Moneyball is the true story of Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane. In 2001, the Athletics advanced to the Major League Baseball American League Division Championship Game, where their opening day payroll of $33,000,000 was facing the New York Yankees and their opening day payroll of $109,000,000 in an elimination game for the right to advance to the conference championship. Instead, the Athletics lose the game and the series. It is a foregone conclusion that the team will lose its three marquee players, who are free to sign wherever they want, to bigger market cities because the team doesn’t have the money to sign the players to the massive contracts they have demanded with great statistical seasons.
Continue reading Moneyball (2011)
Category Archives: 2011
The Descendants (2011)
With some of his performances, George Clooney has been known for hitting the ball out of the ballpark. A two-time Academy Award Nominee for Best Actor in a Leading Performance (2007’s Michael Clayton, 2009’s Up In The Air), Clooney is poised for his third nomination with 2011’s The Descendants. Successful as both a supporting actor (Academy Award Winner – 2005’s Syriana) as for as work behind the camera (Academy Award Nominee for Best Director – 2005’s Good Night and Good Luck), Clooney is at his best when the movie revolves around his performance as a leading man. This is precisely what happens in this movie. Continue reading The Descendants (2011)
Melancholia (2011)
After being thoroughly disappointed by Terrence Malick’s tone poem The Tree of Life, I was hesitant to watch Melancholia after watching its similar artistic trailer and hearing comparisons between the two movies. However, unlike The Tree of Life, which I went to see thinking would be a good movie, I decided to view Melancholia because some were calling it the best performance of Kirsten Dunst’s (Spiderman, The Virgin Suicides) career. While Dunst was deserving of the praise, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the experience of Melancholia.
The Ledge (2011)
The Ledge is one of many movies with a trailer that hooked me and made me think the film would be terrific. I reevaluated my decision when I saw that it made just $ 5,000 at the box office and earned a whopping 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, as I was updating my Netflix queue, I saw it was already coming to my house. So I gave the movie a chance that very night it arrived, thinking I’d have it on, but I would probably be glancing at it while doing some work online. However, I gave it a chance, and it hooked me. Usually, this type of movie would be one I would mock (see below). But for reasons unknown, the story caught me, and while the situation did get a little absurd, I didn’t see it as being unreasonable because of the characters and what drove these characters.
Everything Must Go (2011)
Everything Must Go was not Will Ferrell’s (Old School, Blades of Glory) first attempt at anything more than silly humor. He did a great job as a socially awkward and isolated IRS agent in Stranger Than Fiction. In more of a subdued role (Winter Passing), Ferrell plays a would-be musician. This movie could have been better, and Ferrell looked out of place. While he can still crank out $100 million laugh-out-loud comedies (2010’s The Other Guys, 2008’s Step Brothers), he is still trying to show the world that he can do more than make people laugh. He does just that in Everything Must Go, a movie with a few subtle laughs but one with its lead character not delivering the joke. In this regard, the film did an excellent job.