Review of Moneyball (2011) by Anthony D — 25 Nov 2012

Entertaining seldom-seen insider view of the $ aspect of baseball and how it affects the team winnings. Brad Pitt stars as Billy Beane, former promising player who never quite lived up to his promise, if not his potential. Billy, as genl manager takes on A's ownership, the coaches, the scouts and the rich teams by devising a plan, along with Jonah Hill, who he poached from a team, while on the hunt for neglected good players.

Deciding to choose players based on 'getting on base' rather than more conventional statistics which are more-than-prevalent in baseball and ridding of the often cruel armchair psychology of the scouts, ie:

'he has an ugly girlfriend, so he must lack confidence'.

'he throws funny' as factors in choosing players.

Brad and Jonah carry the slow paced movie along, however, it never seems to make a stab at attracting non baseball fans to the plate.

The ending did not quite satisfy...not so much due to not hitting its/Billy Beane's goal, ie:

Winning the world series with a lower budget team...

Due to NOT winning a personal victory to be felt by the audience and counter the larger loss of not making it all the way, ie: world series.

Theres a throw away line at the end stating the Red Sx won the series with Beane's theory, however, don't the Red Soz have more $ too???

The film, also, did not mention the A's in the world series in the late 80's.

Weren't they a low budget team at that time and still went all the way?

Nice touches include:

The idea of getting rid of top or name players to build a better cohesive team.