Day: January 8, 2012

Removal

Well Fuck.

That is kind of what I said after watching this movie. I mean. What did I just see? Is it super deep? Is it very dumb and predictable? I don’t even know!

america
Here is a very patriotic picture of the disk?

Beginning of Removal starts off weird. Billy Burke is naked and bloody, and there is a dead woman in his shower. Also, he then kills himself when Mark Kelly(I will call Cole) shows up on the scene. He is a floor/rug cleaner.

Shortly after that we find out that Cole is kind of crazy. He has hallucinations in his head. He went therapy, but his wife doesn’t feel safe and she wants him to have more. But he says screw that, he is good, too expensive.

ONE YEAR LATER.

Cole is still a cleaner. After working his third double in a row, he is forced to go to a rich guys mansion, just to do an estimate. Rich guy, Oz Perkins, however says that he will give him $5000 extra, in cash if he cleans it all that night. By himself. Sketch, yes. Especially once you find out that no one has seen the rich guys wife in weeks.

Hmm.

And really. That is all you are going to get. A lot of things happen in that night. Including surprise rooms. Possible hallucinations, possible crazy people. Who is to say really?

Stache
I just found out the naked dead guy also plays Bella‘s dad.

So there really isn’t much to say. I had a hard time deciding if I liked it or not. I also had a hard time figuring out what happened. Thankfully I talked it out with my mom (Yeah!) and have concluded on what I think happened in the movie. So there is that. Some may argue the movie doesn’t really end either. But I am not sure at all.

So I say it is worth the one watch. Preferably with someone else cause you will probably want to try and find out what other people thought about it. But then again, there is always me.

2 out of 4.

Moneyball

“Inspirational sports movies” has got to be one of my favorite categories of movies. They are usually long, have drama, and sports! And they hopefully make you feel good at the end. Also preferably with nice quotes during locker room moments, you can you steal their good words later when you are playing a non important Intramural game or maybe even a video game.

Jeez, I pretty much like most of the ones I have seen too. I did not like We Are Marshall, Gridiron Gang, or Miracle though (even as a huge hockey fan). Seemed like they were just copies of other things I had already seen, don’t care if they were “true stories” either.

Moneyball is another “True Story”, based on the Oakland As of 10 years ago going for a title, with little money, and a different way of evaluating players. I’d say the biggest problem with it is that it is so soon, and MLB, so even if I hate baseball, I know enough to know that the team hasn’t done squat after when this movie takes place. So very disappointing in that regard!

Hill
But hey! Those movies didn’t have a serious Jonah Hill.

Shit. But each one of them had an action star as the head coach. Oh, what? Philip Seymour Hoffman is the coach/manager, but Brad Pitt is the GM? Thank god.

So Pitt is the GM, and just saw his team lose in a best of 5 series after going up 2-0. Shame. They are losing their star first baseman. With no real payroll available to find one guy as a suitable replacement. Even though trades are attempted, including with the Indians. Pitt sees Jonah Hill in the corner, and thinks he is secretly calling the shots, so he finds him, talks to him, and buys him from the Indians to be his assistant GM (a huge upgrade). He is a Yale graduate in Economics, and think the best solution to replacing the first baseman is to bring in three different guys, undervalued. None of which play first base.

Chris Pratt plays the catcher, who no one wants, and has to change position. He also has a smaller role than I would have expected, but does a nice job of being “Serious”. Stephen Bishop plays David Justice, a “washed up” athlete who the Yankees cut, and therefore the As can afford.

Of course since this is based on a true story, all the trades / transactions that happened in the movie, actually happened, and it isn’t just a team of misfits, like The Replacements or Major League. But the movie is about the first attempt to try and rebuild a team through this new method of evaluation, and their quest for the world series.

Pratt
Chris Pratt’s character may be important.

Overall I thought the movie was very well down. I think people argue on whether or not Pitt acted good, or acted at all. They try to show his character to have a lot of past demons, based on his own dealings as a MLB player when he was younger. I thought he did a good job, like most of the leads. I think the manager character was probably way too stubborn in all of the talks with the GM, but hey, what do I know?

Movie is over two hours, and has a touching ending too, and I think is interesting enough. Don’t even have to understand much baseball to get it. Hitting percentage is probably the easiest thing to grasp, and one of the things talked about most.

But I might have enjoyed a fictionalized movie about this more, just to have a better outcome.

3 out of 4