Do you think his RNC debacle will drive people away from Trouble with the Curve?
I’m certainly planning to avoid it. But I’m sure my equivalent on the righty-nutbar spectrum will see it twice for the same reason.
I doubt it. Most people seemed to say “Man, that was really bizarre… but I still love Clint Eastwood!” It was good for a next day laugh but I don’t think it made many people dislike the guy or no longer enjoy his films.
Those aren’t empty chairs in the theatre. They’re all filled with Obamas.
I liked the film Grand Torino - but back then I thought Clint Eastwood was just acting the role of a crazy, bigoted curmudgeon who had to be dragged into the 21st century for redemption at the end.
Little did I know it wasn’t acting.
I won’t go see the film in the theater, but might watch it when it hits HBO or Showtime or whatever.
I don’t know if I’ll see it, but as with pretty much all other actors whether I do or don’t won’t have anything do to do with their off-screen activities.
Trouble With the Curve just started airing on HBO.
I did enjoy the movie, however my primary thought regarding Clint Eastwood was “Yes, Clint, you’re old. WE GET IT.” I mean, the opening scene in the film is Clint standing at the toilet, having difficulty urinating. He’s obviously an intelligent man, you’d think he’d have figured out by now that he doesn’t actually need to tell us that he’s old, and find a new card to play.
His politics (though abhorring) won’t stop me from seeing him. His deteriorating acting skill and poor movie choices might.
His politics, being abhorrent, did cause me to stay away, so yes it did affect the box office.
My guess is that the film’s uninteresting subject matter and stupid-ass name had more to do with it flopping than its creator’s politics.
His movie-making skills peaked some time ago. One of the first signs of trouble was Gran Torino, which was an awful film: offensive, predictable, poorly written and executed. Then came Hereafter and J. Edgar, both panned by critics and fans alike. Even Invictus, a film about Nelson Mandela, was lackluster. Trouble with the Curve is a boring, formulaic, and predictable film as well. The plot is just one long cliche. I don’t think Eastwood has got anything left in the tank, and it’s unlikely that I’ll be seeing any more of his films.
The fact that it’s about baseball, the second stupidest sport in the world (after US “football”), is what would keep me from having any interest in it.
ETA: Clint’s idiotic politics make it any more attractive, either.
I saw this film in an empty theater (well, empty except for me, obviously) so I decided to take the time and type in my responses to the film while it played. I never posted them online, so I’m glad this thread was resurrected. So here they are, my thoughts about the movie as the movie progressed…
SPOILERS!
All right, so this was a film that was so by-the-numbers that I coined the phrase “Movies by TVTropes” just for it. But the thing that gets me about it was the anti-Moneyball aspect and how idiotically it was resolved.
For those of you who don’t know, Moneyball was a book written by Michael Lewis which talked about the rise of statistical analysis in baseball and how this math-centric method of evaluating players ruffled the feathers of more traditional BB analysts who would talk about a guys potential, how he looked at the plate, etc.
Clint is the traditionalist. His corporate rival (James Wood) is an analyst. JW wants Clint to scout out this player (JW really wants to draft him) who Clint says is worthless because he can “hear” something wrong with his swing, something that you can’t determine by statistical analysis. JW decides to draft this kid anyway (that lead to the fight with Timberlake, btw.)
Amy Adams is in her hotel room one morning when she hears somebody throwing a baseball into a catchers mitt. She goes outside and eventually drafts the kid (or she convinces Clint to test him out or something like that.) So they go to the ballpark and, lo and behold, JW is there with his newly drafted big-hitting prospect. And, as one can expect, AA’s pitcher (found traditional style, remember) goes against JW’s hitter (found statistical style) and wipes the floor with his whiff-after-whiff ass. To which AA yells at JW – “Your guy can’t hit left-handed pitching! That’s what we were trying to tell you, dumbass!”
Now here’s the thing… statistical analysis would have been the method to use to show that the prospect could not hit left-handed pitching. Not “the guy looks like a monster at the plate”, not “I hear a flutter in his swing” bullshit. Even before Moneyball, baseball was the most statistical of sports and you would have known merely by looking at his statistics that JW’s guy couldn’t hit left-handers and, therefore, was a poor prospect.
So the movie resolved the Moneyball vs. Traditional Scouting debate in favor of Traditional Scouting… by means of an argument that could only be made by statistical analysis! WTF?
But… Amy Adams looks good, so there’s that. 
Double whammy to people who let politics prevent them from seeing a movie since James Wood is also a conservative.
I don’t plan to see it but that’s because I have no interest in it; if it got “You can’t miss this!” reviews I probably would. I disagree with his politics and think that having a man who has impregnated six women- of whom he was only married to two and one had abortions- as keynote speaker for the party of Traditional Values was one of the bitter-funniest moments in politics since George Bush came onstage to The Best of Times from “La Cage Aux Folles” at the '92 convention, but it’s not going to keep me away from a movie. (Mel Gibson is probably the only actor that I hate enough to boycott his movies, and that’s more for his personal signature blend of violence and religious mania and homophobia and general psychosis and judgmentalism, and even with him if the movie was lauded enough I’d check it out when it came to HBO.)
Since it wasn’t a debacle, I doubt that people will stay away from his movies.
Actually, the kid couldn’t hit a curveball, not left-handed pitching. (Thus, the name of the movie, “Trouble With The Curve”.) That typically cannot be picked up on via statistical analysis, because tracking pitch-type isn’t all that common in high school. Either way, it was a horribly ham-handed movie, and calling it “the anti-Moneyball” is a really apt description.
Who is “James Wood”?
I think you mean Matthew Lillard, or possibly Robert Patrick. James Woods was not in this movie.
Robert Patrick! That’s it.
Sorry, I saw this thing in September and my memory had JW and RP switched. (They do look a bit alike, though.)
Appreciate the clarification. Like James Woods/Robert Patrick, the fact that the kid was a HS player was also something I forgot since September, which makes the demand for $45 for an autograph even more dumb.
I won’t see Roman Polanski’s movies, as he is a convicted child rapist, but I have no problem with Clint Eastwood or anyone else having a politically different opinion than mine. Among the few consistent conservative posters on this board, most of them I respect, even if I disagree with them about most everything. Hell, I disagree with a lot of the liberals on this board. Differing opinions, we can talk and maybe work things out. Having a different opinion than mine does not make you evil, it makes you wrong. 