MONEYBALL: Brad Pitt Swings for the Fences
In 2002, the Oakland Athletics baseball team were in trouble. Not only were they the lowest-scoring team in the leagues, they were also the cheapest. Their general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) was struggling to find quality players within the Athletics' budget. On a visit to the Cleveland Indians' management team, he bumps into recent college graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill). Peter convinces Billy that the way people think about hiring baseball players based on looks is incorrect and should be based on math (how many times they get on base). Peter is hired to come onto the Athletics' management team and quickly becomes Billy's closest confidante. However, the other members of the group, including fellow manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who dismiss Billy and Peter's strategy as implausible. However, things in Oakland slowly start to turn around.
There are some critics who say that Moneyball does crazy things like "reaffirm your faith in the movies". If a movie where Brad Pitt can't stop throwing chairs down the hallway "reaffirms your faith in the movies", you need to see more of them. Pitt's character throwing a chair is meant to visualize his frustration, but when it becomes recurring, it looks unintentionally comical (like he has a problem). Other than that, Pitt does fine in the role, but he's not nearly as charming as he is in other films. Although Jonah Hill received his first Oscar nomination, he can't sell me that he's a genius mathematician even with dialogue co-written by The Master Playwright, Aaron Sorkin. The uptight Sorkin must have been horrified when Sony used AC/DC's "Money Talks" to promote Moneyball to the beer-swilling sports crowd (he just doesn't strike me as a guy who has AC/DC on an iPod; or even somebody *with* an iPod). Why hire a genius cinematographer like Wally Pfister (best known for working with Christopher Nolan) for a baseball movie if nearly all of the baseball scenes are going to be played back through TV? You might remember that I had Moneyball listed under "Worst Movies" for my "Best of 2011" list. It's since been removed, because now I don't really hate it as much as I find it adequate. It's OK, but it's just not a movie that I can go crazy for.
MY WEEK WITH MARILYN: She's Not Who You Think She Is
In 1956, Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) was the most famous woman in the world: married to an intellectual playwright, Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott); was a popular pin-up girl; and had just been hired for her first foreign film, The Prince and the Showgirl, directed by the revered Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh). Right in the middle of it all was young third assistant director Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne): a young man from England willing to do anything to make it in the movie business. Staking out in Olivier's office is paid off when Olivier is impressed by Colin's resourcefulness in finding a secret house for Monroe and Miller to live in while in England. Marilyn arrives in England and captivates reporters with her normal sensuality and humor. However, when production of Olivier's film begins, she becomes emotionally difficult and timid enraging a ill-tempered Olivier. Colin attempts to ease her fears and Marilyn develops a friendship with him. When Miller leaves the country to return home, Marilyn latches onto Colin and they go on a romantic journey in the country, spending the day together. Of course, as history can attest, it's only a brief chapter in Monroe's life.
I honestly was surprised by this film. I could really identify with Colin Clark as just somebody who is captivated by the movies. Speaking of captivating, Michelle Williams is stunning as Marilyn Monroe. Not a clear copy of her, of course, but enough to drive audiences wild over her. I'm skeptical that she had this epic lack of confidence in herself, but I didn't know her. I find that the way the film is told is highly romanticized, as if Colin is bragging to his classmates that he had a relationship with Monroe. It didn't distract me from the storytelling, but it seemed a bit one-sided and could make it come off as fictional. Kenneth Branagh must *really* want to be Olivier, since his life parallels his so much (an actor/director with an unadulterated love of Shakespeare). It's interesting to see Emma Watson in her first post-Harry Potter film (yes, I know she did movies in between the HP movies) but she's there only briefly as an assistant to the costume designer. Is it me or does Judi Dench play the same elderly know-it-all lady (outside of the James Bond films, where it works) in nearly every movie she's in? It's not charming, lady! All in all, My Week with Marilyn is a charming romance and I give it a high recommendation.
THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS: Set Sail for Silliness
The Pirate Captain (voice of Hugh Grant) and his loyal ragtag crew are at their happiest when they're out sailing the high seas, living free. However, the Captain also wants to win the coveted "Pirate of the Year Award", but he is not alone. Rivals such as Cutlass Liz (voice of Salma Hayek) and Black Bellamy (voice of Jeremy Piven) are also after the honor. In pillaging various ships, the Captain and his crew bump into scientist Charles Darwin (voice of David Tennant), who recognizes the Captain's "fat parrot", Polly, as the last living dodo bird. In the promises of "untold riches", the Captain and the crew take Darwin to London where they find themselves crazily out of place.
After leaving their partnership with DreamWorks Animation after two films (the Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and the CG-animated Flushed Away), it seemed as though Aardman Animation would never again return to the silver screen. However, they soon found another willing distribution partner in Sony Pictures Animation. Their first film together, the CG-animated Arthur Christmas, was released the same weekend as The Muppets and Hugo and yet all three of them managed to receive 90% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes (a miracle in this day and age for any film). But now, they have returned to their stop-motion claymation roots with The Pirates! Band of Misfits. This movie is silly, harmless fun (just as "Wallace and Gromit" are). My favorite scene was the bathtub chase through Darwin's house (that you get a glimpse of in the trailer). The animation is spectacular and there are loads of laughs to be found. The Pirates! Band of Misfits is just good, clean fun and goes to show what Aardman does best.
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