New DVD Review - Moneyball

This movie made the cut for the Best Picture Nominations at the Oscars this year.  If I hadn't already wanted to see it, being a baseball movie and all, this tipped the scales to where I had to see it.  I was excited since Brad Pitt is also a very solid actor in my eyes and I had heard that Jonah Hill gave a great performance.  A cool aspect about the story is that it is true.  The Oakland A's have struggled for years with no payroll to put a good team together and have notoriously scouted and developed good talent just to watch the fruit of their labors get snatched up by a team like New York or Boston that have ridiculously high payrolls.  The story follows the General Manager Billy Beane, who is played by Brad Pitt, trying to follow up a season where they made the play-offs with a small payroll and lose all there good players from that season to high salary offers from other teams.  He is faced with once again having to make something from nothing with no support on the financial end.  He finds a "kid" who really sees what baseball should be all about and the type of players the A's would need to make a winning team.  There is a formula they use to get older players, recovering players, and players that have been given up on to create a cohesive unit that can contend with the high rollers.  As we all know the A's don't win the World Series but it is a cool story to follow anyways. 

After all that I still came away a little disappointed.  Maybe my expectations were too high.  I don't think it was bad but I can't say it was anywhere near great.  The performances that were highly regarded fell short in my mind.  Pitt and Hill did nothing spectacular.  The story, though true, just lacked excitement in the telling.  Also they ended it on a terrible note relating the A's strategy to how the Red Sox won their first World Series in almost 100 years.  The Red Sox completely bought their team with a huge payroll which is the exact opposite of how the A's strategy was successful.  That statement definitely got my temper up because I loathe Yankee-Red Sox type of teams that just buy everyone with gigantic payrolls.  Again it wasn't a bad movie so I think I will rate it with a high 6 Ninja Stars out of 10.  It may have reached 7 if it would have omitted that last comparison to the Red Sox.  Comments are welcome as I know a lot of people have seen this movie and really liked it.

-Diomedes




Second Opinion: Moneyball


Moneyball is this years Social Network, the film that is based off a relatively unfilmable concept that ends up being a very good movie. Moneyball is a baseball movie, but has about one total minute of the on the field action, other than that its all behind the scenes. Scouting, drafting, trading, releasing...all the things a veteran fantasy baseball player like myself loves to see interpreted on the big screen. People who do not follow baseball as close may not enjoy the intricacies, but I definitely did. One of the biggest things I was afraid of was that they would glorify the season the A's had that year due to Beane's unconventional approach, when in reality the A's were one and done in the playoffs. But director Bennett Miller did not ignore that and addresses it head on. A very good performance from Brad Pitt, and decent supporting performances from Jonah Hill and Phillip Seymour Hoffman help the movie along, as it is definitely a movie that focuses on conversation. I give Moneyball 8 Ninja Stars out of 10, and recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the behind the scenes world of baseball. 


-Maximus