DVDSleuth.com is your source for daily Blu-ray Disc & DVD news and reviews
Trouble with the Curve (2012)
Warner Home Video
Blu-ray Disc Released: 12/18/2012
All Ratings out of
Movie:
Video:
1/2
Audio:
Extras:
Review by Mike Long, Posted on 12/24/2012
To say that Clint Eastwood has had an interesting career would certainly be an understatement. Thanks to his Dirty Harry character, he was lumped in with the likes of Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the 80s and was often the target of the late-night comedians, despite the fact that he'd been directing movies since 1971. This began to change in 1988 when Eastwood directed the biopic Bird. This change was solidified in 1992 with Unforgiven, which won Clint the first of three Best Director Oscars. Suddenly, the "Do you feel lucky, punk?" guy was respected as an artist. This has continued to this day and at age 82, Eastwood is still directing. However, for the first time since 1993's
In the Line of Fire, Clint handed the reins over to someone else and simply acted in Trouble with the Curve.Eastwood stars in Trouble with the Curve as Gus, a scout for the Atlanta Braves. Gus is old, very set in his ways, and prefers to be alone. He has no interest in modern methods of evaluating baseball players and only relies in his instincts. Braves executive Pete Klein (John Goodman) still trusts Gus, but some in the organization don't. Gus doesn't let on that his vision is going and this has made doing his job very difficult. Gus has a strained relationship with his daughter, Mickey (Amy Adams), an up and coming Atlanta lawyer. If she can land the case on which she is working, she will be made a partner in her firm. However, Pete calls Mickey and shares his concerns about Gus. Mickey travels to North Carolina to spend some time with his dad on the scouting trail. This brings back mixed emotions of the times she traveled with him as a child. As Gus opens up about his eyesight issues, Mickey realizes that she may be able to assist him with his job.
Trouble with the Curve was directed by Robert Lorenz, but to say that Eastwood didn't have any control over the project would most likely be inaccurate, as the film came from Eastwood's production company. And while this is Lorenz's first outing as a director, he has worked with Eastwood for years as an assistant director and as a producer. To say that Eastwood approached this project with any new ideas would also skew as wrong, as he offers us the same crotchety old man character he's played in many movies, most recently 2008's
Gran Torino. Gus is the quintessential Eastwood character -- a no non-sense man from a bygone era who refuses to talk about feelings or confront any problems. In other words, you've seen this character before.And you've seen this character against a more interesting background. In 1989, the ultimate baseball movie, Field of Dreams, was released. Every movie on the subject released subsequently has paled in comparison and I wish that filmmakers would find a new topic. And yet, at least once a year, we get a baseball movie. And most of them, as with Trouble with the Curve, want to elevate the game to be something magical. Here, baseball is the one commonality between a cranky old man and his daughter who felt abandoned many years ago. We actually get little baseball action here, but there is plenty of talk of baseball, but it feels recycled from other movies.
Speaking of recycled, the script by Randy Brown brings in many cliches. We know that Gus' vision problems are only going to get worse and that the way he downplays the issue is only going to lead a cringe-worthy scene. Also dropped into this mix is Justin Timberlake as a washed-up player turned scout. He's fascinated by Mickey's encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and he's instantly attracted to her. But, Mickey is the driven businesswoman who has no time for a love life. Boy, that's original. Will Timberlake's character be the one who can break through her icy veneer? (What do you think?) The ending is telegraphed from a mile away, and only those who constantly leave the room won't know what is going to happen.
The only thing in Trouble with the Curve which works are the scenes in which Gus and Mickey actually talk about their feelings. Unfortunately, these are a rare commodity here, and most of the film is hackneyed dialogue and drama which barely rises about LifeTime level. Adams goes toe-to-toe with Eastwood and these scenes only serve as a reminder of what the movie could have been. The idea of the estranged daughter helping her father with one last project isn't a bad one, but maybe they should have avoided baseball. Why couldn't he have been a deep-sea diver or an exorcist?
Trouble with the Curve was really similar to Moneyball at times on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Warner Home Video. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 25 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing no overt grain and no defects from the source materials. The colors look very good, most notably the greens of the baseball fields, and the picture is never overly dark or bright. The level of detail is good, as we can see every crag on Eastwood's face. The depth is good, most notably in the shots which show the field from the bleachers The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 3.8 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. For the most part, this track is fairly tame, focusing on delivering audible dialogue. However, it does come to life during the baseball game scenes, as the crowd noise fills the rear speakers and the "crack" of the bat is nicely placed in the front channels.
The Trouble with the Curve Blu-ray Disc contains only two extras. "Trouble with the Curve: Rising Through the Ranks" (5 minutes) profiles Director Robert Lorenz and looks at how his experience having worked as an assistant director and a producer on many of Eastwood's films led him to the director's chair. "Trouble with the Curve: For the Love of the Game" (6 minutes) contains comments from Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake who discuss the relationship of their characters in the film.
Review by Mike Long. Copyright 2012.