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Yeah, that sounds cut to shreds. Hoffman has several scenes and we definitely meet his wife. Bummer.
Moneyball
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I don't know much about baseball, though it was interesting. I like the guy out of (knocked up) I forget him name, though the character went to the Boston Red Sox I believe?
Last edited by Powderfinger; 05-10-12 at 05:25 AM.
I have never watched a game of baseball in my life and loved this film.
Brad Pit was great Jonah Hill was even better.
Brad Pit was great Jonah Hill was even better.
Moneyball is a film I have not heard much about. Not being a baseball fan it never really interested me, and when it was suggested to me to watch this, I was slightly reluctant, as I thought it would just be another generic american sports movie. I was wrong.
This movie is about a struggling baseball team with no money, who cannot compete with the bigger teams, who can splash out on players with big money. Brad Pitt plays the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, Billy Beane, and Jonah Hill plays his assistant Peter Brand.
Now I will let you know I have no idea about how baseball works, but it isn't necessary to enjoy this film. It is more about what goes on behind the scenes as opposed to what goes on in the game.
So the story is Beane loses his best players, and after being disappointed with his scouts and the general way in the teams recruitment strategy, he brings in Brand who works out the game of baseball using facts and figures, and looks at players stats, to work out a formula of how to win matches, and how best to utilise players, a strategy that nobody in baseball agrees with.
Under the guidance of Brand, Beane brings in a bunch of misfits and has-beens on a shoe string budget, and the team are immediately written off. One top of that the coach refuses to uses Beane and Brands' methods during games, which result in a terrible losing streak. After Beane forces the coaches hand be selling the players he is using, he is forced to follow Beane, and the team make a remarkable run of 20 games unbeaten.
You don't see an awful lot of baseball action, but as this is based on a true story the baseball footage you do see is actual footage from the games themselves (as this is a true story).
Brad Pitt is excellent in the role of Beane and I was surprised at Jonah Hills performance in a serious role, he does a good job, and less annoying than I would have thought he would have been.
It is the story that drives this movie as opposed to the sport and it is certainly inspirational. What makes this movie stand out is that it is alot more character driven than other sports movies with less sports action, but it is great to watch the drama unfold from behind the scenes.
What makes this movie great is that it is a true story and these events did take place, even if they may be dramatised, knowing that the events are true make it even more inspirational.
This was a great movie which I really enjoyed. I would recommend it to anyone, even if your not a sports fan in general you will still enjoy this.
This movie is about a struggling baseball team with no money, who cannot compete with the bigger teams, who can splash out on players with big money. Brad Pitt plays the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, Billy Beane, and Jonah Hill plays his assistant Peter Brand.
Now I will let you know I have no idea about how baseball works, but it isn't necessary to enjoy this film. It is more about what goes on behind the scenes as opposed to what goes on in the game.
So the story is Beane loses his best players, and after being disappointed with his scouts and the general way in the teams recruitment strategy, he brings in Brand who works out the game of baseball using facts and figures, and looks at players stats, to work out a formula of how to win matches, and how best to utilise players, a strategy that nobody in baseball agrees with.
Under the guidance of Brand, Beane brings in a bunch of misfits and has-beens on a shoe string budget, and the team are immediately written off. One top of that the coach refuses to uses Beane and Brands' methods during games, which result in a terrible losing streak. After Beane forces the coaches hand be selling the players he is using, he is forced to follow Beane, and the team make a remarkable run of 20 games unbeaten.
You don't see an awful lot of baseball action, but as this is based on a true story the baseball footage you do see is actual footage from the games themselves (as this is a true story).
Brad Pitt is excellent in the role of Beane and I was surprised at Jonah Hills performance in a serious role, he does a good job, and less annoying than I would have thought he would have been.
It is the story that drives this movie as opposed to the sport and it is certainly inspirational. What makes this movie stand out is that it is alot more character driven than other sports movies with less sports action, but it is great to watch the drama unfold from behind the scenes.
What makes this movie great is that it is a true story and these events did take place, even if they may be dramatised, knowing that the events are true make it even more inspirational.
This was a great movie which I really enjoyed. I would recommend it to anyone, even if your not a sports fan in general you will still enjoy this.
I watched Moneyball last night just because i like Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.
Good movie.
I didnt even know it was true untill the credits at the end.
Great actors at theyre best.
Good movie.
I didnt even know it was true untill the credits at the end.
Great actors at theyre best.
I watched this film last year sometime, though it was really good, watched it again recently and I really do think this is a great film. It's a film about baseball, a sport which I have no interest in, but had me gripped from start to finish.
I will start off by saying that Brad Pitt is definitely one of my favourite modern actors, he's not just a good looking decent talent, he is a fantastic actor who makes great choices in his films, with a good mixture of popular and less-popular, but great films, he's appeared in a very interesting bag of films since 2000 and as such as gained a lot of respect from me, apart from this I'm talking about Inglourious Bastards, The Tree of Life, Killing Them Softly, Burn After Reading, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Babel, even Snatch. I haven't seen all of those films listed, but not many actors would have taken on such a variety of films and directors.
And speaking of great modern actors there's Philip Seymour Hoffman in a relatively small role as the team coach, Art Howe, his character doesn't have any 'spectacular' scenes but Hoffman offers a dislikeable character to contrast with the two we are cheering on, Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, the latter proving he's not just some dumb comedy actor, excelling in this dramatic role. It doesn't look like Hill's great performance has gone unnoticed either, he recently appeared in the 2012 hit Django Unchained (albeit a comedic role) but perhaps even more impressively got the chance to work with Martin Scorsese in his upcoming film, The Wolf of Wall Street.
What makes Moneyball such a great film is pretty much a combination of what I have spoke about before, it's intelligent in the way the story is told in the fact that no baseball knowledge is required before hand, this is a film about humans and their lives, the choices they make, their jobs and responsibilities, we see a young economic graduate tell a number of ageing scouts that the job they've been doing for thirty years is wrong and we see the team coach being forced into decisions he would never make in his own mind with his job under pressure, even though he's not a likeable character, we can understand the struggle he faces.
Ultimately the film is a lot about the struggle and challenges people face in life, and as part of this we see flashbacks from Billy Beane's (Brad Pitt) earlier life as a baseball player turned scout, his personal life and history plays a part in his character, each character has their own reasoning and motives for the decisions they make, the conflicting of characters and policies makes the film even more rewarding when we watch the strategy work. Emotionally the film works out like many underdog films that we have watched time and time before, except we're not cheering the underdog team, but the underdog 'belief', an idea that triumphs down to perseverance, with hard choices having to be made on the way.
The film works because it's a true story, when the underdog battles and triumphs we feel joy, and also sorry for Billy Beane who whichever way you look at it has changed the face of a sport entirely (at least in the context of the film, but I believe in real life too), there is a scene towards the end that acts as a brilliant metaphor for the accomplishment of Beane, Brand (Hill) and 'Moneyball' as an idea, where we see a player unknowingly score a home run as he struggles to complete his run, Beane is pessimistic and understandably so, we feel a personal triumph for his character who I felt a great connection and affection for during the film.
Moneyball (Bennett Miller, 2011)
It's about getting things down to one number. Using the stats the way we read them, we'll find value in players that no one else can see. People are overlooked for a variety of biased reasons and perceived flaws. Age, appearance, personality. Bill James and mathematics cut straight through that. Billy, of the 20,000 notable players for us to consider, I believe that there is a championship team of twenty-five people that we can afford, because everyone else in baseball undervalues them.
And speaking of great modern actors there's Philip Seymour Hoffman in a relatively small role as the team coach, Art Howe, his character doesn't have any 'spectacular' scenes but Hoffman offers a dislikeable character to contrast with the two we are cheering on, Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, the latter proving he's not just some dumb comedy actor, excelling in this dramatic role. It doesn't look like Hill's great performance has gone unnoticed either, he recently appeared in the 2012 hit Django Unchained (albeit a comedic role) but perhaps even more impressively got the chance to work with Martin Scorsese in his upcoming film, The Wolf of Wall Street.
What makes Moneyball such a great film is pretty much a combination of what I have spoke about before, it's intelligent in the way the story is told in the fact that no baseball knowledge is required before hand, this is a film about humans and their lives, the choices they make, their jobs and responsibilities, we see a young economic graduate tell a number of ageing scouts that the job they've been doing for thirty years is wrong and we see the team coach being forced into decisions he would never make in his own mind with his job under pressure, even though he's not a likeable character, we can understand the struggle he faces.
Ultimately the film is a lot about the struggle and challenges people face in life, and as part of this we see flashbacks from Billy Beane's (Brad Pitt) earlier life as a baseball player turned scout, his personal life and history plays a part in his character, each character has their own reasoning and motives for the decisions they make, the conflicting of characters and policies makes the film even more rewarding when we watch the strategy work. Emotionally the film works out like many underdog films that we have watched time and time before, except we're not cheering the underdog team, but the underdog 'belief', an idea that triumphs down to perseverance, with hard choices having to be made on the way.
The film works because it's a true story, when the underdog battles and triumphs we feel joy, and also sorry for Billy Beane who whichever way you look at it has changed the face of a sport entirely (at least in the context of the film, but I believe in real life too), there is a scene towards the end that acts as a brilliant metaphor for the accomplishment of Beane, Brand (Hill) and 'Moneyball' as an idea, where we see a player unknowingly score a home run as he struggles to complete his run, Beane is pessimistic and understandably so, we feel a personal triumph for his character who I felt a great connection and affection for during the film.
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I recently saw Moneyball and thought the movie was quite great. The storyline is intriguing to say the least and though a lot of people already know the plot the movie made it come to life. The cast was great and specifically Jonah Hill, who usually does a great job in comedies, should get nominated for best supporting actor in it. It is nice to see him make a switch to a non-comedic role and I am sure this will greatly help his acting career.