Moneyball [Blu-ray] [Includes Digital Copy] [2011]

Good movie if you’ve never seen it definitely worth watching only downside is no digital copy

Brad Pitt is great as Billy Beane, but the strength of this film is the storytelling genius of author Michael Lewis, and the supporting cast that transform the book into a great sports flick.

the start of saber-metrics in analyzing baseball; BRad Pitt is great as Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane

"Moneyball" is a term used to describe the application of statistical methods of analysis to the game of baseball, which may result in adoption of practices counterintuitive to the way baseball has been traditionally played. The movie relates how the use of these practices, which have spread throughout baseball, began in Oakland. Brad Pitt gives an understated but sensitive performance as the Athletics' general manager beset by skepticism among his own staff and a difficult personal life.

I'll start this review by mentioning a small detail about me that I think is important to this review. I am a huge baseball fan. As I said in my Review title, if you aren't a baseball person in the least, you will most likely not enjoy this movie and you could stop reading here. For all others, here goes.. Moneyball is based of of a book which explains how Baseball has become a business. A business in which the richest teams always have the upper hand over teams that never had deep enough pockets to afford the best players on the market. This is a true story, which to my surprise was extremely well-told through movie adaptation. Quick Plot Rundown: This is the story of Billy Beane (Pitt), who is the GM of the Oakland Athletics, a team which is pretty self-explanatory for baseball fans (no offense, A's fans). He takes Peter Brand (Hill) under his wing and goes a different route to create a winning team with very little money - by way of finding cheap players with specific stats that are the most important to winning baseball games. Basically, its a team of average joe's, some not even average. The movie in my opinion was fantastic, but I know for sure that it will not be for everyone. Brad Pitt's performance was great, and Jonah Hill really surprised me with how awesome he played his character. The movie is a bit long (133 min.) and does have it's slow moments, but it also has moments that had the whole theatre laughing when I had gone to see it. It was a nice balance of serious and humorous. My Bottom line is if you know about the politics of baseball, and want to know how some of the most unlikely teams became champions, you should check this movie out. However, the bigger a baseball fan you are, the more you will appreciate this movie.

This film is as much about family and heart as it is about baseball and analytics! As good as Brad Pitt is here, and he’s quite good, it’s Jonah Hill is easily steals the show in this one. He is top notch and in rare form, a breath of fresh air from his usual comedic antics. A great film that I highly recommend to anyone, whether you’re a baseball fan or not!

This film I did like, however, the first 20 minutes of the film were slow; kind of boring actually, but afterwards it picked up and you got to see how baseball was run back in 2001! Was nostalgic because that's when I was in college and it reminded me of a lot of things during that time regarding film and baseball. The DTS HDMA 5.1 surround sound is pristine and the sounds of bats clashing and slow motion are superb and the picture quality for MasterED IN 4K overall very good, although I had to change some color levels and brightness on my 4K UHDTV but overall no major issues. Definitely a good film!

It's hard to make a real life experience appear as good in a movie, as it happened in real life. This movie exceeds that! This movie is based on a general manager (Billy Beane) (Brad Pitt), and an unknown kid (Jonah Hill), that challenged all that baseball has known since its begginings, on how to evaluate talent. It is NOT a boring statistical movie, even though, on the surface, the subject may seem that way. The real life trials (no one wanted them to succeed) and triumphs (a division championship & and MLB history making 20 game winning streak), allow the film to enthrall the viewer in a plot that seems as though it could only be "made up" in a hollywood tale... but infact it REALLY happened. The acting was fantastic, and the story plot lets the viewer understand what they went through, to make history, not follow tradition, and succeed.