Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2012

After 2008’s most excellent Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood said he was done with acting. Yet here he is, again playing a grumpy old Gus (his character’s actually named “Gus”) in a movie you could call a counterpoint to Moneyball. Gus is an aging baseball scout for the Atlanta Braves whose eyesight is fading but whose intuition remains sharp as he does battle with the newfangled computer number-crunchers (represented by an oily Matthew Lillard, in case you didn’t know they were the bad guys). While Gus is off scouting in North Carolina, his boss (John Goodman) becomes concerned about his health and asks Gus’s daughter Mickey (a good Amy Adams) to go help him out. She inexplicably puts her fast-track legal career on hold to go do some belated father/daughter bonding. Justin Timberlake shows up somewhere as a feeble, chemistry-free love interest. This amiable, low-energy exhibition game of a movie is well made and has an authentic feel. It’s a nice time at the movies. But narratively speaking it’s a whiffle ball that telegraphs every pitch. Strictly for moviegoers who don’t like surprises. Shoulda quit after Gran Torino, Clint.