95% Moneyball

All Critics (183) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (174) | Rotten (9)

One of the most soulful of baseball movies -- it confronts the anguish of a very tough game.

The real protagonist of Moneyball, however, is Beane himself, played with great charisma by Brad Pitt.

[Pitt] provides ballast and a swaggering humor to a movie that, too often, strives to be The Social Network of baseball movies.

Pitt, who has a producing credit, is not the sole reason this tremendous -- yet intimate -- sports tale soars over the fences. The bench is deep. And the script has a powerful but finessed swing.

Moneyball turns an unlikely subject interesting, making a professional sport the nexus where past and future collide.

Moneyball is exactly like moneyball -- infused with intelligence, amusing in its attacks on false gods, but way easier to admire than to love.

Possibly the smartest, sharpest baseball movie since 1988's Bull Durham.

A sports movie about disappointment and falling just short. Manages to make the dealing, stealing, and brain-wheeling in stadium offices enthralling.

Though it can't top the source material, Moneyball the movie is much like the undervalued players (misfit toys, as they're described) that Beane hires to populate his team on the cheap: it gets on base every time, and is occasionally exceptional.

Moneyball is a restrained drama with moments of unconventional excitement.

Of course it's a story of the little guys taking on the giants but it's so much more. Even if you don't like sports movies you'd be hard pressed not to enjoy this one.

A fascinating and entertaining peek inside the part of big-time sports that we rarely see and an odd couple's determination to think outside the batter's box.

Despite the hoopla surrounding its premiere at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, this fact-based baseball drama remains a rather dry, if serviceable, affair.

A sharp, shrewd and satisfying film about winning, losing and playing the odds, when the odds are playing statistics instead of relying on conventional gut instincts

It reeled me in very quickly with its interesting story, a few surprising twists and an unexpected number of laughs.

Despite being a tale of the front office, it also works as a tale of the haves vs. the have-nots, and rarely panders to its audience, putting it in the higher eschelon of sports-underdog movies.

There are lots of films about baseball and only a handful of films about mathematics--even fewer showing mathematics in a favorable light.

Does a crowd-pleasing job of drawing out the drama, tension and subtle sideline shadings of a story that is essential built on a high-stakes game of numbers.

More closely resembles The Social Network than it does can-of-corn horsehide epics like Field of Dreams or The Natural.

I kept hoping for something about the film to surprise me. Very little did.

Brad Pitt is having a really good year.

Like a businessman settling into his recliner after a hard day's work, Brad Pitt has slid into middle age with an ease that's both pleasurable and enviable to watch.

...isn't really a baseball movie, or even a sports movie - it feels more like a smart procedural from the '70s.

One of the most fascinating star turns of the year.

unfolds smoothly as the kind of baseball movie that even those who couldn't care less about baseball will find engrossing

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/moneyball/

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