Movies

407 posts

Moneyballin’

In baseball, there are the teams that can afford to pay any price for talent and then there are the teams not called “Yankees.” Michael Lewis spent part of the 2002 MLB season with the Oakland Athletics to see this practice in action. Lewis used the material from the time he spent with the team to write Moneyball. In 2011, a film based on the book was released.

Instead of looking for one player with a dream stat lines, Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane looks for players that in the aggregate would have the same stat line as a team that a superior team would. It’s a great way to save money, or just stay within budget. Despite having a payroll of $41 million, which was about one-third of the Yankees payroll, the A’s were playoff contenders Continue reading

The Hollywood Caller: M. Night Shyamalan To Destroy Movies Once Again

We thought this would never happen again, but we were wrong. Somehow Shyamalan was able to free himself from his underwater jail, and he will again make a movie. Drat! We really thought we’d stopped him this time. We lined his cell with critically acclaimed movie reels and hoped it would work like Kryptonite. No such luck. Oh, well, it will be awful!

Take a look at what’s coming soon. Continue reading

Hey, Hollywood Actresses, Your ‘Likableness’ is a Factor Too

You’re watching a movie, or a trailer, or a movie promo (New Year’s Eve, sheesh.) and someone appears on screen and you do it. It’s not loud or anything, but still you do it – you groan. It isn’t always because the actor is so pathetically horrible, and maybe once upon a time they had a real “it” factor, but now, yes now, they have an uncanny way of being the most annoying thing dancing across your screen at this particular moment. Is it the character? Perhaps. Or maybe it’s who they are. Oh, don’t say that. You don’t know these people. They’re actors. Just who do you think you are, some sort of judge? You’re not. But, well, you kind of are.

Let’s take a look at a few stars who’d we’d like to like.

Continue reading

Review: Albert Nobbs

This story is about a woman that dresses as and passes for a male most of her life. Albert, played by Glenn Close, lives in 19th century Ireland and works as a waiter/butler that caters to the wealthy in all of their opulence and stiffness but still has wants and needs of his own. It is the sudden appearance of Hubert (Janet McTeer) that opens Albert’s world up to a new realm of possibilities while simultaneously showcasing his own naiveté.

Continue reading

Maybe Meryl Streep Has A Chance

We FINALLY have something more to go on than a teaser trailer and it actually looks pretty good! Also, British critics that have seen the film were wowed by Streep’s performance. However, close friends of the former prime minister think it is an insult to her legacy. Even some critics were quick to write it off as a, “silly and suspect picture.” However one critic went on to say that it is a “performance of towering proportions that sets a new benchmark for acting.” That kind of praise is exactly what Meryl needs to win another Oscar and maybe even a little controversy wouldn’t hurt. Continue reading

The New Hunger Games Trailer Debuts

Premiering this morning on Good Morning America, the newest Hunger Games trailer gives us a peek at some of the most exciting and critical points of the film based on Suzanne Collins’ young adult novel The Hunger Games. Fans of the series will recognize some familiar faces – Katniss’s co-tribute Peeta Mallark [Josh Hutcherson], Katniss’s BFF4L Gale [Liam Hemsworth], younger sister Primrose Everdeen [Willow Shields], former District 12 champion Haymitch [Woody Harrelson], Katniss’s hairdresser Cinna [Lenny Kravitz!] and the colorful Effie Trinket [Elizabeth Banks]. We get a solid preview of The Reaping ceremony, and the heart wrenching moment when Katniss volunteers for Prim as tribute for District 12. Continue reading