Moneyball Hits It Out of the Park

Moneyball is a big hit with critics, even if its premise—a film about baseball statistics—might sound boring at first. Here’s what they say about the film, which stars Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill:

• Built on a "sharp, sleek script," Moneyball "takes all this seemingly dry, dusty, inside-baseball stuff and turns it into the kind of all-too-rare pleasurable Hollywood diversion that gives you a contact high," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times.

• "No jock schmaltzfest, the whip-smart Moneyball is a crowd-pleasing baseball movie for people—like me—who don’t like baseball movies," writes Lou Lumenick in the New York Post.
• In the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan agrees, calling it "that rare sports movie that doesn't end with a rousing last-second victory or a come-from-behind celebration." Pitt is "in top movie star form," he adds.
• In short, it’s "one of the best and most viscerally exciting films of the year," asserts Peter Travers in Rolling Stone.