Paperaxle Reviews "Contagion"

Whatever you might have heard about this movie, it isn't true. It's not a thriller, it's not scary and there really are things that spread like fear, like grape jelly on a warm peanut butter sandwich.

Here's the whole plot... people react to a virus that has spread over a course of a few days. Some people die, some people don't. Some people panic, some people react calmly. And some people stay awake through this movie, and some people leave the theater.

Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns home from a business trip in Hong Kong. While in Hong Kong, she catches an illness, which she spreads to her lover during a layover in Chicago, and then to her family in Minneapolis. Within a couple of days, she is dead, her son is dead, but her husband Thomas (Matt Damon) is mysteriously immune to the disease.

But that isn't the whole story. There are subplots within the movie, like Alan Krumwiede's (Jude Law) crusade to find the truth behind a supposed government cover-up of the disease. Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard) is trying to combat the disease in Malaysia. Drs. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) and Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) are trying to work through the Atlanta Center for Disease Control to find a cure.

But none of this matters, because... and I'll go ahead and spoil it for you right now... although they do find a cure by the end of the movie, it will be over a year before the cure is available to everyone. Millions of people die, and there is no real resolution to the movie. There is no sense of fear, no race to find a cure is depicted in the movie, and the big reveal at the end is how the disease began. By that time, we don't care.

There is no sense of urgency in this 115 minute movie, and you find yourself checking your watch several times in two hours. I'll give this one some hand sanitizer and a box of Kleenex. Avoid this one like the plague.

Paperaxle Reviews "Moneyball"

Chico Escuela may bemoan the fact that "Baseball... been berra berra good... to me", but to Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, baseball hasn't always been kind. Beane played for four major league teams in five years, and always as a reserve outfielder, with a career batting average of just .219 and only three home runs. He left major league baseball in 1990 after failing to make the major league roster that year, and went to work for the A's, first as an advance scout, and then as general manager.

It was while Beane was GM during the 90's that he was told by the new owners of the A's that payroll would be drastically slashed. In 2001, where the majority of the story takes place, the New York Yankees had a payroll of $115 million per year, while the A's had just $36 million to work with. As a result, three of the major players on that team who became free agents that year left for the greener pastures of other major league teams.

It was during a visit to the offices of the Cleveland Indians that Beane meets Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a whiz kid who developed a specialized computer program that determines undervalued baseball players, and their affordability, which Beane then uses to rebuild his crippled baseball team. Beane has to convince the owners that baseball can be run by computers instead of scouting agents and field managers, and the A's can create a baseball team at a fraction of the cost of other major league teams.

Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who is the manager of the team disagrees, and continuously fights with Beane over player placement on the team. Howe will not budge, and the players cannot play on the positions that are assigned to them by Beane and his computer program. Halfway though the season, the A's are the worst team in baseball...

Then it gets better. And to say anymore, especially to those of you unfamiliar with the Oakland A's, will just ruin the story for you. If you have to know what happens to the Athletics during the 2001-2002 baseball season, then google it. You'll be surprised.

Moneyball is one of those movies you'll hate to admit that you like. I don't follow baseball, don't know anything about players, or teams, or even what a baseball is made of. But I really liked this movie. It is funny (not in a "Major League" kinda way though), suspenseful (will Beane's computer program win a Series for the A's?), and you'll be rooting for this movie like you would for your home team as you sit behind home plate.

The movie runs about 135 minutes, and will be in theaters on September 23rd. I'm giving this one four balls and no strikes. Grab some peanuts and some Cracker Jacks and settle in for nine innings of a great movie.