Baseball, America’s past time. That is not what the movie Moneyball (based on the best selling book of the same name by one of my favorite authors, Michael Lewis) is about. Nor is it about sabermetrics, the analysis of baseball metrics that overcomes the subjective with the objective. True, baseball and sabermetrics are key to …
Tag Archives: drama
Way late review: Certified Copy
I’m still processing what Certified Copy is about exactly. The film centers on a man and a woman who meet in Tuscany. From the start we’re unsure whether there is or was a romantic relationship between them or not. At times it feels as though they are antagonizing strangers. Other times they seem the closest …
Way late review: Rocky V
If Rocky IV needed to be made to save the world, as I so eloquently argued in my review, then Rocky V needs to be unmade, if not to save the world then to save some dignity for the Rocky franchise. There is so much wrong with Rocky V. I learned recently that Sylvester Stallone …
Way late review: Rocky IV
Some might say there was no need for Rocky IV to be made. Maybe. But remember, America needed Rocky IV to be made. The WORLD needed Rocky IV to be made. The US was in the midst of a cold war with the Soviet Union. Without Rocky there to remind us that good triumphs evil, …
Way late review: Rocky III
Rocky is the champ. He’s defending his belt since beating Apollo Creed. He lives in a giant house, owns numerous sports cars, looks better than ever. Top of the world for Balboa in Rocky III. Yet lingering in the background is an angry fellow with long feather earrings. Mr T? No (well, kind of). B. …
Way late review: Rocky II
After the surprising success of Rocky, there had to be a second – if only for business reasons. Beyond the financials, one could argue that there was a decent reason for Rocky II to be made. Rocky and Apollo Creed left their first match in much doubt. It would be easy to believe that Creed …
Way late review: Rocky
I’ve seen Rocky so many times now it’s hard to separate the memories of watching it from the film itself. It’s gotten so bad that I often think scenes from the next two movies were in the original. The best sports movies are often less about the sport and more about the men and women …
Way late review: Friday Night Lights
In Texas, there is only one sport that seems to matter, football. And if you’re an athletically gifted male in a Texas high school, I imagine you will play football, whether you enjoy the game or not. At least that is the impression Friday Night Lights leaves. Right from the start, the film makes it …
Way late review: Win Win
Netflix is normally fairly good at predicting which movies I’ll like and how much I’ll like them. Every once in a while it gets it wrong. Occasionally I find a movie I liked more than Netflix thought I would or vice versa. Netflix thought I would nearly love Win Win. Not so much. A struggling …
Way late review: Terri
Terri is an indie flick about an orphan (Jacob Wysocki) who lives with his uncle (Creed Bratton, yes, that Creed), struggles to fit in at school and finds an unlikely friend in his vice principal (John C. Reilly). With a synopsis like that, it may be hard to believe that Terri never falls into sappy …