Moneyball (2011)

Rating: 90%
Now a couple of months ago I finished a couple of classes halfway through the fall semester that gave me the time I needed to go to the theaters a little more. So one day I went to go see Ides of March and Moneyball. And while I saw Ides of March first and Moneyball second, I decided to write the reviews that I've finally gotten myself to write in reverse order. Why? Just because I feel like it. So here's the first one to review: Moneyball.


Plot: The movie is based on the true story about Oakland Athletes manager Billy Beane. It starts off at the end of the 2001 MLB season where the Athletes say good-bye to their three star players, Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi, and Jason Isringhausen. This leaves Beane to search for new players that fit the budget for the Athletes in time for the 2002 season. Along the way, he comes across a young economics graduate from Yale named Peter Brad who gives him a set of ideas of how to judge what players to use for the season in a way that saves money. Considering these ideas, Beane decides to hire Brad as the new assistant general manager and uses his ideas to attempt to make the Oakland Athletes a winning team.

Now I had some very low expectations for this movie just from seeing the trailer alone. It looked like that while it was taking a different turn in the sports movie cliche, it was still going to be a complete, utter cliche. Now in some points as the movie goes on, it does have its very cliche moments but they are generally very few and some of them you can really enjoy anyway. And what really made it better was that it wasn't really focusing on the game. Almost the whole movie was more focused on either what Beane and Brad where doing, or about Beane's past or his relationship with his daughter. And whatever scenes did have actual baseball in it were generally very short. To top it all, the ending was very unique. I won't give anything away, but basically it was very clever.

Actors/Characters:
Brad Pitt/Billy Beane: I thought he did an excellent job. His character was very interesting.
Jonah Hill/Peter Brad: I thought he did a very good job too. I think my favorite part with his character was his last scene which turned out to be very entertaining and moving.

Music: It was pretty nice.

Editing: I thought the editing was very good. I think my favorite scene by far was when they were taking down those posters or whatever they are called of their three former star players. I just thought it worked in terms of how things were taking a completely different turn.


And that's my review for Moneyball. It's probably not going to win best picture, but if it gets nominated, I think it'll pretty much be one of the strongest nominees of that category.