**originally released 9/23/2011**
As I said before, I'm not the biggest fan of sports movies. But, after seeing "Goon" last weekend, I thought about trying another one out. So I went with last year's critically acclaimed, Oscar-nominated "Moneyball". Why not? It has a great cast, and who doesn't like a good underdog story?
The year is 2002. The Oakland A's have just lost another season. Now, the A's general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) is faced with the same problem he's been faced with in all the other years: the teams with more money are picking off their best players, and the A's are left with virtually nothing. In a desperate attempt to get back in the game, Beane hires Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a Yale graduate with a degree in economics who has a radical concept for picking players -- don't purchase players, purchase wins and runs. When all the talent scouts, team coach Art Howe (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), and all the analysts think he's crazy, Beane does the unthinkable -- buys a team for a fraction of the cost of more "wealthy" teams and brings them to record-breaking wins.
Director Bennett Miller ("Capote") and screenwriters Aaron Sorkin ("The Social Network", "A Few Good Men") and Steven Zaillian ("Schindler's List", 2011's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo") bring this underdog tale to life. It's a bizarre, heartbreaking tale, and respects all audiences -- sports fans and film fans alike. If you know nothing about baseball (like I do), you'll be able to follow the story to the last hit.
Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill are awesome here, and it's not a huge surprise why they both earned nominations at both the Oscars and the Golden Globes last year. They put in performances that I never thought either of them capable of. Brad Pitt manages a subtly that this film needed to be reverent to this story. Jonah Hill is turning into quite the actor as well. He's come a long way since "Knocked Up" and "Superbad", and, sure, his turn in "21 Jump Street" is a return to the crass movie genre, it looks like Hill will have a wonderful career ahead of him.
"Moneyball", based on the true story, shows a wonderful, yet heart-breaking tale of how two men changed the way the game is played and looked at. Baseball was never a sport I've enjoyed watching on TV, but this movie surprised me quite a bit. I actually avoided seeing this film simply because it was a baseball movie. Now I feel like an idiot for passing it up. Hell, I loved "The Blind Side", so football movies are now in. Now, if they could only make a good golf movie. And, no, "Happy Gilmore" does not count.
FINAL VERDICT: "Moneyball" is a great sports movie that is reverent to both the art of storytelling and the sport affectionately deemed as America's past-time. If you're not a sports fan, at least see it for Pitt and Hill's performances. I don't say this very often, but, if you haven't seen this film, you are missing out.
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