Trouble with the Movie

Rating: 4/10 (26 December 2012)

First, let it be known, I am a huge Clint Eastwood fan. From his Westerns including the amazing "Unforgiven" to his startling and touching directorial triumphs including Mystic River, Letters from Iwo Jima, Flags of our Fathers, etc etc. Given his well-earned iconic status, I find it sad that he chooses the brain-dead "Trouble with the Curve" as one of his later appearances. The dialog I would put on a par with "Expendables 2" which is to say horrendous. Poor Eastwood, Adams, Timberlake, Goodman, and other fine actors are forced to spout ridiculous dialog that seems to have been written by a 10 year old. Watching the film, we found ourselves laughing at the dialog in in appropriate places, paying attention to how poorly made the film was, rather than even following the story. The story seemed to meander around, first being about Eastwood needing some player to start hitting to keep his job... but then they just drop that plot to make it be about something different... then at the end, they bring everything back together again, tying it into a ribbon without any further explanation or emotional investment earned. The baseball is terrible also. The home run hitter guy is obviously not an athlete, much less a "five tool" superstar. Other players, who are supposedly at the triple-A level, especially the narrow shouldered, bespectacled player who precedes the slugger in the batting order, are characters more out of "Bad News Bears" than a real baseball movie. The peanut vendor turned star situation is too ridiculous to even comment further on. The ending, as contrived as it is, provides a small amount of satisfaction, but even that is spoiled by Lillard's ridiculous overplaying of the villain, and more even more inane and pointless dialog. I hope very much that we see Eastwood in movies more deserving of the status he has earned. "Trouble with the Curve" hits a single simply through its stellar cast, but is thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, aiming for far more than the skill of the writers, editors and producer are able to deliver.
Everyone involved in this hollow and artificial shell of a movie should be more than a little bit embarrassed.