Moneyball

Rating: Worth my time
See it: now in theaters, Fall 2011

A must see in theaters.  Why?  Brad Pitt is larger than life and he should be seen on the screen that way.   But I didn’t go to see BP, play Billy Beane, I went because I am a sports fanatic.   I love baseball.  I love stats.   In high school, I used to work the stats for the baseball team; and the coach there, Ken Reynolds, had played in the major league, and he was serious about his stats; he taught me how to score a game.  In college, I went on to become the stat-girl for the college’s hockey team.    I was the only girl who got to travel with the team (how ’bout them stats!)

This movie reminded me of the same type of feel as The Natural and The Babe.  But when Moneyball reaches DVD status, I will have it on hand (or stream it through the XBOX) every October like Fever Pitch, or I will watch it like Field of Dreams, every spring.  It’s that great.

The screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin.  He wrote some of my favorite-all time movies:
A Few Good Men (1992) – Jack Nicholson, “You can’t handle the truth!”
The American President (1995) – Michael Douglas, “My name is Andrew Shepard and I AM the President.”
Malice (1993), Alec Bawldwin, “Let me tell you something…I am God.”
Enemy of the State (1998), Will Smith, “What happened?” Gene Hackman, “I had to blow up the building because you made a phone call!”
The Rock (1996), Sean Connery, “The Rock (Alcatraz) is a tourist attraction?”
Sorkin’s TV credits include the Golden Globe-nominated “The West Wing” (1999) and “Sports Night” (1998).

Moneyball made me laugh and it made me cry.  It’s a love story about baseball and the guys who manage the teams.  Players are just pawns in the chess match of the front offices, that are trying to make the best moves with the money, and dedications they have to their home teams.

After 2 hours of sitting and watching, what I thought was going to be a movie about the NY Yankees, it had me begging for more.  I want to see Moneyball 2 – How the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004.

Don’t miss it!