Screwball

Very well done, I loved the kids acting as the idiot adults, ironically funny. It's a shame that we idolize cheaters in this country, nothing is real anymore it's all fake. I was shocked by the stupidity and gullibility of some involved in this mess.

Screwball lives up to it's title. It takes a quite satirical method of telling how the Major League Baseball doping scandal came about. Picking out the poster child of Dr. Tony Bosch as the major performance drug purveyor to the A-List on a tip from a one-time Average Joe user acolyte turned whistleblower over an unpaid $4000 loan. The whole thing was at various times akin to a circus as it unfoldedl In the end it ook down not only the "fake" doctor but a chunk of Major League talent as it tarnished the sport. Actually the comic relief is entertaining, but the dark side is hardly addressed which isn't too surprising as that unsavory part is likely considered damage control/self-preservation of a billion-dollar industry.

As a people who doesn't know the story, i kinda entertained by this. Idk if the information were already known to the public or not. And with the reputation how Miami is potrayed in tv series or memes it makes it even funnier. And how obsessed america about how they looked yet wanted the easy way (w tan & weight looss). I think it'd be a great movie if Scorsese directing this movie.

Billy Corben has alway been a proud historian of South Beach. One might say he should branch out and try other subjects like Alex Gibney or Errol Morris, but why should he? Miami and Southern Florida itself are a wealth of stories to uncover, and it is always interesting to see someone have an unabashed eye for the good and bad of their own back yard. This time, Corben talks about the Biogenesis scandal, an illicit performance enhancement drug operation that witnessed quite a few baseball players get busted for participating. Baseball was the perfect sport to suck in, especially since the league was woefully behind on testing and many baseball players lived in Florida due to the proximity of the Grapefruit League, a collection of training sights where half the Major League Baseball teams did their spring training. It was clear as day who would ultimately come knocking on the door...the so called future financial guru Alex Rodriguez. You know, the guy that paid obscene amounts of money to cover up his involvement in this case. Also the guy who routinely played high stakes poker with the richest people in the country. That guy. Yeah, he has shows on financial networks now. I guess he keeps forgetting that you should spend tons of money on PEDs to command more contract money. Oh wait, you don't play sports? Whoops. Sorry. All kidding aside, Corben expertly weaves the tail of how Tony Bosch morphed from an unlicensed doctor into the biggest PED peddler in the country, even going as low as injecting these drugs into high schoolers to maintain his 60,000 dollar a month lifestyle. Eventually, he came up against equally crooked and corrupt individuals, namely Rodriguez and Major League Baseball. Envelopes full of cash, shaky promises and lots of bribes later, the story is one wild ride. And it all started over $4800 being owed to a sad middle aged man that desperately wanted to be liked and be like Sylvester Stallone (who ironically also used PEDs). I always love the energy of Corben's films as well, and using kids in ridiculous costumes added a new layer of absurdity to a story that was full of them. Even if you are not a big baseball fan, the true crime aspect of this film has a raucous flow to it that will keep you undoubtedly interested.

Act 1 - 6.9 Act 2 - 7.0 Act 3 - 7.1 Very entertaining true crime story for MLB fans Crazy how everything played out Like how the kids reenact everything Gets the info straight from the mouth of the real people involved Would recommend to anyone interested in this case Bosch got into anti-aging illegitimately Steroids were massive in baseball bringing eyes to the sport Steroids get regulated and stopped in the sport and players went to Bosch to find a way around it and that's how he got involved Manny the first major player to go to him for testosterone therapy Manny got caught in 09 and gets suspended DEA gets involved and starts investigation into Bosch Bosch's business took off after the news broke, became big deal in community Miami baseball players on his regime too, everyone wanted an edge ARod meets Bosch and starts taking PEDs again too Crazy stories Work with Boca tanning to expand business with anti-aging, meet Porter, a professional tanner, relationship fell through with Boca quickly Now opens across from the U of Miami and business does well Melky gets caught and Bartolo for testosterone and Bosch wanted out of baseball as all his guys getting caught, releases baseball clients Porter wants to work with Bosch and invested in the business, Porter doesn't get that what they are doing is illegal Porter starts to understand what's going on when he gets started with Bosch and owes Porter money and Bosch is in debt because of his lifestyle Porter threatens to blow up their business Porter goes through his files and sees all the big names and players involved with Bosch's system Porter gets involved with a journalist to break story and screw Bosch Boca guys say Ugi the supplier will kill Porter if he goes public The Boca guy gets the books after the reporter has copies and gives Porter his money, Arods people now has the books Story still getting published and goes huge Bosch closes his company a month before Bosch gets bombarded by the media Porter afraid for his life Ryan Braun's name gets leaked and Arods people leaks these names to get attention off himself Hill, a cop gets into trouble with the situation Bosch doesn't like being called a fake doctor MLB starts their own investigation and it's a terrible job Porter gets 5 grand to talk to MLB investigators MLB wants to hire Porter in the investigation to work for them, offered 125 grand for Porters info Porter decides to help department of health in their investigation Boca guys and Gary there steal the info from him, play him to take the boxes Blood evidence left behind and a guy named Reggie took it and realizes he was played by them all Porter couldn't put anything together but eventually did Boca guys knew they could use this other info to play the MLB and get rich off this situation Crazy how this all plays out MLB dealing in illegals matters to get all this info because they bought it from a conman ARod constantly being involved in all of this buying and leaking info, all to protect himself Everyone investigating Bosch and he's broke so he goes to ESPN to talk to Pedro Gomez to get an offer for his info, works with MLB 13 players punished and ARod gets 211 games suspension but fights it, gets booed at first game after announcement Bosch got paid 4 million from MLB ARod hires people to protest for him when he goes to an arbitrator Bosch has all this evidence and ARod has nothing but is word ARod through hissy fits during arbitration Suspension reduced to 162 games but gets suspended Bosch charged 500k by justice department for being unlicensed Bosch goes on 60 minutes to help the MLB Bosch gets arrested by DEA same with Ugi, high school players are what drove his arrest Sentenced to 4 years, served 20 months Ugi got 30 moths Everyone should be on same playing field Porter working to keep kids off PEDs Crazy true story .

Porter Fischer comes across as extremely naive. That's a nice way of saying he is dumb as a box of rocks. He also seems to be a whiny little bitc. It was an entertaining doc but kinda dragged on.

I find the whole premise of this documentary to be Morally Repulsive. It's definitely NOT a video that I would allow a person under 18 to view because it is SO Morally Corrosive. EVERYONE in this story, including the "investigators", are portrayed as Low Class, Low Life People. There are NO Real Good Guys in this story, except perhaps for the Clueless Guy who inadvertently started the avalanche of publicity that revealed how everyone, including MLB officials themselves are Morally Reprehensible People. What makes this video even worse is the film maker's attempt to make light of it all by inserting kid actors to pantomime scenes in the story. That's clearly ironic because none of the characters portrayed in this Sick Tale should be any kid's idea of a Hero. Instead of making an Appropriate Moral Judgment about the behavior of the people involved, the film maker takes a. "c'est la vie" attitude toward the whole affair. This film maker had an excellent opportunity to make a strong moral statement about not only how Morally Phony MLB is, but all of American Society that deifies these Moral Miscreants in baseball uniforms. Instead this film delivers a Morally Ambiguous Message that even seems to leave open the question of the Morality of using steroids as an athlete. Plato said that he would ban all story tellers from his Republic because story tellers "corrupt the morals of the youth". Plato was no doubt thinking about Morally Corrosive Stories like the one offered in this Sick Excuse for a documentary.

The title of the film is a bit of a misnomer, because if you watched the 2016 documentary "Fastball", you might be expecting a story about the mechanics of throwing a screwball, which has a breaking motion opposite that of a slider or curve ball. Instead, you have here the story of the 1990's baseball scandal involving steroid use by some of the game's most popular and prolific players. Though the story is a fascinating one involving fake doctors and underground drug dealers, it gets kind of corn ball with the presence of child actors stepping in for the principals a good part of the time, spouting dialog from guilty parties who were eventually taken down. I don't think that's the most effective way the story could have been told, but that's what director Billy Corben went with. What's really amazing is the way some of the principals involved in the scandal presented themselves on screen. The whole thing began with a guy named Tony Bosch, who started out in Miami with an anti-aging clinic, and gradually got involved with the world of performance enhancing drugs. Bosch tries to come across as an innocent bystander, taking exception to the idea that he was considered a fake doctor, instead preferring the term 'unlicensed physician', dubious at best having 'earned' a medical degree from the University of Belize. A multimillionaire at one point, Bosch blew it all on a life style involving alcohol, drugs and party time most every night. And to think, his enterprise began to unravel when he welshed on a four thousand dollar loan from an unsuspecting Porter Fischer, potentially one of the most clueless guys ever who couldn't help putting his trust in gangsters and con men. In the documentary, you'll hear from the principals involved, ball players, legal authorities, and reps from Major League Baseball. The most prominent name associated with the scandal of course, was Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees, A-Rod for followers of the game. His suspension from MLB for a year was one of the capstones of the scandal that eventually put a lid on the use of PED's in the sport, although who's to say their use is entirely eliminated to this day. As an aside, I happened to attend the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York during the height of that classic home run chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa during the 1998 season. What was astonishing was the records room where you could view the title holders of every major hitting and pitching category of all time. The HOF has it's own print shop, and the home run leader was updated daily whenever McGwire or Sosa took the lead!

Knowing anything about MLB is not important. So cleverly done with preadolescent kids re-enacting the word for word transcripts of idiot adults. I promise you'll fall in love with this film!

One thing I didn't expect was for this film to be as humorous as it is. A few oddball characters, along with some insiders, try to put together the story of the MLB steroid era, largely focusing on the guy that was several big stars supplier. Going in I knew the gist of the story, but I didn't know what a fiasco it was. The story gets stranger the longer it goes.