Moneyball (3 stars)

Billy Beane has stepped down from being a player on the Oakland Athletics to have a desk job. He was very talented in scouts' eyes, but he wasn't that great actually, and he didn't really want to play. So now, he is the general manager of the Oakland A's. He obviously wants to get a lot of good players and replace some really good players they lost: Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi, and Jason Isringhausen. The problem: they have the second lowest amount of money in the MLB. Beane hires Peter Brand as his assistant general manager. And there is one more thing: Beane bases his strategy on a philosophy based on Bill James' writing: The way you see them doesn't matter, the stats do. He utilizes this strategy all the time, and people think he's crazy, like the scouts and manager. they are losing most games! But things change...

    I liked this movie for one reason: it gets me to think about how we think about baseball and its structure itself. (And there's baseball in it, which is a plus.) Some parts are slow, but some parts are exciting, too. I would recommend this movie to any thinking baseball fan.

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Apollo 13 (3 stars)

 Jim Lovell is going to the moon. He is very excited, and he trains and does everything like the first time, with Apollo 11. As the flight starts, everything is going smoothly. But then things go downhill. An explosion rocks the ship. The oxygen tanks, which also fuel the power cells, have exploded! The astronauts try to change course and get back to Earth - while many other problems arise too. This movie shows the daring and risky maneuvers of the astronauts on Apollo 13. And yet they did it successfully.

    I liked this movie because it has suspense and multiple problems and solutions that make it exciting. It shows the stereotypical space program that many movies show, yet it never gets old. Overall, it is a good movie, though at the beginning you may think, When is the space part???

 

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Buy here: Apollo 13

Memento (3 stars)

I liked this movie for a couple of reasons. One, it is a mystery, which is fun. Second, it has a twist. I'm sure that this is the most creative movie ever. The twist is... that the movie's scenes and first scene are sdrawkcab. And finally, third, Memento has a plot twist ending - or really, the beginning. 

    Leonard has a condition that causes him to lose his memory every so often. He can only always remember things before the time that he got the condition. Leonard is hunting for the person who killed his wife. He writes down all of the clues on his body as tattoos. At the beginning of the movie, he finds and kills the person who did it. Then, you see the clues and problems that get him there. As you see what happened earlier chronologically, more loose ends open up. And Leonard starts to realize that before he can find out who the murderer is, he has to find out who he is. Or does he?

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Buy here: Memento

Babe (4 stars)

     Babe is a pig who was recently moved to a carnival contest. Then, a farmer guesses his weight correctly and gets to bring babe to his farm. When he goes to the farm, he is sad but likes it. He is mothered by a dog he calls Mom, and he befriends a lot of the animals like a duck named Ferdinand. But, things change quickly. He does some not-so-good things with Ferdinand, he learns a lot of new things, and he... acts like one of the sheepdogs. He can herd sheep just by asking nicely! This movie chronicles Babe's adventures on and off the farm. 

    I liked this movie a lot. It has wowing little parts and also, the animals are really cute (😊). It is divided into sections whose titles hint at what happens. And finally, the movie has a great "happily ever after" ending. Overall, it is an excellent movie.

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Buy here: Babe