Moneyball

The best and most entertaining baseball film I’ve ever seen. Before watching it, I wasn’t expecting it to deliver a great experience because baseball is all Dutch to me, but the fears were unwarranted. Brad Pitt’s great performance and the equally great script didn’t allow my attention to stray away. Thumbs up and I’m rooting for Brad at the Oscars. (16/12/2011)

Statistics are boring, but carry valuable information and in the form of a baseball version of The Social Network, it isn’t boring at all. This is as much about baseball as Fincher is about Facebook; in other words, not at all. Despite this, this category is still ruled by The Damned United which is basically the same in a more inventive form of directing and, thanks to the setting, is also a little closer in cultural terms for a European. (01/12/2011)

A year after the world applauded Aaron Sorkin's screenplay for The Social Network, it was followed by yet another story full of rapid-fire dialogue, technical terms, and the suppression of obvious emotions to a minimum. Although comparing Facebook to baseball is difficult, this calculated approach and, for the author, this sure bet already Moneyball right from the beginning. And even though it looks almost effortless in its technically precise environment, and the occasional family scenes do work, I didn't get enough. I understand the pursuit of exceptionalism and the desire for a forgotten dream, but the film remains halfway between a profession of love for sports statistics and a demonstration that being a general manager is no joke. A sharp 70%, especially for one of Brad Pitt's career performances. (22/02/2012)

The final about half hour, when they “finally" started playing, almost didn't interest me anymore. Baseball is one of the sports that I know almost nothing about and actually don't want to know, so I guess it’s no wonder. I enjoyed most of Moneyball, though, because it wasn’t based on the players' game, but on the game of the actors (the unsurprisingly super Brad Pitt and very surprisingly super Jonah Hill) and on an elaborate screenplay that brought me into this strange world with confidence and ease and was able to entertain me well. (20/10/2020)

I don’t understand baseball, I don’t even like it (I only know the Red Sox because of Stephen Kind and Lost) and I doubt that this sport has any sense to it. I like baseball bats (for personal reasons), but that’s not enough to make me able to watch a movie about baseball. So, who did all the work, who made me like the movie? Brad Pitt, who plays a guy who keeps on losing, but keeps on trying, makes bad decisions, knows that but still he keeps on trying until he takes a last, desperate step and starts to listen to a fat accountant. Perfect dialogs, decent humor, excellent actors. It couldn’t have been filmed better, in my opinion. (18/12/2011)