'MONEYBALL' is to baseball what 'THE SOCIAL NETWORK' is to social networks.

Rating: 9/10 (27 September 2011)

'MONEYBALL': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
Sports biopic based on the Oakland A's 2002 season in which general manager Billy Beane used statistical data (for the first time) to assemble a winning team, overcoming the team's financial drawback. It was co-written by two of the best writers in the business, Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian, from a story by first time writer Stan Chervin which was in turn based on the book 'Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game' by Michael Lewis. The film was directed by Bennett Miller and stars Brad Pitt as Billy Beane (as well as Jonah Hill in a great supporting turn). You don't have to know a lot about baseball (and Pitt claims to know very little) or even enjoy it at all to enjoy this film; it's more about the business of the sport as well as following the passion of one's dreams. It's a very well made and effective film on that level.
The film starts out recapping the Oakland Athletics loss to the New York Yankees in the 2001 postseason. We very quickly learn the team's financial handicap as it's explained to the viewer that the A's had to make do with about a third of the budget as the Yankees. They lose their three star players as a result of this and Billy Bean's dreams of winning a World Series seem almost out of reach as he asks the team's owner for more money and comes up empty handed. Then he meets Peter Brand (Hill), a Yale economics graduate working for the Cleveland Indians. Brand's ideas on building a team based almost solely on the players' 'on base percentage' value impresses Beane and also represents new opportunities for his team despite their lack of money. He hires Brand and the two follow Brand's plan wholeheartedly despite running into a great deal of opposition from the team's scouts, coach (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and just about everyone else in baseball.
You don't have to know a lot about baseball to enjoy the film because there's not a whole lot of baseball in it. This film is about as much about baseball as 'BULL DURHAM' is. It's much more about the business end of baseball much like the writer Aaron Sorkin's last film ('THE SOCIAL NETWORK') was much more about the business of facebook than actually about facebook. I found it very interesting as well as informative and entertaining. Sorkin and Zaillian's script is very witty and packed with clever dialogue. It's also strong in character development and Pitt shines in the film. He and Hill have awesome chemistry together as well and Hill, like always, is a scene stealer. The rest of the cast is pitch perfect also and the directing is perfectly fitting too. It's one of those films that just hits all the right notes and leaves an impression long after viewing it (or should, I predict). If you're a baseball fan you'll probably get a kick out of it, even so, too (especially if you're an Oakland fan) for it's history and nostalgia.
Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOH74YX2UKA