"Moneyball" review: Just a bit outside reality

[Auggie]

San Francisco Film Review / 9-23-2011

"Moneyball" the movie is the greatest argument yet for fantasy baseball managers who are convinced they can run the Oakland A's.

With its pro-statistics themes and backroom-deal plot turns, the film provides a well-scripted insider look at baseball. Among other revelations: Giants General Manager Brian Sabean is an easy mark, baseball scouts use the "ugly girlfriend factor" in their player reports, and the inside of the Oakland Coliseum actually looks worse than the parts that fans can see.

But the big-screen adaptation of Michael Lewis' engaging 2003 book is also filled with compromises. Someone crammed "Major League"-style sports cliches into a more nuanced story about baseball and progress - and then tried to fit a Brad Pitt star vehicle inside of that. The result is an interesting but frustrating near-miss.

Pitt stars as A's general manager Billy Beane, in a movie that uses a surprising number of real names. (The most surreal bit of casting: Former Giants shortstop Royce Clayton plays former A's shortstop Miguel Tejada.) Faced with a low payroll budget, Beane decides to rewrite the rules of baseball, eventually recruiting an Ivy League economics major (Jonah Hill), who uses statistical Sabermetrics instead of scouting and intuition to craft a team. An early losing streak tests their faith, before their "island of misfit toys" ballclub has a chance to make history.

Rest of Review: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/23/DD1S1L4GCE.DTL&type=movies

One critics' opinion. I'll still see it.

[Kingofalldems]

1. Washington Post gave it 4 stars

[Upton]

2. Sabean is attacked?

How many successful playoff runs have the A's had under Beane? And which baseball franchise is truly the model for success both on and off the field in the Bay Area?

I also find the omission of Hudson, Zito and Mulder rather odd...and though I understand the book hardly mentions them either, following the book doesn't seem to have been a top priority by the filmmakers anyway...

I'll watch it, I am a fan of sabermetrics, if it comes on HBO or something...wouldn't spend money at a theater though.

[Auggie]

3. This is not necessarily a film about Bay Area baseball successes

but of the evolution of outside-the-box thinking used to build a small market contender, aka Moneyball. I find the ommission of the big three odd too, but taken into context could understand how and why they were left out. I haven't seen the movie yet so I shouldn't comment further.

[hughee99]

4. I thought the book was great,

but I was skeptical from the get-go that they would be able to adapt this to a successful movie AND be relatively faithful to the book.