'Moneyball' A Review

Went to see the late showing of 'Moneyball' with Tisher tonight. It came highly recommended from my mom.

'Moneyball' is about the Oakland A's GM and his frustration about how the MLB works with all the rich teams having an unfair advantage over the poorer teams. Brad Pitt meets Jonah Hill and they implement a new idea, to stack the team by statistics of who gets on base the most. They attempt to structure the team to optimize runs rather than anything else. The idea behind this may be very interesting to sports fans or baseball fanatics. I was mildly interested in exactly what they were implementing but more interested in their passion for it.

What carries the movie is Brad Pitts fervor to change the game, his need to reinvent it, his desire to be remembered. Also the chemistry between Pitt and Hill is great. Pitt as a mentor and partner, leaning on hill for his ideas and his smarts but also teaching him how to work at the MLB. There's a scene where Pitt makes Hill let him go because he says hill have to cut, trade, or bust down a player one day. That scene really pays off when Pitt and Hill make a big trade and they both have to release players. It's the first time I've ever scene Jonah Hill be still or quiet or low status and it was great. The idea of what their trying to implement and their passion for it makes for a really interesting friendship between both characters.

The low points were few. Philip Seymour Hoffman as the manager was one. There seemed no point for him even to be in the movie. Whenever he was on screen he just frowned. He showed no emotion and no range. That could have been what they were going for but in that case there's no need to hire Philip Seymour Hoffman. It seemed to me the only reason he was in the movie was to have another star on the cast list. The movie also felt kind of long but to be fair I did see it at 10:20 on a Wednesday.

The acting was great, the chemistry between the characters drew you in, and the story was compelling.

See It.