The Game in Moneyball!

03.02.2012 – Telling a baseball story in film is rare these days. If you have seen the reality of the game it might bore you. For years there are several baseball themed movies that I could recall like A League of Their Own featuring Madonna and Charlie Sheen as Wild Thing in Major League which spawned two sequels. Moneyball on the other hand had a serious tone that propelled this film to the Academy Awards. It’s the second baseball film in 23 years following Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams and was critically acclaimed.

What makes Moneyball unique is because it’s a biographical drama based from Michael Lewis’ book in 2003 following the career of the Oakland Athletics 2002 season how they made history winning 20 games in a row. The movie unfolds in the big screen featuring the life of Billy Beane the manager of a struggling baseball team.

Brad Pitt certainly plays Billy Beane to a “T” that got him an Oscar’s nomination for Best Actor and surely was stellar in this film. Jonah Hill as a composite character in Peter Brand is way different from his previous film roles as a serious actor. The movie itself got nominated for Best Picture but you all know who won on Oscar Night. But this won’t stop you from seeing Brad Pitt strut his acting chops.

The premise is enough to give you the curiosity that you need to see this film, and most definitely is not the heavy drama you’re expecting but it’s enough to entertain you every bit of the movie as it moves along.

If you know how baseball rolls in you’ll understand how the American past time happen and how they face their struggles every time the season begins. This also applies to other field of sport. If you imagine how basketball happens in the NBA you’ll never get lost with seeing Moneyball for all its complexities.

Overall everyone had a great performance and how the story was told based from that book. All I can say is all praise for this film not only for its entertainment value but how the story is being told. With all that Moneyball earns a perfect 5 out of 5 rating most highly recommended for those who just want to see a good story without frills or chills.

Moneyball opens across the Philippines on March 7, 2012 which stars Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman locally distributed from our friends at Columbia Pictures.