Clint Eastwood: Actor & Director

[Avadi to America]

Wholly predictable yet serenely enjoyable, "Trouble With the Curve" opens with Gus, the aging Atlanta Braves baseball scout played by Clint Eastwood, standing at the toilet, wondering how long it'll take this time.

It's an amusing bit, acknowledging the character's late-autumn locale along life's urological timeline. In addition to the usual aggravations, Gus' eyes are failing, and he's dealing with it by not dealing with it, or telling any of his colleagues. His scouting contract expires in three months. He's sent to Asheville, N.C., to check out an alleged phenom the Braves front office is hot to sign.

Amy Adams, who is getting better, more versatile and more valuable by the movie, plays Gus' workaholic lawyer daughter, Mickey (named after Mantle), who has struggled with abandonment issues her entire life. Years ago Gus shunted her aside after the death of his wife; relations between daughter and father have since been distant at best.

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XTop 50 superhero movies of the last 10 years Ads by Google"Trouble With the Curve" lays each conflict and chapter out neatly, no surprises, as Mickey joins Gus in North Carolina and attracts the eye of a Red Sox scout and former pitcher once scouted by Gus, played by Justin Timberlake.

These three are extremely pleasant screen company. Eastwood growls his way through a variation on the rugged individualist and part-time vigilante audiences adored in "Gran Torino." Here, though, the material's lighter and more easygoing. This is the first time since "In the Line of Fire" 19 years ago that Eastwood has acted in a movie he didn't direct. But "Trouble With the Curve" is a family affair, with Eastwood's longtime producer Robert Lorenz making his feature directorial debut with newcomer Randy Brown's screenplay. Eastwood's usual cinematographer, Tom Stern, returns for duty (with fewer chalky-white/inky-black contrasts than usual, befitting this largely open-air tale), as do editors Gary D. Roach and Joel Cox. The conspicuous newcomer to Eastwood's team, composer Marco Beltrami, turns in a good, low-key score, in keeping with the aspirations and qualities of the film.

"Scouts, good scouts, are the heart of this game," Gus says defiantly at one point. "Moneyball" be damned! In clear contrast to that film, which was sympathetic to the low-budget team-assembly concept of sabermetrics and computer-crunched analysis of baseball, "Trouble With the Curve" throws its lot in with the intuitive old-timers, here played by Eastwood, Ed Lauter and others — the actual, rumpled humans on the road, sussing out pitchers or hitters or fielders worth a shot.

Of course the movie is sentimental. A fairy tale? Yes, it's that too. Satisfying? Yep. The key, I think, is the restaurant scene between Adams and Eastwood where she confronts him about how she was, and wasn't, raised by Gus. It's played by both actors with minimal fuss and maximum honesty. I wish the film had the guts to leave Gus' failings be; the script takes an easier way out by hanging his actions on a long-ago incident, alluded to throughout, in eerie flashbacks recalling Eastwood's own "Mystic River" and "Changeling." Often a movie's attempt to rationalize a tough character ends up softening him in untruthful ways. That said, you don't go to "Trouble With the Curve" for a heavy dose of truth. You go for a little truth, and a little baseball, and the soothing reminder that things sometimes change for the better.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entert...7823923.column

[Avadi to America]

At last, I watched the movie yesterday late night show with four more unknown people in the theater. The attendance was really poor comparing Gran Torino.... As groucho said, this movies is nostalgia for Clint east wood’s fans. The plot and scenes are very predictable but still enjoyable. As usual all Clint’s one liners are great. One could see the old Clint east wood in a scene where he threatens a guy who forces his daughter to dance with him. A typical Clint east wood performance. Over all, i enjoyed whole movie.... it's definitely worth a watch. However i still prefer Gran Torino over this

[groucho070]

Ah expected, right. Not a box office material, I doubt even on the awards, though the season has started.

[kid-glove]

When the screener's out, I will be first to it..

[PARAMASHIVAN]

C.E is one of the finest actors from Hollywood, yesterday I was watching a movie of his in the gym, couldn’t figure out the title! It had CE and a Chimp, thoroughly entertaining movie! Can some one pls tell me the name of this movie?

Ah Just figured out that Rajni in Kilamanjaro song resembled CE a bit

[Avadi to America]

there are two movies way back in late 70s and early 80s.
1. Every Which Way but Loose
2. Any Which Way You Can

I'm not sure which one you watched....

[groucho070]

Gymn must be the second one.

ErkanavE sollitten, Kilimanjaro Rajini, or Baba Rajini for that matter, looks like Talaivar (Watch Pale Rider).

[PARAMASHIVAN]

there are two movies way back in late 70s and early 80s.
1. Every Which Way but Loose
2. Any Which Way You Can

I'm not sure which one you watched....

The story is something like he had a chimp as his mate, which was rescued by CE from a zoo, CE's mother does not approve of the monkey. I had to follow the subtitles (which was difficult) , because the sound was turned off in the gym. There were scenes like CE chasing some bikers with "Black widow" (spider) tattoo's on their arm.

Does this ring any bell ?

[PARAMASHIVAN]

Got it, it was "Every Which Way but Loose"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_W...t_Loose_(film)

[Avadi to America]

I came to know about clint eastwood probably not more than 7 or 8 years back. These below enlisted movies i watched so far.... But i watched only two movies in theatre Fran Torino and trouble with the curve. If i get chance to watch his movies in big screen especially his western or dirty harry sequel, i will definitely go and watch it. It could be possible that i exposed to clint eastwood/sergio leone type western before john wayne/john ford. Somehow duke never impressed me like eastwood.

A Fistful of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Hang 'Em High
Paint Your Wagon
Two Mules for Sister Sara
The Beguiled
Play Misty for Me
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
True Crime
Space Cowboys
Blood Work
Mystic River
Dirty Harry
Joe Kidd
High Plains Drifter
Magnum Force
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Enforcer
The Gauntlet
Every Which Way but Loose
Escape from Alcatraz
Any Which Way You Can
Sudden Impact
Pale Rider
Heartbreak Ridge
The Dead Pool
White Hunter Black Heart
Unforgiven
In the Line of Fire
The Bridges of Madison County
Absolute Power
Million Dollar Baby
Changeling
Gran Torino
Invictus
Trouble with the Curve