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2011, 09-06:
Review of film: “MONEYBALL” + Info on Q&A with star JONAH HILL
This new film is based on some TRUE events...
... Small-market baseball teams have historically had a HARD TIME being successful, in large part because they can’t afford the “big-name” STARS of the game... And, if their players start to become stars, they often leave for “GREENER pastures”...
... Billy Beane (BRAD PITT) is the General Manager of such a team, the Oakland Athletics...
... The team had been doing very BADLY, & consequently, there weren’t many fans. That helped lead to a “downward spiral” where the owner felt he couldn’t AFFORD to come up with MORE MONEY for better players. Brad thus is told he needs to get by with what he “has”...
... Things become so bad, the management starts CHARGING players for SODA POP in the team’s vending machines...
... Brad needs to replace some stars who are going ELSEWHERE for more money than Oakland can pay...
... In talking to the team’s coaches & scouts & the like, Brad feels the elderly scouts there are trying the “SAME old” tired ideas of who to try to hire, & starts to believe that he needs to find a “NEW” way of doing things...
... Brad visits some team execs in Cleveland, to try to make a TRADE to upgrade his team a bit...
... To his surprise, when he talks at a group meeting there about who he wants in trade, the big exec keeps deferring to -- & making decisions -- based on nods from a young business-suited KID in the room...
... Afterwards, Brad goes up to that kid in the office & asks him questions... The guy says his name is Peter Brand (JONAH HILL), & he’s working at his FIRST-ever job... Brad tries to figure out why the bosses there were “LISTENING” to him...
... It seems that Jonah’s big ability is at crunching “NUMBERS”, namely, using DATA to determine what’s likely to happen re a certain player in given situations...
... Altho he has some doubts about how “raw” Jonah is, he likes the way he’s thinking “OUT-of-the-box”, & hires him AWAY from Cleveland...
... Jonah uses a board to show his ideas to Brad. Basically, he feels that the team needs to gather together a bunch of UNDERVALUED players-- to create in-effect an “island of MISFIT TOYS”, as he puts it...
... That means, he believes that you should not go after guys with supposedly high batting averages, but instead concentrate on guys who can score RUNS for you by getting on BASE a lot-- thru walks or whatever...
... Thus, he points out specific guys he feel can ACHIEVE what he wants at a low cost because they’re not “APPRECIATED” by most for what they can accomplish as an “end” result...
... The old scouts & the like are NOT HAPPY with the changes Brad wants to make, feeling his idea to use “stats” is contrary to how things have been done for many DECADES...
... But, Brad insists he trusts that the only way the team can succeed on its limited budget is to follow Jonah’s ideas & do things in a “NEW” way. As he puts it to the older guys, “If we win, we will have CHANGED the game!...”
... Not only are the scouts against his ideas, so is the team’s MANAGER, Art Howe (PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN), who’s actively AGAINST the changes Brad wants to make & makes clear he thinks they’re foolish...
... Per Jonah’s idea, Brad hires a guy named Scott Hatteberg (CHRIS PRATT) who’d been a catcher, wanting him to play FIRST base (where they needed a player). Chris points out, he needs the job, but he’d never PLAYED first base before!...
... Brad remarks that, they know he can get on base a lot, which is what they NEED. When he tries to “reassure” Chris that they expected he’d do fine at first, his assistant Ron Washington (BRENT JENNINGS) contradicts him by saying honestly, it’s not easy to play 1st, “It’s incredibly HARD!...”
... Well, Brad HIRES the people (like Chris) who Jonah’s statistics say should do WELL (namely, “beyond” what they’ll cost)...
... At one point, Jonah is astonished when he & Brad are at a game that’s about to start in Oakland, & Brad starts to LEAVE as the match is about to begin & says that Jonah should advise him of the OUTCOME. Brad explains that, he never actually is up to ATTENDING games in PERSON!...
... Unfortunately, since the players are new to playing with each other (& at times, even inexperienced at playing their positions), the team does POORLY...
... Because the team he’s put together has become a LAUGHINGSTOCK both locally & nationally, Brad at one point sits alone in the stadium & wonders, WHAT has he DONE with his unusual ideas?!...
... Things become so bad, that Brad’s young daughter starts to ask him, is it TRUE that he’s going to be FIRED as she’s read on the internet?!...
... But then, as they get accustomed to playing their positions & working together, the team starts to “GEL” & begins playing GREAT...
... That in turn starts drawing huge enthusiastic CROWDS to the once-nearly-empty stadium...
... The better the team does, the more they “believe” in each other, & the BETTER they PLAY... They start to celebrate each victory, & the media happily starts to “BUILD THEM UP” to the national public...
... Would the team be able to be CONSISTENT in their playing?... Could they go “ALL THE WAY” to play for a CHAMPIONSHIP?...
... What will happen to Jonah & to BRAD’s character as time goes on?...
... This is not just a movie about BASEBALL -- it’s the story of thinking “out-of-the-box” & trying something “DIFFERENT” to achieve success, with people coming “TOGETHER” in a common “shared” goal...
... The acting in the movie is VERY good, especially from the 2 main leads (keeping in mind that Hoffman’s role is actually very small):
... BRAD is thoroly CONVINCING & finely effective as a competent baseball exec who, while behaving in a “BREEZY” fashion (which is often quite funny), shows he firmly BELIEVES in what he’s trying to accomplish as the G.M....
... And, in a “toned-down” role (rather than his usual “bombastic” or obnoxious persona), Jonah gives what seems to be his BEST performance ever (namely, coming across as an actor rather than like a “stand-up” comedian)...
... The story “moves along” at a good pace, the movie is EFFECTIVE, it’s ENJOYABLE to experience, & thus I’m rating it at 8.00 out of 10 stars...
[ ... As an “aside”: the movie opens September 23rd... At one of the advance screenings, JONAH HILL was a “surprise” GUEST after the film (as you can see in the photos below, which were kindly provided to V-O-S by super Movie-goer fan VICKIE MAPES)...
[ ... AICN’s “Capone” hosted a Q&A with Jonah...
[ ... It was reported to me that, besides answering some QUESTIONS about the film, Jonah spent a great deal of time giving his “stream-of-consciousness” COMMENTS about things that were of interest to him... ]
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