Eric Winzenreid Movies
Bennett Miller's adaptation of Michael Lewis' non-fiction best seller Moneyball stars Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, a one-time phenom who flamed out in the big leagues and now works as the GM for the Oakland Athletics, a franchise that's about to lose their three best players to free agency. Because the team isn't in a financial position to spend as much as perennial favorites like the Yankees and the Red Sox, Beane realizes he needs to radically change how he evaluates what players can bring to the squad. After he meets Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), an Ivy League economics major working as an executive assistant for scouting on another team, Beane realizes he's found the man who understands how to subvert the system of assessing players that's been in place for nearly a century. However, as the duo begin to acquire players that seem too old, injured, or inept to play major-league baseball, they face stiff resistance from both the A's longtime scouts and the team's manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who outright refuses to allow Beane's more-nontraditional acquisitions to play. Moneyball screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, (more)
An ambitious executive accepts an invitation from his boss to attend a dinner party where high-powered professionals make fun of unsuspecting dimwits in this remake of Francis Veber's 1998 comedy The Dinner Game. Upwardly mobile executive Tim (Paul Rudd) has just landed his company an extremely wealthy Swiss client when his boss, Lance (Bruce Greenwood), invites him to an exclusive, yet unusually mean-spirited dinner party where each of the high-powered executives brings a guest to make fun of. Recognizing that his long-awaited promotion is finally within reach, Tim begins to have second thoughts about participating in the elaborate charade when his longtime girlfriend, Julie (Stephanie Szostak), the successful curator at a local art gallery, voices intense disdain for the idea. The following day, Tim is looking for a way out of the dinner when fate throws the perfect guest right in front of his luxury car. Barry (Steve Carell) is a sweet but dim-witted IRS agent with an unusual hobby: he creates elaborate dioramas featuring stuffed mice. His latest project is "The Last Supper," and he's just put the finishing touches on a tiny mouse Jesus to set at the center of the table. Tim knows that Barry is his ticket to a big corner office on the seventh floor, but the closer the party looms, the more he realizes that his bumbling new acquaintance isn't just an idiot, but also is a magnet for chaos. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, (more)
Ben Stiller's satirical look at Hollywood, Tropic Thunder concerns the production of an epic Vietnam War film that quickly derails thanks to the giant egos of everyone involved in the production. Stiller stars as Tugg Speedman, an action hero trying to segue out of that genre. Jack Black plays Jeff Portnoy, a drug-addicted fat comic also attempting to change his image by taking on such a serious film. They star alongside Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), one of the world's most awarded actors, and a man who insists on immersing himself totally in a role. In this case, that means Lazarus has had his skin dyed in order to portray an African-American soldier. After their outrageous behavior lands the film's director, Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan), in very hot water with producer Les Grossman (Tom Cruise), Cockburn takes the advice of grizzled Vietnam vet Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte); in order to gain control of his performers, Cockburn drops the actors off in the jungle, planning to film the movie guerrilla-style with hidden cameras. When the group stumbles upon a heroin production camp, the actors are unaware that they are in very real danger. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Stiller, Jack Black, (more)
- 2005
As a newly enlisted Whitelighter, Paige (Rose McGowan) is assigned to help a troubled young mechanic named Mitchell Haines (Seamus Dever). Trouble is, Mitchell doesn't want to be helped -- and his resistance may cause Paige to lose her powers before she even gets to use them. Meanwhile, Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) is trapped in the Underworld after switching bodies with the sorceress Imara (Suzanne Krull), and Piper (Holly Marie Combs) has her hands full with a demonic assault at P3. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brian Krause, Dorian Gregory, (more)
- 2001
- R
- Add Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back to Queue Add Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back to top of Queue
The frequently recurring title characters, employed by writer and director Kevin Smith as supporting players in several of his films, are put to rest with this comedy that focuses on them exclusively. Jay (Jason Mews) and Silent Bob (Smith) are a pair of stoned New Jersey slackers who have long been used as the templates for a pair of popular comic book heroes, Bluntman and Chronic. When they learn that their alter egos are to be turned into a major motion picture without their consent or compensation, the pair sets off for Hollywood to sabotage the production. Along the way, they encounter an ape, a nun (Carrie Fisher), the cast of Scooby-Doo, a Charlie's Angels-style band of sexy women who use them as stool pigeons in a diamond heist, and an unhinged wildlife ranger (Will Ferrell). They also meet up with some regulars from the Smith canon, including Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), Brian O'Halloran as Dante Hicks, Jason Lee as Banky Edwards, Alanis Morissette as God, and actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in dual roles as themselves and two other familiar characters. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back co-stars numerous other recognizable performers in roles of various sizes, including Shannen Doherty, Jason Biggs, James Van Der Beek, Shannon Elizabeth, Tracy Morgan, Judd Nelson, Chris Rock, and George Carlin, among others. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, (more)
- 1997
- R
Mario Van Peebles wrote, produced, and starred in this follow-up to his 1993 Western Posse. Chance (Van Peebles) is a cavalry scout in the old west who accidentally gives his battalion wrong directions going into a battle. Not being a forgiving bunch, the soldiers beat Chance, tar and feather him, and leave him to die in the desert. However, Chance is found by Buck (Paul Lazar), who asks him if he's the young god Icarus, who fell to Earth after flying too close to the sun. It seems that Buck is an inmate at an insane asylum that's part of a nearby convent; Chance is brought back to the convent, where the nuns nurse him back to health. Chance learns that the Mother Superior (Jean Speegle Howard) is in poor health, and she asks Chance to lead the nuns and their charges to a safer mission 100 miles across the arid plains. Mother Superior dies only a few hours later, and the cruel Sister Drexel (Rusty Schwimmer) takes charge of the flock. Not eager to take her abuse, Chance goes his own way, but when he encounters the disturbed men of the convent, led by the self-proclaimed President (Rene Auberjonois), he realizes that he must help them if they are to survive. Los Locos was also distributed as Los Locos: Posse Rides Again, though while both are set in the old West and star Mario Van Peebles, he does not play the same character and the two films have no narrative connection. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mario Van Peebles, Melora Walters, (more)
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