Directed by:
Bennett MillerCinematography:
Wally PfisterComposer:
Mychael DannaCast:
Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Robin Wright, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Chris Pratt, Tammy Blanchard, Jack McGee, Brent Jennings, Nick Searcy, Glenn Morshower (more)VOD (4)
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Columbia Pictures’ Moneyball is based on the true story of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) – once a would-be baseball superstar who, stung by the failure to live up to expectations on the field, turned his fiercely competitive nature to management. Heading into the 2002 season, Billy faces a dismal situation: his small-market Oakland A’s have lost their star players (again) to big market clubs (and their enormous salaries) and he is left to rebuild his team and compete with a third of their payroll. Driven to win, Billy takes on the system by challenging the fundamental tenets of the game. He looks outside of baseball, to the dismissed theories of Bill James, and hires Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a brainy, number-crunching, Yale-educated economist. Together they take on conventional wisdom with a willingness to reexamine everything and armed with computer driven statistical analysis long ignored by the baseball establishment. They reach imagination-defying conclusions and go after players overlooked and dismissed by the rest of baseball for being too odd, too old, too injured or too much trouble, but who all have key skills that are universally undervalued. As Billy and Peter forge forward, their new methods and roster of misfits rile the old guard, the media, the fans, and their own field manager (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who refuses to cooperate. Ultimately this experiment will lead not only to a change in the way the game is played, but to an outcome that would leave Billy with a new understanding that transcends the game and delivers him to a new place. (Columbia Pictures US)
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Reviews (14)
The best sports-themed film in years. It doesn't matter if you understand baseball or have a relationship with the sport itself, Sorkin's brilliant (again) script is all about passion for the cause, boundless faith in one's own judgement and in what one is doing, despite the risk of losing one's credit. The interactions between Pitt and Hill are a joy to watch. All this without annoying clichés and fake spectacular scenes that would make a stone cry (see e.g. Warrior).
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Moneyball is a fantastically original and cleverly written, brilliantly directed story about inspiration and good intensions. I don’t care for baseball, but the message of this work rings true for any field – trust your instincts, follow your own path and don’t sell yourself short. Why didn’t Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian set this behind the scenes in the world of filmmaking, which also relies on teamwork? That would have secured them some Oscars for sure. But that might happen anyway.
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The final about half hour, when they “finally" started playing, almost didn't interest me anymore. Baseball is one of the sports that I know almost nothing about and actually don't want to know, so I guess it’s no wonder. I enjoyed most of Moneyball, though, because it wasn’t based on the players' game, but on the game of the actors (the unsurprisingly super Brad Pitt and very surprisingly super Jonah Hill) and on an elaborate screenplay that brought me into this strange world with confidence and ease and was able to entertain me well.
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Statistics are boring, but carry valuable information and in the form of a baseball version of The Social Network, it isn’t boring at all. This is as much about baseball as Fincher is about Facebook; in other words, not at all. Despite this, this category is still ruled by The Damned United which is basically the same in a more inventive form of directing and, thanks to the setting, is also a little closer in cultural terms for a European.
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The best and most entertaining baseball film I’ve ever seen. Before watching it, I wasn’t expecting it to deliver a great experience because baseball is all Dutch to me, but the fears were unwarranted. Brad Pitt’s great performance and the equally great script didn’t allow my attention to stray away. Thumbs up and I’m rooting for Brad at the Oscars.
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