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best movie i've ever seen.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Hopper Gibson (Johnny Simmons) is in a position that every little boy dreams about. He is a star rookie pitcher in Major League Baseball. His numbers and talent are off the chart, when all of a sudden, he can't find the strike zone. There is nothing wrong with him physically, so the team sends him down to the minors and puts him to work with the top sports psychologist in the country. I really don't understand professional critics and what they look for when they rate a film. Take The Phenom for example, this film has got to be the slowest and most boring sports film I've ever seen, yet it has an 80 on Rotten Tomatoes. There was very little sports action in this film and the fast majority of it consisted of this guy sitting in a room talking to a shrink! Yes, the shrink was played by Paul Giamatti, who is an unbelievably talented actor, but why the hell would anyone want to watch some dudes therapy session? When he wasn't in therapy, he should be on the field, but no, he's dealing with his over barring father, who is fresh out of prison. Who plays this bad ass, bullying his pro-athlete son, who is in peak physical condition? A very old looking, very tattooed, Ethan Hawke and I really wasn't buying that for a second. There were some talented actors in this film, no doubt, but The Phenom was 88 minutes of talking and nothing more, what in the hell is so great about that? This film was as boring as movies get, so unless you're a die hard Paul Giamatti fan, I would absolutely let this one pass you by.

(Flash Review)With an intriguing story of a major league pitcher needing a sports psychologist to help him regain his pitching command, this film had a lot going for it in addition to its unique plot. As it sets a confident atmosphere, competent acting, interesting pacing, editing with some nice long shot holds and framing composition. Where it threw its wild pitches was in tying all the scenes together and diving a bit deeper into certain characters and plot points. It failed to emotionally connect with me. I never truly felt the pitcher's strife; as much as the lighting tried to help from scene to scene. Many scenes were really good stand-alone scenes yet never added up to a great unified whole. Back to the plot, you learn what are some causes for his on the mound distractions and a couple vague ways he tries to resolve them. Can he conquer them and regain his pitching dominance? Overall it felt uneven and had a very abrupt ending; not in a clever way either.

"It doesn't matter what I want cause I have a contract, and you know what, I'll tell you something. They picked the wrong guy because I'm just an ordinary kid." Hopper (Simmons) is a star baseball pitcher that has recently been demoted after a shaky outing. He is sent to psychologist Dr. Mobley (Giamatti) in hopes of him figuring out what is wrong. When Hopper begins to talk about his overbearing father (Hawke) Mobley begins to understand what Hopper's problem is. But it may be too late. I am a huge sucker for all sports movies and I love Paul Giamatti so I was really excited about watching this. I have to say though this is nothing like I expected. At the risk of over simplifying, the movie is basically a baseball player version of Good Will Hunting. Simmons actually plays the part perfect as a kid who isn't sure what he wants anymore and is essentially going though the motions while his dad tries to totally control him. I could keep going on about this but if you liked Good Will Hunting I would recommend this as well. Overall, not what I expected, it was better. I give this a B+.

I went into this movie with the expectations of a more orthodox time line. About a young pitching prodigy from his early days in High School to his troubled journey in the Major Leagues. The story scratched the surface of his overbearing Father and his mental state as to why he was having trouble throwing strikes, But for me, the movie never tied it all together. All the characters in the movie were never fully developed enough to explain the reason for Hopper's problem. I was waiting for the progress made by Hopper in his sessions with Dr. Mobley playing out on the field or the root of the problem being revealed finally at the end. That never materialized. The ending left you wanting more meat on the bone. I was very disappointed with this movie because it had a good premise but was too superficially told to make any impact on the viewer.