Jason KingMONEYBALL: A Review
November 18th 2011 06:06
:
Review by Mitch
Category: Reviews
Thanks to the awesome Mitch for attending this screening for me although with my slackness and from being away from work I was still yet to post the article before going to see it myself and I have to say I agree wholeheartedly with Mitch on his review. The only difference was that I had no idea about the running of a baseball team and had to quietly ask my viewing guest, Big G from Cinefools.com what all the trading stuff meant.......on numerous occasions 
But again, big thanks Mitch and honestly your best review yet, it flows well
Witty, wordy and wonderful, Moneyball hits it right out of the park. - If they're looking for a quote for the poster and/or DVD for Moneyball, that's mine right there for the taking.
In 2002, the famous Oakland A's baseball team was down in the dumps, comprising of a penniless group of players and a general manager, ex-player Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), who was running on empty. All hope seemed lost until Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a young Yale graduate, enters the picture. Pete ruffles some feathers after he uses his skills as an economics major to revolutionise the way the game of baseball currently evaluates its players financial and game contributing value. After upsetting the tradition, Billy and Pete work together to build a new Oakland A's team out of unlikely players using Pete's new mathematical, computerised theory based on their talent as ballplayers and not on their commercial profit, as other teams seem to do.
Moneyball is an adaptation of the Michael Lewis book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game which itself is a dramatic biographical sports story.
The film was directed by Bennett Miller (Capote) with the screenplay written by Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network). With a creative team responsible for so many Academy Award winning accolades, it's hard not to believe that Moneyball will be an Oscar contender.
That's the question on everybody's mind, is Moneyball Brad Pitt's ticket to Oscar gold? I don't think so.
Put your tomatoes away! I think he's great in this role as Billy Beane. He brings charm, charisma and an edge of cockiness to the role of a guy who is taking a gamble. On the surface he remains certain that the plan will work despite underneath that certainty, the audience begins feeling his concern grow which of course he doesn't want the doubters around him to pick up on.
Put it this way, I do think Pitt was great in the role, I thought he was fantastic but I won't be surprised if he gets overlooked for a nomination, he always does. Golden Globe most likely but not the Oscars. Only time will tell anyway.
Jonah Hill does quite well in a role that doesn't have him dropping swears every 10 seconds and giving us one liners to remember for the rest of our lives. His character is the nervous, quiet but intelligent new guy that everybody else essentially hates because he's the bosses new #1 man plus he's also the guy who has put this new analytical plan into Billy's head, which everyone fears and loathes. While his presence is initially strong, towards the middle of the movie, I found it had dropped off a fair bit. He plays his role with a very subdued finesse, leaving the few laughs he scored, purely up to the dialogue he was delivering which is a testament to the fantastic writers.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays a very natural Coach/Athletics manager Art Howe. His performance was the one that I believed the most. There was something about everything that he did that just led me to believe I wasn't watching Phillip Seymour Hoffman but an actual disillusioned, frustrated baseball manager who is struggling to deal with his contract negotiations while battling with a seemingly dead-end strategy to improve an already dying team.
There were several support roles in the film comprised mainly of the baseball players who I found a little difficult to separate and follow. This was due in part to the fact that several references to 'not getting too attached to the players' were made as they were frequently cut from the team and traded with other teams throughout the film. Kerris Dorsey (Walk the Line) also appears in a minor role as Billy Beane's musically gifted daughter. She seemed very professional and carried off a very natural performance for a young girl opposite a mega star like Brad Pitt.
The other part I loved about this movie were the scenes that really built the drama by utilising the air conditioning in the cinema that is to say there are several fantastically effective scenes that employ complete and utter silence bar the sound of the rumbling air vents in the cinema. It's so rare that you find yourself in a movie cinema, watching the pinnacle of a dramatic sequence while you're immersed in total, unbroken silence. No one in the audience moved, coughed or sniffed at this point, you could've almost heard someone blink but that's about it. It was brilliant. I wanted to applaud just for that technique alone but everyone would've had a heart attack.
Moneyball is a very wordy movie which should come as no surprise considering the people behind the screenplay, so at times, for someone like me whose attention span can be insultingly short, it can get a little dull. For the most part it was definitely consistent in its execution, the whole film has a very natural flow but I'm not going to lie, there are a handful of scenes where complex numeric and scientific evaluations play an integral part which resulted in my eyes glazing over and left a wee little noggin like mine, open for the scratching.
Whether or not this film will be a contender for the awards season remains to be seen but it's clearly aiming for that ultimate goal which means if you're on the market for an interesting tale based on a true story, quality acting from some of today's finest and a fantastically written drama script peppered with momentary laughs, then Moneyball is definitely for you.
If you think this is one of those standard sports movies that focusses on the underdog team playing to win the big game like a baseball equivalent of The Mighty Ducks, this is not it. Moneyball is less about what goes on on the surface of the baseball league and more about how it's run from underneath. This is behind the scenes of baseball. Technical baseball fans will eat this movie up.
Did I love it? I liked it but I didn't love it, however, I certainly respected the hell out of it. It really is quality story telling at it's best and there will be a hell of a lot of people out there who will love it.
Moneyball hits cinemas November 10 and I'm giving it an 8 out of 10.
But again, big thanks Mitch and honestly your best review yet, it flows well 
Witty, wordy and wonderful, Moneyball hits it right out of the park. - If they're looking for a quote for the poster and/or DVD for Moneyball, that's mine right there for the taking.
In 2002, the famous Oakland A's baseball team was down in the dumps, comprising of a penniless group of players and a general manager, ex-player Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), who was running on empty. All hope seemed lost until Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a young Yale graduate, enters the picture. Pete ruffles some feathers after he uses his skills as an economics major to revolutionise the way the game of baseball currently evaluates its players financial and game contributing value. After upsetting the tradition, Billy and Pete work together to build a new Oakland A's team out of unlikely players using Pete's new mathematical, computerised theory based on their talent as ballplayers and not on their commercial profit, as other teams seem to do.
Moneyball is an adaptation of the Michael Lewis book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game which itself is a dramatic biographical sports story.
The film was directed by Bennett Miller (Capote) with the screenplay written by Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network). With a creative team responsible for so many Academy Award winning accolades, it's hard not to believe that Moneyball will be an Oscar contender.
That's the question on everybody's mind, is Moneyball Brad Pitt's ticket to Oscar gold? I don't think so.
Put your tomatoes away! I think he's great in this role as Billy Beane. He brings charm, charisma and an edge of cockiness to the role of a guy who is taking a gamble. On the surface he remains certain that the plan will work despite underneath that certainty, the audience begins feeling his concern grow which of course he doesn't want the doubters around him to pick up on.
Put it this way, I do think Pitt was great in the role, I thought he was fantastic but I won't be surprised if he gets overlooked for a nomination, he always does. Golden Globe most likely but not the Oscars. Only time will tell anyway.
Jonah Hill does quite well in a role that doesn't have him dropping swears every 10 seconds and giving us one liners to remember for the rest of our lives. His character is the nervous, quiet but intelligent new guy that everybody else essentially hates because he's the bosses new #1 man plus he's also the guy who has put this new analytical plan into Billy's head, which everyone fears and loathes. While his presence is initially strong, towards the middle of the movie, I found it had dropped off a fair bit. He plays his role with a very subdued finesse, leaving the few laughs he scored, purely up to the dialogue he was delivering which is a testament to the fantastic writers.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays a very natural Coach/Athletics manager Art Howe. His performance was the one that I believed the most. There was something about everything that he did that just led me to believe I wasn't watching Phillip Seymour Hoffman but an actual disillusioned, frustrated baseball manager who is struggling to deal with his contract negotiations while battling with a seemingly dead-end strategy to improve an already dying team.
There were several support roles in the film comprised mainly of the baseball players who I found a little difficult to separate and follow. This was due in part to the fact that several references to 'not getting too attached to the players' were made as they were frequently cut from the team and traded with other teams throughout the film. Kerris Dorsey (Walk the Line) also appears in a minor role as Billy Beane's musically gifted daughter. She seemed very professional and carried off a very natural performance for a young girl opposite a mega star like Brad Pitt.
The other part I loved about this movie were the scenes that really built the drama by utilising the air conditioning in the cinema that is to say there are several fantastically effective scenes that employ complete and utter silence bar the sound of the rumbling air vents in the cinema. It's so rare that you find yourself in a movie cinema, watching the pinnacle of a dramatic sequence while you're immersed in total, unbroken silence. No one in the audience moved, coughed or sniffed at this point, you could've almost heard someone blink but that's about it. It was brilliant. I wanted to applaud just for that technique alone but everyone would've had a heart attack.
Moneyball is a very wordy movie which should come as no surprise considering the people behind the screenplay, so at times, for someone like me whose attention span can be insultingly short, it can get a little dull. For the most part it was definitely consistent in its execution, the whole film has a very natural flow but I'm not going to lie, there are a handful of scenes where complex numeric and scientific evaluations play an integral part which resulted in my eyes glazing over and left a wee little noggin like mine, open for the scratching.
Whether or not this film will be a contender for the awards season remains to be seen but it's clearly aiming for that ultimate goal which means if you're on the market for an interesting tale based on a true story, quality acting from some of today's finest and a fantastically written drama script peppered with momentary laughs, then Moneyball is definitely for you.
If you think this is one of those standard sports movies that focusses on the underdog team playing to win the big game like a baseball equivalent of The Mighty Ducks, this is not it. Moneyball is less about what goes on on the surface of the baseball league and more about how it's run from underneath. This is behind the scenes of baseball. Technical baseball fans will eat this movie up.
Did I love it? I liked it but I didn't love it, however, I certainly respected the hell out of it. It really is quality story telling at it's best and there will be a hell of a lot of people out there who will love it.
Moneyball hits cinemas November 10 and I'm giving it an 8 out of 10.
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