Moneyball is based on the real life events (and the non-fiction book of the same name) about the plan that changed modern baseball.  Back in the day, and even now to a large degree, baseball was an unfair game.  In 2002, the Oakland A’s had a $40 million payroll budget, while the New York Yankees had a budget of around $120 million.  Even when Oakland found good players, they’d be quickly snapped up by teams with more money.   
The movie itself is the story of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) as he tries to navigate the system and use stats and math to build a team that can compete with the money teams.  As the film explains, there are players that are always ignored by scouts for a variety of reason --- they are too pudgy or look funny while they’re pitching.  Yet statistically, they get on base and score, which ultimately wins you games.  With the help of his new assistant, an economist and Yale grad (played by Jonah Hill), Beane puts together a misfit team on a budget.  

Now, I hate most sports movies.  Most of them are just chick flicks for guys.  They always have the same formula --- the team is down in the final moments of the big game, but thanks to a big throw/catch/shot/touchdown in slow motion during the final moments (usually in the rain as well!), the game is won and it’s a happy ending for all.  That makes me want to throw up.  Moneyball is NOT this formula --- in fact, it’s less a movie about baseball, and more about the business of baseball and pioneers with new scary ideas that challenge the establishment.  (While we’re on the subject though, I should mention a great sports movie from 2008; another unorthodox movie about baseball, called Sugar.  It’s about Latin-Americans that are recruited for the Major Leagues, the poverty they come from and the new alien world and language they come into contact with.)

For the most part, Moneyball is extremely well written.  I am not a sports guy, yet I ‘got’ what they were talking about, and how the idea of stats affects the game.  The movie was dramatic without sinking to melodrama and it was unexpectedly funny.  If I could compare it to a recent movie, I would hold it up to The Social Network.  I think The Social Network was a superior film, but both movies had the same flow, no doubt because Aaron Sorkin, writer of The West Wing and The Social Network, was also a co-writer on Moneyball.  He has an inherent talent for making dense material and ideas fit into dramatic situations and make sense to regular dummies like myself.

The movie does have some draggy moments, where you’re in a holding pattern waiting for the plot to move forward and it probably could have been cut down by 15 minutes, but that’s not to say that it feels boring or anything.  On the contrary, when it moves, it dashes along quickly, stealing bases and sliding into home in a lot of scenes.

Best of all, there are excellent metaphors and themes that give this ‘sports movie’ some genuine depth.  Themes of re-invention, both of the game and on a personal level, themes about being the first to do something and the courage or dedication to that is needed to push a new idea through all the naysayers.  These themes are what elevate this movie far beyond the conventions other lame-sauce sports flicks.  

As for the acting, it’s pretty good.  There’s some Oscar buzz already surrounding Brad Pitt.  He’s excellent here, though I wouldn’t call it a career-making performance.  I’ve seen him hand in better performances.  If he wins an Oscar, it’s because he’s a movie star that doesn’t have his Oscar yet.  Jonah Hill is also watchable in this more dramatic role, though he didn’t blow me away or anything.  Neither of these guys handed in a game changing performance like Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network, but they were workable in their roles.

Moneyball is pretty money, for the most part.  If you don’t care about baseball, you’ll still like this movie because it focuses on story and character.  And if you do love baseball, you’ll love the movie for its behind-the-scenes look at America’s pastime.  

4 Dorks out of 5 on the Geek-o-Meter.