What’s Your Number

Movie: What’s Your Number

Genre: romantic comedy

Synopsis: Ally Darling (Anna Faris) is having a crisis.  She reads a magazine article that convinces her she has slept with too many men.  She decides that the next guy she sleeps with will have to be “the one”.  So, she starts looking up old hook-ups to re-evaluate their possibilities.  Meantime, he sister (Ari Graynor) is getting married and their mother (Blythe Danner) is putting relentless pressure on her to find the right man (which in her eyes means rich).  Countering the maternal pressure is Colin (Chris Evans).  Colin lives across the hall in Ally’s apartment and is the king of the one night stands.

My two cents: I found this movie to be very entertaining.  Anna Faris is always fun to watch.   There are a lot of laughs.  While parts of the plot were a bit predicable, it did not spoil the movie.  If you are looking for a light romantic comedy that has laughs but manages to avoid any unduly gross scenes – this should fit the bill.  Ed Begley Jr. was also great as Ally’s father – divorced from her mother and as different from her mother as night and day.

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Moneyball

Movie: Moneyball

Genre: sports drama

Synopsis: This is based on what actually happened with the 2002 Oakland A’s/  Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) is the general manager of the A’s.  They are just about the poorest team in the league, have just lost three key players, and Billy is being told by the owner that he just has to make do.  What Billy does is to hire Peter Brand (Jonah Hill).  Peter is a recent graduate of Yale with a degree in economics.  Peter has some rather innovative ideas about how to place value on a player.  What he does is a lot of number crunching with a computer to quantify what a player can do for the team.  Billy decides to follow Peter’s idea, which does not sit well with the veteran coaches and scouts on the team.  Once the manager is dragged kicking and screaming into the new direction, the A’s set a league record for consecutive wins.

My two cents: A great movie.  It provides a glimpse behind the scenes in what goes into managing a major league baseball, but does it without numbing the viewer with too much information.  Brad Pitt was great – as was Philip Seymour Hoffman as Art Howe, the manager.  The one I really loved was Jonah Hill.  I love seeing an actor completely switch the type of role he is playing.  Typically, Jonah seems to play the big bumbling goofball.  In “Cyrus” I saw a different – and rather creepy – side of what he can do.  In this movie he plays a whip-smart number kid fresh out of college who has the guts and confidence to follow his dream when only one guy on the team supports him.

Bottom line: definitely worth your time and money to see this.

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Killer Elite

Movie: Killer Elite

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: Danny (Jason Stratham) is the protégé of Hunter (Robert De Niro).  The two of them are elite assassins.  Danny decides he has had enough and announces his retirement.   When an Arab Sheik takes Hunter as a hostage, Danny is forced out of retirement to kill three enemies of the Sheik.  The three targets were members of a secret British organization.  Davies (Dominic Purcell) is a former British Commando who now freelances and is recruited by Danny to help with the job.  Spike (Clive Owen) works for the secret organization and mounts a campaign to kill Danny.

My two cents: Good but not great.  Some great action shots.  Danny had a girlfriend Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck’s girlfriend on “Chuck”).  It was fun to watch her playing the innocent civilian who was in love with a dangerous secret spy-type.  If you like Jason Stratham movies, you should like this movie . . . it just lacked something to set it apart.

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