The idea of Brad Pitt as a baseball man may be one that is difficult for hardball fans to accept. According to early reviews for Moneyball, however, Pitt can hold his own as the general manager of the Oakland Athletics.
The movie, based on the Michael Lewis bestseller detailing Billy Beane and Oakland's quest to build a World Series winner in an unconventional way, was released to the public on Friday.
According to the Los Angeles Times, most of the early reviews have been quite favorable. One of the reviews highlighted in the Times piece comes from the Wall Street Journal.
Joe Morgenstern of the WSJ calls Moneyball a "deeply American film about a uniquely American sport in which a principled guy takes on the moneyed titans because he can't stand the unfairness of what they're doing to the game he still loves."
Moneyball isn't just getting rave reviews here in the States. As Yahoo's Big League Stew blog points out, is going to be heavily promoted overseas as well.
According to another L.A. Times article linked to in the Yahoo post, filmmakers are using Pitt — not baseball — as the movies selling point overseas.
And while Moneyball may not be a huge success overseas, the Times does point out that there will likely still be a sizable draw in baseball-crazed countries.
"Still, Moneyball may do at least some business in baseball-obsessed countries like Mexico, where it debuts in October, and Japan, where it launches in November. Next month it will be the closing-night movie at the Tokyo International Film Festival."
As for Europe, the Pitt-heavy promotions have already begun. The actor is extremely popular, and thus, the trailers being shown across the pond are focused primarily on Pitt and his relationship in the movie with Jonah Hill.
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