More a movie about Billy Beane then Moneyball

Rating: 4/10 (23 September 2011)

Moneyball is about finding and then exploiting market deficiencies and it is applicable to any business not just baseball. This book was key to changing the way a walk was valued and it started a new era of baseball thinking which eventually evolved into a hybrid of numbers and scouting. They choose not to focus on this and instead made a super melodramatic story on what Billy Beane went through. Am I suppose to think that a guy who outperformed his expectancy the past few years is now in trouble of getting fired because of one bad start to a season? This is just a example of the over-dramatic feel that this movie has created for itself. A twelve year old daughter overly concerned about her fathers job security when she herself is singing songs about being so alone in the world is another example.
Michael Lewis and Billy Beane had a great chance to show the non-baseball following world a little bit about how the sport has and is currently evolving. Instead they opted for the Hollywood angle. I think with better screenplay and with better direction this movie could have been one of the best baseball movie of all time much like the book. I mean they didn't show any of the 2002 draft preparation which was the best part of the book. Weak sauce.