Moneyball

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George R Apr 17, 2019 Perfect 99% Go A's

Hermione M Apr 17, 2019 A film that seems to make itself grander than it really is. Pitt seems locked in the roles he used to play and his arrogant pitch, while fitting for the role, seems unadapted to the circumstances. See more

Albus P Apr 5, 2019 A powerful, character-driven piece that'll resonate with both film lovers and sports lovers alike. Based on a true story, Moneyball is a movie for anybody who has ever dreamed of taking on the system. Brad Pitt stars as Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's and the guy who assembles the team, who has an epiphany: all of baseball's conventional wisdom is wrong. Forced to reinvent his team on a tight budget, Beane will have to outsmart the richer clubs. The onetime jock teams with Ivy League grad Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) in an unlikely partnership, recruiting bargain players that the scouts call flawed, but all of whom have an ability to get on base, score runs, and win games. It's more than baseball, it's a revolution - one that challenges old school traditions and puts Beane in the crosshairs of those who say he's tearing out the heart and soul of the game. Sports films seem farther and fewer nowadays. Granted, I think they're extremely difficult to write. It's difficult to write a quality sports film for people not familiar with the sport, while also making it interesting enough for the cinemas. But this film really hit it out of the park and we got a really amazing film at that. First off, I loved the story. It was a character-driven piece where we were allowed into the mind of each character, protagonists and supporting alike. We get a look into the world of baseball, as the film really does a good job of putting that harsh reality into perspective. Brad Pitt is someone who has been and has continued to impress audiences with his performances. Not only that, but he had a great partner in Jonah Hill, who has shown his ability to excel in diverse roles constantly. Actually, the cast is filled from bottom to top with amazing actors and amazing performances. The film feels extremely genuine and that's what makes it stand out from other sports films. It takes a true story and brings it to the screen in a realistic, yet entertaining way. Honestly, I think even people who aren't sports fans will find solitude with this film. It's a really well written piece with so many layers to it. It's keeps tension high without ever feeling like a thriller of any kind, but it's also really emotional. There's a lot of themes of career, family, and life itself. It's a story that I think a lot of people will be able to resonate with, even if they're not sports fans. In the end, "Moneyball" is a film that's gotten better and better over time. It's a high quality piece that you should watch if you get the chance. It's definitely one of my favorite sports films and a constant re-watch in my book. See more

Feb 8, 2019 What's the use of this movie? You can't win a championship if you have a low budget.

Jan 21, 2019 The movie Moneyball is about a small baseball company that eventually grew with a help of the assistant of general manager named Peter Brand. In the beginning Billy Beane saw how his team was getting defeated in every single game, and was losing their players by the Yankees since they had deeper pockets and were willing to pay them a lot more than the Oaklands did, the Yankees would keep stealing the Oaklands players, the workers tried to solve the problem by replacing their three key players with professional baseball athletics. Billy knew the problem was even more worse than replacing players, he knew that all the games that were played were unfair, needed players who he could afford to hire and pay. But when Billy met Peter at the meeting in the Yankeeï¿ 1/2 1/2(TM)s office for a trade with their players. Billy hired Peter to be his assistant of the General Manager since he had graduated from college with a economic degree and had some experience working under a baseball company. Billy truly believed in Peter and his analysis and statistic of getting his team up to the top, since Peter had found all the possible predictions that could later happen. He knew there was no other way of finding a solution to solve the problem, besides agreeing to Peters method and taking chances. Billy had replaced all of his strong players with old, injured players which confused a lot of the people, even who were working in the company and the news reporters. Because Billy had trusted Peter so much they both went through ups and downs, they also had to fire a lot of their team players. The main focus that Billy and Peter had was to get all the players onto the field. After breaking the Americans League Record a winning streak 20 Billy decided to quit and spend more time with his daughter, and he truly left a true market value for baseball players. Billy realized that his team was one of the fewer teams that was undervalued by other teams. Billy changed that by proving to the other higher teams that they could break the American League Record and they did. The director did a impressive job outlining the movie based on a true story. The rich and the poor teams have a different salary between them which was true that the professional players would rather join a company that paid more money than a small company that was not worth working for. One specific concept that I would criticize on is how the athletes are only willing to play for teams and or companies who are paying them big bucks, instead of helping Billy who has worked his whole life just to compete and eventually win a game. Billy decided change the baseball into a game instead of a splitting the teams/companies into a upper class status, because he wanted to prove everyone wrong that his team full of players who were ill made it to the very top. See more

Jan 20, 2019 Behavior and Economics in Moneyball It is, to me at least, a foregone conclusion that Moneyball is a great film. Released in 2011, just 9 years after the events of the film take place, directed artfully by Bennett Miller, with great performances from ï¿ 1/2~big leaguersï¿ 1/2(TM) like Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour-Hoffman and Chris Pratt, and, maybe most importantly, with a sharp, witty and endlessly entertaining screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. However, just for the sake of argument, Iï¿ 1/2(TM)m going to pretend I donï¿ 1/2(TM)t care about any of that. Take away all the personal drama, production value and intimate moments. Do the economics at play in Moneyball really stand up under closer inspection? Much like the characters in the film, Iï¿ 1/2(TM)m going to take emotion out of the equation and focus solely on the numbers. The first thing I thought was that of course the economics work, the film is based on a true story. So whether or not the ideas are actually sound, something worked back in 2002 that hadnï¿ 1/2(TM)t been tried before. However, in todayï¿ 1/2(TM)s world, statistics and sports are now inseparable, very different from just a few short years ago. What this means is that the techniques used in the film are now already commonplace, or to outdated to make an impact. But the year the Aï¿ 1/2(TM)s broke the record for the longest winning streak in MLB history, they were revolutionary. Essentially, the principle the film is built around is that on base percentage was severely undervalued in professional baseball. The characters made the leap that higher on base percentage meant higher percentage of wins. Players who got walked consistently, like Scott Hatteberg, were extremely undervalued, and small market teams could make a big splash by buying undervalued assets, and selling off the players whom they felt were overvalued, such as big swingers and closing pitchers. Although baseball is a game of offense, the same can be said for defence. Save percentages play a huge role in the game. This is explicitly stated by Peter Brand, or rather, the equation that he based his entire theory around. Runs scored2 / (Runs scored2 + Runs allowed2) The system works similarly to a principle in the stock market, in fact, the primary principle. Buy low and sell high. Brokers believe that by buying undervalued stocks and selling those which are overvalued by the rest of Wall Street, they can make it rich. Of course, in the stock market this all comes down to speculation. There is only so much the data can tell you because of the extreme volatility of the market. Billy Beane and Peter Brand thought that they could come out on top by betting on people. Some might think that they got lucky, that their numbers were only part of the reason they won so big. I think a little differently. People are driven by habits, but stocks are not. When people repeat any activity, especially one that they are good at, they fall into routines. This is now common knowledge, and a huge part of the study of habits. If a player has been getting walks for their entire career, they have ingrained in themselves the ways in which to get to first. Even tiny habits that they arenï¿ 1/2(TM)t even aware of could make a game. That is why I think Beane and Brand were so successful. They used statistics to determine who could be the best player for the cheapest buck, and they took advantage of one simple human truth. Patterns are hard to break. Some teams spend years trying to form new habits, but the Aï¿ 1/2(TM)s, whether they were aware of it or not, leaned into the habits that their players had already developed, and came out with a superstar team that would change baseball forever. See more

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