Moneyball the Movie- Brad Pitt Rapes Baseball

That isn't fair, but I really didn't like this movie because I read the book and Pitt completely dominated the film, where in reality Billy Beane did nothing close to what he was projected as doing. It was a much larger effort than Beane and Paul Dipodestro, who refused to have his name associated with the movie and is Paul Brand. The story is the 2002 Oakland A's and how they overcame losing Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, and Jason Isringhausen off of a great, young 2001 club who lost in the ALDS Game 5 to the Yankees (standard). It never gets mentioned the incredible pitching staff of Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, Corey Lidle, Mark Mulder, and Aaron Harang, just the incredibly GRITTY veterans with high OBP's who helped them win. I get pissed off when you get fed bullshit in a movie even if it isn't a documentary. That team was pitching based, fuck everything else. They had a great bullpen anchored by a great finds in Corey Bradford (especially), but also Billy Koch, Jeff Tam, and Jim Mecir. No need to mention that at all, only Bradford got even a nod in the movie where he has an entire chapter devoted to him in the book. I hated the dramatization of Beane's role in giving pep talks and advice to players, along with Jonah Hill acting as Paul Dipodesto. Scott Hatteberg gets shit on for playing bad defense, yet yielded a .994 fielding percentage. Bottom line is the A's never made it past the first round of the playoffs, but they play the Moneyball concept to explain how the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series. Johnny Damon is a Moneyball money pit, but he was the starting centerfielder, as was former A Keith Foulke as the closer, that was what Moneyball gave them. That team won because nobody could beat Schilling, Pedro, and Lowe/Wakefield in a 7-game series and David Ortiz played out of his fucking mind in clutch moments. It wasn't they walked a shit-ton, or only had cheap, high OPS players. They paid a shit-load of money for great players + a few guys who had decent OBP's, but Kevin Millar, Gabe Kapler and Mark Bellhorn were certainly NOT the reason the Red Sox won the World Series.

Sorry, I couldn't judge this movie solely as a movie because I read the book. It totally got in the way, so I really can't give an accurate ranking, but here's what I thought.

6.2 out of 10. An attempt at a feel-good baseball movie that really just scratched the Moneyball surface. Really just a Brad Pitt vehicle with baseball and arrogance sprinkled in. See when it's free, so don't pay $10 FUCKING DOLLARS to be disappointed, per usual.

SNL- The Written History

I just completed a book on the entire history of Saturday Night Live up until around 2004 and it was phenomenal. It's really interesting because it's written from the perspective of all the former cast members, writers, and some producers/creators. A great mix of talent and interesting perspective on an incredible force of pop culture and American culture. Interesting facts and opinions are abound in this essentially autobiographical recollection of a great THING in America that's been around longer than most of us have been alive. 1975 ushered in the most talented cast in SNL and TV history and it's gone up and down since experiencing highs and lows, failure and success all intertwined throughout the last 36 years. Highly recommend it and I am super excited to read the book the authors did about ESPN. Lorne Michels is for the most part incredibly respected, but there were more than a few people who flat out did not like the man in any way. The amount of fun facts I can't even describe, but it is SUPER interesting. I went out and bought season 4 for $15 from Best Buy, the last season the entire original cast (except Chevy Chase) and I'm very excited to watch it and enjoy. So much talent walked through those doors it has almost defined comedy in America for the last 35 years through the actors and what they went on to do on and off the show. DAMON WAYANS was even on for 1/2 a season. Chevy Chase was only on for 2 years, another shocker.

The Wild Bunch

I took a flier on The Wild Bunch, a 1968 western that introduced violence and gore to the western genre, and really American cinema, the likes of which we've never seen. Ernest Borgnine and Sam Peckinpah are the stars of a mixed cast a badass men who rob and outlaw for a living. The movie starts with them attempting to rob a bank in a small town that gets shot to shit because the railroad hired bounty hunters to wait for them and execute/capture them in any manner possible. Only the four main characters escape to move on to the next big job. They are picked to run guns for a Mexican dictator/ general from the USA for big money. It falls apart in spectacular fashion and really is a fun, interesting, good movie from credits to FIN. I was amazed what was all in the film in terms of violence and content. It's not the reason you see the film, but it had to be groundbreaking for the time. Stronger acting that expected and a great story makes this a VERY good film.

Bottom Line: 8.1 out of 10. Highly recommend seeing this film. I'd be amazed if you'd be disappointed. There is a lull in the middle, but it's really well done with character development running rampant.

Warriors- Classic Badassery

The Warriors was a cult classic I never got to sit down and enjoy. The movie from 1979 is pretty much balls out from minute one. It's a supposedly futuristic story about New York city being divided into the different sections run by different street gangs of varying toughness. The Warriors are a badass group from Coney Island who rock sicks leather vests. There is a huge meeting of all the gangs headed by Cyrus, a man who can bring the gangs together and take over the city. He reminds them there are 60,000 gang members and 20,000 cops in the city, CAN YOU DIIIIIGGGGG IIIITTTTTT? He is promptly shot and the Warriors are wrongfully blamed and they are hunted all the way back to Coney Island. There is hardly any downtown from the crazy scraps along the way from the different gangs. It's just a great premise executed very well with a small budget. I was surprised more actors didn't come out of this film as regular actors getting work. There are some obvious moments where the small budget is an issue, but I think it's a very good film.

Bottom Line: 8.2 out of 10. It's simply very entertaining and unique. It's a film I'm going to watch again in the near future and just soak it in. Short on character development, but the story is important, not them.

Sharapova- Kid Gloves are Off

I saw Sharapova today and the same thought plunges into my head: "How is she still considered a Russian?" If you were born in a different school district, when you moved did you still play for that team? Did your achievements count for that school? Why does she get to experience life from age 4 up in America, yet play in the Olympics and Federation Cup (Where countries play other countries in women's tennis) FOR RUSSIA? If this were during the Cold War I'm fairly certain her extended family would be murdered. She has been trained in America at the Bolliteiri Academy, most of those years as a scholarship athlete, YUP, we footed that bill. SO, Sharapova spends approximate 0 time in Russia, except when ESPN sent her over there for a touching special since she never spent anytime there since her family decided that decrepit SHITHOLE WASN'T FIT FOR HUMAN LIFE. Someone explain this one to me. It doesn't stop there since many foreign women players make this same choice (pull this same shit). Jelena Jankovic, Anna Kournikova (Free pass on that one), Martina Hingis, and I'll throw in Ana Ivanovic (there are more). How is that fair in any way, shape, or form? I love training other countries women to kick our countries ass in tennis, it's fucking brilliant. I hope they enjoy the free education as well, and hopefully they can get free health care and food stamps too for their other family members. That's a low blow, but it is totally fucking ridiculous.

Field of Dreams

A movie so beautiful it's almost painful. A movie glorifying our national past-time and the movie is even better than the game itself. It's beautiful and innocent beyond words. It's so incredibly well done I feel like you could just plug and play in actors and actresses and it wouldn't matter. I can't imagine anyone else giving James Earl Jones' speech about baseball being the one constant throughout American history though. The movie simplifies life in a way that all that truly matters is playing and enjoying baseball. It is getting some heavy rotation on Starz and it is simply a must see. It matters not if you don't like baseball, it's so much greater than that. It transcends the "sports movie" title and is truly one of the best movies of my lifetime.

9.7 out 10- Really just about as close to perfect as possible. "You wanna have a catch" is without question one of the most likely movie moments to induce grown men to tears.

X-Men First Class (Some of it may be)

I finally watched X-Men First Class at the cheap seats. It was the first of the Summer hero blockbusters (I think). It threw together an interesting cast that held up better than I expected. Michael Fassbender does an awesome job as Magneto(F. Assbender, shout out to Filmdrunk), James McAvoy was an excellent early Professor X, Kevin Bacon is a very good evil scientist/ smug asshole, I thought January Jones was great to look at, as was Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. Lawrence has a future, she's excellent and underrated in the HOT department, which comes out when she struts around in Mystique's natural blue form, which makes an actress strut around with nothing but pasted scales on her body. Rose Byrne is very good as Moira MacTaggert, and very easy on the eyes. There is some weaknesses in the unknowns playing the teenage mutants, especially some kid named Lucas Till as Havoc. The story creates it's own story of how Professor X and Magneto came together and how the mutant vs. human shitshow began. The story is true to nothing but itself, following little from the comics or previous films. I thought it was a good story, tying in events from history to enrich the story. It gets a little out of hand and ridiculous, as one would imagine. I like how it explains things on its own rather than follow a predestined story from the comics, but it also is a betrayal to the comics. If you are an X-Men purist you may not enjoy it, but take the work on its own.

Bottom Line: 7.6 out of 10. A decent film taken on its own. I don't think it revolutionized the X-Men franchise in any way, but it left some possibility for interesting future films utilizing F.Assbender and Lawrence as its stars. I would see the film, but you can certainly wait until its on video.

Jim Thome- Hats off

Jim Thome, a man who you never hear a bad word about, just bashed his 599th & 600th home runs as a major league baseball player. It is an immortal milestone only 8 other players have ever matched. Thome has done so without the controversy of so many others of his generation. Nobody would accuse Thome of taking steroids. Not the man who won't turn down an autograph, or turn away a fan at a restaurant. He's a class act, the kind that we don't hear enough about. Jim Thome has been in the league 21 seasons, starting in 1990 as a 20 year-old third baseman. He grew into himself and became a brutally strong hitting first baseman. Like classic Henry Aaron style, he's only eclipsed 50 homers once and 40 homers six times during his heyday with the Indians. Consistency and kindness are what makes Thome unique in his accomplishments. You don't hear anyone in baseball talk badly about Jim Thome, or really anyone for that matter. A great quote was said by Joe Nathan, and really all of his Twins teammates worship Thome, ESPN didn't have to hunt very far for people to say glowing words of praise about Thome.

"He is the world's nicest man," said Twins closer Joe Nathan. "He's one of those guys that the hype is so great before you meet him, then he lives up to the hype, and more. When you see him from across the field, you think, 'He can't be that nice,' but he is. He is so genuine. There are other players that will be forgotten when they leave, but he will not be. We will be talking about him for years to come. To me, he's like [Hall of Famer] Harmon Killebrew. They are one in the same. When you meet both of those guys for the first time, you think, 'Wow, this is someone that I will be wanting to talk to on a daily basis.'"

"Jim Thome is the best," said Twins reliever Matt Capps. "I've been to dinner with him, and people come to our table, and he takes time to say hi to a kid. I've seen guys with six months in the big leagues snub a kid in a restaurant. Not Jim, and he is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He'll talk to a guy who knew him from Cleveland in 1993. He is a role model for all of us, he is like every one of us would like to be. I'd like to get 20 years in the big leagues like him."

"He is the nicest, gentlest, kindest guy you will ever meet … to everything except the baseball, he still hits that really hard," said Twins outfielder Michael Cuddyer. "When he walks in a room, everyone watches everything he does. It's the way he treats people, it's the way he respects the game. When I heard he was re-signing with us, I was so happy for a lot of reasons, but one reason was I wanted to be there for when he hit No. 600. Every night, I would pray that I was on base when he hit his 600th home run."

I love hearing things like that about someone as great as Thome. He's an even better teammate and person than baseball player. I especially like the Killebrew comparisons. A man who tragically passed earlier this year that people were lining up to say great things about because they were compelled to do so, and it was so easy for them. I hope Thome enjoys this and continues to be an awesome person getting his farewell tour at the stadiums he's lit up with his personality and bat for all these years.

Limitless

Limitless is a movie with Bradley Cooper as a smart, but unmotivated writer who runs into his ex-wife's brother-in-law (twice removed) and he gives him a black market pill that allows you to use your brain at %100 capacity. He becomes a genius and stock market wizard, gets in with the wrong people, gets a hair cut, becomes rich. It's a pretty decent movie that moves along at a pretty good clip. Cooper is really solid as a genius and is very entertaining. Robert De Niro has a really good role as the owner of a very large energy firm who becomes Cooper's de facto boss. I liked the film, but won't be watching it again.

Bottom line: 7.2 out of 10. Certainly worth watching, just don't pay any money for it.

Cap'N AMURICA

Chris Evans falls into the jackpot and gets cast as UBER-American Captain America. This tells the tale of how a "90 lb. asthmatic" can become a super-hero. It introduces the Red Skull, played very well by always creepy and evil Hugo Weaving. It really was what I expected. Heavy on story, plot, the beginning of Captain America, and overall flowery. There is of course some dark times and not fun stuff, but it's a kids movie at heart. I was a fan, just not a huge fan. It didn't really surpass expectations, but met them very easily. It was a little ridiculous as planned, but didn't get totally out of hand, so that was commendable. They had some fun with action scenes and CGI that looked alright. It was a little insane to have technology from WWII more advanced than the shit we play with today, but it is what it is. Evans was solid, though I agree with my buddy that they should have made his voice a little weaker when he was a scrawny 90 lb. bitch. Good cast, decent story, standard summer movie throwing up some big numbers per usual.

Bottom line: 7.7 out of 10. It is definitely worth seeing, just don't pay $10. Rent, or see at the cheap seats because you aren't missing anything earth-shattering. It lays the groundwork for another monster Marvel series. The Avengers is officially loaded up and the biggest movie I can think of right now. It's going to be HUGE with the amount of money and star power that it's throwing out.