Moneyball

Moneyball

This movie is based on the book of the same name by Michael Lewis, and it tells the story of Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane.  Beane, who is played by Brad Pitt, is trying to recover from the loss of three of his stars to big market teams with big market checkbooks.   The movie follows Beane as he tries to compete with the big markets by trying an unconventional statistical analysis of players to fill in his roster holes.  The idea is first brought up to Beane by Peter Brand, played by Jonah Hill.  Beane takes what Brand has to say to heart and the two of them begin to work together to make the Athletics’ winners again.  Not too many people are fans of the idea especially the fans and scouts but Beane sticks the plan and the A’s turn it around with a record setting streak and another trip to the playoffs.

I really enjoyed this movie as I do with most movies about sports.  I thought it told a very interesting story and one I can definitely relate to being a fan of a small market baseball team, the Minnesota Twins.  While the A’s haven’t won the final game of the year they showed that you do not have to spend millions of dollars to compete.  I thought the acting was really good in the movie with most of the credit going to Brad Pitt.  He did a great job playing Beane as a very confident manager but also showed him as vulnerable with his daughter and when he recollects about his past as a first round draft choice that never lived up to the hype.  Jonah Hill also did a nice job playing the often nervous Peter Brand.  While most of the time he seemed nervous you could tell that he was learning from Beane and that he truly believed in what they were trying to accomplish.  Acting shout out goes to Chris Pratt who played catcher turned first baseman Scott Hatteberg.  He did not have a big role but it was nice to see him play a different role other than Andy from Parks and Rec.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie and I can see why it was up for best picture.  I haven’t seen any of the other candidates so I can’t say whether it should have won or not, but I thought it was one of the better movies I have seen in a while. 

I give Moneyball 4 out of 5 paw prints. 

 

The next movie review I will be doing is the 2011 robot fighting film Real Steel.

And as always “you don’t have to go home, but you have to get the hell out of here.”