Moneyball

Review by Sean Lynch

Moneyball is a star studded affair, with more Oscar bait attached to it than any other sports movie in history (Brad Pitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Arron Sorkin) and follows the real life tale of Billy Beane (Pitt) a has been superstar player prospect who turns to the fiercely competitive world of team management. 

Baseball movies have always fared surprisingly well in Australia. Considering it's known as America's favourite pastime and the game itself is about as entertaining as a three week long Cricket test match, films like A League Of Their Own and Major League have earned their rightful place in Aussie viewers pop culture psyche.

However, how will audience react to a sports movie that shows very little, if any, actual baseball? Well, interestingly enough, pretty well.

After a heart breaking 2001 season, Beane faces a pretty dismal situation : his star players at the small-market Oakland A's have all been poached by the big business NY Yankees. 

He now left in the unenviable position of rebuilding an entire team from scratch with a budget akin to what most teams spend on one player  lost their star players (Around $40M compared to $115M).

With few options left, Billy takes a chance on recruiting system based on the often dismissed theories of economist Bill James. Together with young brain Peter Brand (Jonah Hill in one of his final "fat roles") the unlikely duo re-examine baseball and its conventions using a computer driven statistical analysis system.

Despite a lack of understanding from pretty much everyone in baseball - including the old guard, the media, the fans, and their own field manager (Philip Seymour Hoffman) - the theory of going after players who have been overlooked or dismissed by the rest of baseball for being too odd, too old, or injured (but who all have key skills in other areas that have been statistically overlooked) soon starts to work.

What follows is something akin to Mighty Ducks inside a locker room. We rarely see any of the action on the field (in fact, Beane never attends games himself for fear of jinxing his players) but the under dog movie values are still very much present.

The cast is excellent, with Pitt as charismatic and watchable as ever - while the subdued Jonah Hill does his best to defy your expectations of him to throw an F-Bomb the audiences way.

Moneyball loses a bit of steam towards the end, but by and large, for a film that is literally about looking at Excel Spreadsheets it's as engrossing as any other movie out there at the moment.

Well worth checking out sports nuts (especially those of you who have Fantasy Football or Dream Teams), the stats don't lie!

DVD Special Features

• Billy Beane : Re-Inventing the Game
  

• Blooper : Brad Loses It
  

• Moneyball : Playing The Game

Conclusion: Movie 70% Extras: 65%