Moneyball

[Rob W. Case]

Brad Pitt stars as Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland A's Major League Baseball team. Given a very low budget, Beane is forced to crack down, get creative, and be competitive with what little he has. In the process of trading one of his players to another team, Beane encounters a very timid young man by the name of Peter Brand, a man who formulated a system that goes above and beyond the old-fashioned, conventional means of building a winning team. This system captures the interest of Beane, and moves him to hire Brand as his own main advisor. From there, the movie then becomes a game of strategy in balancing money, personal emotions, taking risks, experiencing doubt, dealing with resistance and pessimism, and trying to tie everything together to bring the team to victory.

This movie, I thought, was very enjoyable, even for someone who has little to no general interest in sports. Of the many active dynamics in this film, trying to produce an outcome by applying a strategy, and having to arrange and move everything around to make that strategy work is not only interesting, but is also constructive in many aspects. This is a movie you can walk out of and learn something.

Out of 4 stars, I would give this movie 4 stars.

The film is rated PG=13 and runs approximately 2 hours and 13 minutes.

To view a trailer for this film, click on the link below:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiAHlZVgXjk

For more about this movie, visit:
www.moneyball-movie.com/