Moneyball

I'm pretty much a sports nut, and while baseball isn't my favorite, I'm always up for a good sports movie.  Moneyball did not disappoint.

Moneyball is the story of Billy Beane, the general manager for the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball.  The movie follows Beane, and his partner wiz kid guru Peter Brand, through the 2002 baseball season.  The focus of the story isn't the fact that Beane is successful but the way he accomplishes it.  This is through a new method of talent evaluation, evaluation of current and future productivity, not based upon traditional methods but instead based on mathematical calculations called sabermetrics.  The methods are based on a book by Bill James called The Art of Winning the Unfair Game.

Billy Beane is played by Brad Pitt, who as usual does a great acting job.  Jonah Hill plays Peter Brand and really does a fantastic job of balancing out Pitt's character.  These two are a great duo in this movie and it's their interaction that make the movie great.  Other supporting actors include Phillip Seymour Hoffman,  Robin Wright, Chris Pratt and Stephen Bishop.

I should also add that the movie has a great feel to it.  Some sports movies just feel fake, like Hollywood just didn't get it right, but this one they nailed.  The music was also very nice, particularly the title song.

While there are some issues glossed over by the movie, like the fact that it was Zito, Hudson, and Mulder (the A's outstanding young pitchers) made this team great, not the scrap they threw together based on sabermetrics, this movie was outstanding.  I would highly recommend this one to anyone who is into baseball or even has a passing interest.  This is the best sports movie I've seen in years.