Moneyball

This film is for everyone. Baseball fans who want an inside look. Movie fans who like good, true stories, and Brad Pitt fans who appreciate how easy he makes his job look. The story of Billy Beane is one very few know. When choosing a biopic, Beane would not be my first choice considering the lack of impact he has had on pop culture in the real world. However, his impact on the game of professional baseball is something that will live on forever. This really is fun to watch from any aspect, but it really seems Beane was nuts when it came to his job. He didn't care about "the system" that has been in place for 100 years. He wanted to win. The only problem was figuring out how to beat a team with 142 million dollar payroll with his measly 38 million dollar budget. He recruits the unlikeliest of people to aid him in his mission, and as they say, the rest is history. There is not much I can write about this. You just have to trust me when I say it is brilliant. Billy Beane is the GM of the Oakland Athletics and he "Likes winning even more than he Hates Losing". It makes sense. His right hand man is Peter Brant (Jonah Hill). A Yale Economics graduate who is good with numbers. He realizes players are over paid for any number of reasons and he feels the Moneyball system works. Peter and Billy's number one concern when looking for ball players on a budget can be defined by three letters. OBP. On Base Percentage. If you get on base the most, the odds are in your favor. It is a very smart film, but the fact the Billy was able to re-invent the proverbial wheel is something amazing. No one had faith in what he was doing. The Manager Art Howe fought him tooth and nail to the point Billy went to the extreme to "Make" Art do what he wanted. He lost some long time scouts because they didn't agree with him, and when it got tough, as in not working, he stuck it out. For better or worse, he was gonna take his math experiment through at least 162 games. So much fun to watch and Pitt deserves Gold. The humor is great when it is needed and this is a smaller role than we have been used to seeing out of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, but he shines as Art Howe. Watch this film. At least once and you will not be disappointed.

NBM rates Moneyball - Phenomenal