb of Detroit. "Invictus" is another surprise. A movie set in South Africa about Nelson Mandela after apartheid and his aspirational goals for his country's rugby team to win the world cup. Despite another sports movie with an international setting, after watching the trailer I was impressed with two things: Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.

Morgan Freeman comes off as an embodiment of the historic figure. He has captured the quiet power of Mandela, his balance between serenity and fierce determinism. The trailer starts with him being released from his prison and reciting a poem that is the title of the movie. When his car drives by black children cheering for him on one side of the road and a school team of whites on the other side, the stark reality of division is made. "This is a day our country went to the dogs," A white coach exclaims. Both sides are behind fences.

Then there's Matt Damon. Not playing an historic figure, but the captain of a rugby team, his scenes are a shock for his convincing transformation. We see him first on a rugby field, and the way he walks across the pitch, you don't doubt for a minute he's been playing his whole life. When he receives a call from Mandela to meet, the apprehension on his face and conversation with his family doesn't make me doubt he's an Afrikaner. It's a subtle, but completely believable performance and just as or more extraordinary than Freeman's.

Eastwood's recent films have shown an emotional honesty that avoids sentimentality and honors simple truths of how we live. "Invictus" looks like another success as "Million Dollar Baby" and reach across a larger audience. It's worth note that South Africa has been in the movies lately (District 9), acknowledging its apartheid past and its effect on the present. Eastwood should be thinking about what tux to wear to the Oscars.

Opening December 11, 2009, Verdict: Must See

Review: Stick It - It's Not Called Gymnicetics

I often think sports movies are better when they're about women than men because they not only tell a story of overcoming the competitive odds in the sport, but also the larger competitive odds of being a woman in society. Or is it because I'm male, and prefer the baser titillation of seeing their curving female athletic bodies?

The trailer for "Stick It" seems to do both. Haley Graham is a girl who introduces herself in the trailer as someone who has a rebel streak. She's on a dirt bike making jumps in front of a house under construction when one of those jumps goes a little too far and she crashes through a window. Getting caught, she narrates, that she wished she got sentenced to "Juvie" but instead, was thrown back to the place she was escaping - gymnastics school. What's different about the plot, is that she's already an accomplished gymnast and walked out on her team during the championship. Left them hanging. She didn't leave due to nerves. She left because she didn't like the girls. Haley is a tomboy among Barbies. They're not happy to see her. There's a mean girl who is out to finish Haley on the mat. Who's the coach? The dude himself, Jeff Bridges. His appearence in the film is as much of a shock as his laid back swagger as a coach. He encourages her to rise to the challenge and train for another final. Fast clips of jumps, somersaults, and dismounts are seen with exchanges of verbal one-upmanship. The outcome should not be a surprise.

The movie is a teen comedy and the funny moments put a smile on your face instead of slapping you with a punch line. This story isn't "Million Dollar Baby." It looks more like the knowing comedy of "Mean Girls" mixed with "Bend it like Beckham." I think it may have some nice legs at the box office.

Opening April 28, 2006, Verdict: Matinee Fun

Review: Guys and Balls - Homos Can't Play Soccer

Anyone who lives outside the US knows that this is the year for the biggest world event in sports. No, not the Olympics, but the World Cup. Football is going to take hold of the world stage this summer as legions of fans converge in Germany.

"Guys and Balls," a German comedy about a football player dejected from his team for being gay, puts together an all-gay football team to strike back in a match against his former club. The trailer looks very similar in plot and tone to "Bend it Like Beckham," the hit 2002 British comedy that was also about discrimination and facing adversity by a team of girls playing football that consisted of recent Indian immigrants to Great Britian.

The voice-over in the trailer explains the plot as the main character, Ecki, gets kicked off the team for being caught trying to make a pass on another team member. "Homos can't play soccer," an older man in a pub tells Ecki and his reply, "You're just scared," is the starting point for many scenes of him, with the help of his sister, recruiting a new team of colorful gay players from burly bikers to a French cross-dressed transvestite. It's no surprise who's going to win the big game.

From the trailer, the scenes of comedy look lighthearted and fun. This film will have a wider audience in Europe than in the US, because of the popularity of the sport. It will need good word of mouth, much like "Bend it Like Beckham," to get momentum domestically. Until then, try and get a ticket to Germany.

Opening April 28, 2006, Verdict: Wait for the Critics