Moneyball is based upon the true story of Oakland A’s general manager, Billy Beane, and his successful attempt to stay within the smallest budget in the league, yet still put together a winning team.

Beane gets together with computer geek, Peter Brand, a Yale economics major and full time computer nerd, portrayed by Jonah Hill. They gather together statistical data on a computer where they analyze every player and place a values upon the skills and characteristics that will benefit the team.

Having lost some great players and knowing that they cannot possibly replace them for the amount of money that they have to work with, the computer generated team fits into the budget yet still allows them the opportunity to put together a winning team.

Beane was one of the first in baseball to actually embrace computer technology and how it can mix up and separate the data with algorithms to actually use the raw data to analyze the possible players.

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Even though this is a movie about baseball, it seems that you don't necessarily need to know anything about baseball to enjoy the movie and it becomes a movie more about the people, Billy Beane, Peter Brand and Art Howe, the stressed out Oakland A's coach, who is not so sure he can handle the stress of recruiting players in the new way. It is a movie more about management of the sport than the playing of the sport. For all of you who asked, NO you CAN NOT download free movies that are copyrighted which includes this one.

So far reviews have been excellent. Rumor has it that Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill are both at the top of their game in this movie. Seems like a great movie to check out. It hits theaters on Friday, September 23, 2011.

Moneyball was based upon the 2003 book by Michael Lewis, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”.

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“Contagion” a thriller that tapped into the universal fears of illnesses, viruses and pandemics took first place at the box office outdoing the studio’s expectations and bringing in $23.1 million. Apparently that was the movie of the weekend because “The Help” at the number two spot only brought in $8.7 million (even so, “The Help” has been one of the top movies of the year so far!) and “Warrior” in the number three spot brought in just a measly $5.6 million.

“The Debt” was number four with $4.9 million and “Columbiana” brought up the fifth place position with totals of $4 million.

Contagion Cast:

Contagion Trailer

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And from the same people who brought us “Ice Age” is “Rio”, a comedy adventure about taking a walk on the wild side. Blu is a domesticated Macaw who never learned how to fly. He lives with his owner Linda and they believe that he is the last of his kind, however, when they learn of another like him they take a trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to find his female counterpart. Adventure and danger ensues and it turns out that Blu will have to find the courage to learn how to fly. Animated Adventure. Rated G.

“The Conspirator”, reviewed here earlier this week. From director Robert Redford, starring Robin Wright as Mary Surratt, a 42 year old female owner of a boardinghouse who was the only woman charged with conspiracy in the murder of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth. Mary must rely on her newly-minted and reluctant lawyer to defend her in a military tribunal. Drama. Rated PG-13.

“The Princess of Montpensier” set in France in 1562. Classic love story, girl from aristocratic societ falls in love with a man below her even while her hand is promised to the Prince of Montpensier. Love story. Not yet rated.

“The Imperialists Are Still Alive” a successful visual artist works in post 9-11 Manhatten and watches the situation in the Middle East on TV. She learns that a childhood friend is the purported victim of a CIA abduction. Conspiracy theories abound. Not yet rated.

“Dumbstruck” the story of five professional ventriloquists of all different levels of abilities, talents and fame. Rated PG.

“Footprints” chronicles a young woman’s journey of discovery in one day from sunrise to sunset. Not yet rated.

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“The Conspirator” stars Robin Wright, whom I fondly remember as “Jenny” from “Forrest Gump”, as Mary Surratt, a female owner of a Washington boardinghouse who was accused of being a co-conspirator in John Wilkes Booth’s plot to assassinate President Lincoln.

“The Conspirator” is directed by veteran actor and director, Robert Redford.

What makes the movie and the story compelling is the story within the story. All of us in the United States and especially those from the Southern Confederacy states have learned about and we think we know many of the stories of the Civil War and the emancipation of the slaves, however, there are stories that have yet to be told.

Mary Surratt, played by Robin Wright, is accused of a terrible crime and Frederick Aiken, played by James McAvoy, is her reluctant lawyer. Mary was the lone woman charged along with seven men. She owned the boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and others met to plan the attacks on the President. Her young lawyer, a Union war hero who just recently became a lawyer, agrees to defend Mary against the military tribunal. As the trial unfolds, it becomes apparent that Mary may just be innocent and she may be being used as a bait and hostage to capture one of the true conspirators, who is her own son.

In recent interviews, Redford has mentioned the contemporary relevance of the military tribunal with Guantanamo and other tribunals in the news today. Also, the similarities that whenever there is chaos there is ambiguity and when there is ambiguity there is fear. And fear gets manipulated.

That does sound similar to many things that are happening today in the political landscape.

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In the second place spot, making less than half of the money of “Hop” was “Source Code” the new thriller with Jake Gyllenhaal. It brought in $15,053,000.00

Another new movie “Insidious” was in the third place spot bringing in a total of $13,496,000.00

Last week’s number one hit “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules” brought in $10,200,000.00 in fourth place and down 57.1% from last weeks totals.

“Limitless” took the fifth spot with $9,402,000.00, down 37.6% from last week.

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The total Indian film industry includes several regional film industries sorted by language. Bollywood is the largest film producer in Hindi movies and in India and it is also one of the largest film producers in the world. While the films from the Hindi movie industry typically are in Hindi-languages, there has been an increasing amount of films made in Indian English in dialogue and songs and it has also become more common for the Hindi films to feature dialogue with English words, phrases and even complete sentences and entire conversations in English.

“Bollywood” is a word that is derived from a mix of Bombay and Hollywood, which is the capital of the American Film Industry. However, Bollywood is not an actual physical place.

India actually surpassed America in film production back in the 1970′s. India is the largest film producing country on the planet. India has a long and colorful history in film making starting with their first silent feature film back in 1913 to the 1930′s when they were producing over 200 films per year. The period of the late 1940′s to the 196’0′s was considered to be the “Golden Age” of Hindi cinema and some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time came out of this period.

The growth and popularity of Hindi films has skyrocketed since the advent of the 2000′s. The past 10 years has brought on unparallelled growth for the industry perhaps due to the advent of the Internet and the ability to download these wonderful films.

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Or you can check out a Woody Allen film “You will meet a Tall Dark Stranger”.  It has been described as a “typical dysfunctional Allen family comedy and the reviews are less than stellar. 

“Love at First Kill” with Margot Kidder and Noah Segan as a mother and son with an abnormally close connection that threatens anyone who dares to come between them.

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The next movie in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien will be directed by Peter Jackson and is scheduled to start filming in New Zealand on February 14, 2011.

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They are hoping that Bill will reprise his role as Peter Venkman and a script has been sent to him for his approval.

Ghostbusters centers around a group of parapsychologists who investigate and capture ghosts for a living. It was created by Dan Aykroyd and the part of Peter Venkman was originally intended for the late John Belushi but he passed away during the screenwriting of the movie.

Look for it around the Holiday season of 2012, if and when it gets made.

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Some potentially great movies are coming out in 2011, check out some of these titles.

December 21- Girl with the Dragon Tattoo- If you haven’t seen the 2009 European version, check it out, Great story, great potential.

December 16-Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol- With Tom Cruise, of course

November 23- The Muppets- complete with Kermit and Miss Piggy

November 18- The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn- Part 1- At least Breaking Dawn is the last book of the series….but part 1? Must they make it a 2 parter?

July 29- Cowboys & Aliens- Yes, it is just as it sounds, cowboys having it out with Aliens…

July 15- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2- The last of the last installment, so long Harry….

July 1- Transformers: Dark of the Moon- not to be confused with Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, of course

May 26- The Hangover, Part II- Can the laughs repeat themselves?

May 20- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides- The ever popular Pirates at it again

May 6- Thor- apparently 2012 is the year for superheroes, Thor is actually a God.

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