Brad Pitt stars as baseball maverick Billy Beane in this enthralling sports drama based on a true story.
The general manager of the hard-up Oakland A’s, he’s sick of seeing his team of also-rans continually lose out to richer rivals. He needs a new strategy – and finds it in the unlikely form of Jonah Hill’s podgy, number-crunching brainiac, whose grasp of the sport’s statistics enables Beane to turn the team’s fortunes around…
As sporting dramas go, Moneyball is as unconventional as its protagonist: the main action doesn’t take place on the baseball field but in back offices and corridors. But the charismatic Pitt and a heavy-hitting supporting cast, including Philip Seymour Hoffman as the A’s stubborn coach, perform wonders with the film’s smart script (co-written by The Social Network scribe Aaron Sorkin) and knock the ball right out of the park.
Watching the loose-limbed, polo-shirted Pitt on screen it’s something of a shock to see the real Billy Beane in shirt and tie on the DVD extras. He looks very buttoned up but provides some fascinating insights into the real events behind the film, as does Michael Lewis, author of the book on which it’s based, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.
Released on DVD & Blu-ray on Monday 19th March by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
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