bill bodkin and logan j. fowler look at the new baseball film …
Theater, Rent, No Thanks, Undecided? Rent.
While Moneyball boasts a pretty solid cast with Brad Pitt, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jonah Hill, it’s not the kind of movie I haven’t seen before — underdog sports team needs to win, they need a leader to get them there, and that leader is manager Billy Beane (Pitt), He, along with Jonah Hill’s character Peter Brand, uses a computer-generated system to pick players to create a winning sports team. The film’s trailer kind of reminded me of Jerry Maguire, with a touch of Major League. While I don’t think this is necessary theater fare, the trailer did hold my interest, and I will probably check it out on Netflix when it hits the home video market.
— LJF
Theater, Rent, No Thanks, Undecided? Theater.
If Moneyball can live up to the solid trailer it has delivered, then we could be seeing, a potential Oscar-nominated film. That’s a big “if.” A movie about applying economic theory to create a winning baseball team — is not exactly the sexiest concepts. What’s going to have happen for this film to be engaging, let alone Oscar-worthy, is strong writing. The cast is full of terrific actors (Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, et. al) and they’ve all done well with weak scripts; but to sell this concept is going to take a masterful script writer. And that’s when I discovered Aaron Sorkin, the genius behind The Social Network, had re-wrote the film. Sorkin’s words with Pitt’s natural charisma and the comedic timing and acting chops of Hill and Hoffman, could be a home run. So when this film is released in the slower film season of September, I’ll be giving this one a look-see in theaters.
— BB
