Moneyball Movie Reviews - Ratings, Songs, Videos, Release, Trailers, Cast

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Ameetbhuvan Movie Jockey

192 17

Not just another film on sports Feb 22, 2012

3.0/5

In one pivotal scene in Money Ball, Pitt asks his daughter not to worry about her father loosing his job. He repeatedly reassures her, while in reality, he is reassuring his own self that nothing is wrong. That it is important to keep faith and believe in yourself when you are swimming against the tide. With clincher moments like this one, Money Ball is as much a film on sports as it is a story of the triumph of perseverance and belief.

Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, an ex base ball player who is now General Manager of a loosing side. The film traces how he, with his associate Pete, tries to redefine the game of base ball by building a team with players no team was willing to bet on.

In more ways than one, the film mirrors the way sports is handled across the world today. Money speaks, money bags rule, and players are traded instead of being groomed and nurtured. Portions where Pitt's team is dismissed as a fluke despite a record 20 straight wins runs parallel to how our own cricket team is feted one day and rubbished the very next.

The movie also is a comment on how winning is everything for us as a society. How winners are kings, while losers, however good, are worthless. Pitt's character sums this up when he says he hates losing more than he loves winning.

Brad Pitt is the heart of the movie. With his good looks, it is tough to convince the audience to focus on his histrionics. Pitt fails most of the time, making me wonder what warranted the academy nod to his turn in the film. Yet, in flashes, his brilliance shines bright, and you know this is a career defining act by the actor.

Pete, played by Joahn Hill, is the other delightful act in the movie. He mixes intelligence naivety and sincerity into an endearing mix, holding his own int he midst of a towering Brad Pitt.

Director Bennet Miller weaves an engaging plot throughout and despite being slow, there is not a low moment in the movie. For Hindi film buffs, the direction and storytelling runs eerily parallel to Chak De India, another real life story of an underdog sportsman out to prove a point to the world. Watch this for some fine cinema, even if sports is not your idea of a nice evening at the theaters.view less

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Ankur Pathak Movie Jockey

117 14

Game Well Played Pitts the Man Feb 25, 2012

3.5/5

The best part of Millers new film that essentially centres on a once-high potential player turned Scout for a low-grade Baseball team (the Oakland ... read more

The best part of Millers new film that essentially centres on a once-high potential player turned Scout for a low-grade Baseball team (the Oakland As), is that it never really feels like a baseball film. So, even a viewer with minimum exposure to the game will find the film thoroughly riveting for its abundant ambition and the several unusual relationships it uncovers as it goes along.
When three star players from the Oakland As are lured away from the team, Brad Pitts Billy Beane has the herculean task of keeping the team going with apt replacements within a constrained budget. A man driven to revolutionize the game more than just shatter conventions, Billy comes across Yale-graduate, the nerdy Peter Brand, who presents a complex formula that judges the players solely on the basis of their potential on-field the runs they score rather than intangible elements Billys team discuss on the round table, like their appearance, girlfriends etc. Beane picks up the idea, and goes ahead with recruitment, much to the annoyance of the tradition-worshiping, game-knowing elder gods.
Moneyball, to an extent works well methodically because of its impeccable source material, the Michael Lewis book which goes by the same name. Rest of it is director Bennett Millers almost sublime control and his decision to point attention largely to Pitts character Billy Beane. Hes a charmingly confident for a General Manager, his chutzpah reflecting in the spontaneity of his judgments, consistency visible in being unapologetic about them. It becomes his personal story about the ambition which is nearly attained, but not fulfilled, because of the postseason defeat; and probably because of letting go a tantalizing opportunity.
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin whose last film (The Social Network), was again a biography (though sensationally dramatized) keeps the fervour remarkably restrained yet similarly lends the powerful wit. This leads to clever banter, also humour where you least expect it, mainly involving the composite character of Jonah Hill.
If the calculated nature of the story steals the romance from the game, as Billy himself confesses, the subplots involving his ex-wife and his relationship with his daughter balance him off assuring a sense of attachment.
A Baseball movie with a storyline that is both conventional yet distinct, Moneyball couldve done better with The Social Networks pacing and an elevated dramatic energy. It still manages to pull off the game with its performances and an insightful story which is ably directed. Go, have a ball.
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