thrill wrote:Do you guys think people who aren't as knowledgeable about the source material will like it? I know I'll hate it just because I know too much about baseball, the early 2000's A's and the book itself, but I suspect people who just view it as a movie will like it.
Well, the screener audience clapped at the end. So... yeah, I think they will.
Even going deeper beyond the baseball stuff, it's a pretty clunky movie. But I suspect the average audience will enjoy the baseball stuff.
I'm trying hard to take off my baseball nerd hat and gauge it on its merits as a movie. Doing that, it seemed mostly mediocre, with some surprising humor.
I don't think there's a way they could have made a movie appeal to the masses and sabermetrics guys at the same time.
I feel it'd be like scenes involving poker in movies. Hardly realistic, but it sort of looks and sounds like the real thing on a superficial level. Case in point: Just re-watched Casino Royale the other day, and whoof was that poker scene insultingly dumb. Luckily I got to spend much of it lusting after Eva Green's superb gazongas.
Yeah, but it's a lot more than that. I understand they can't show a bunch of Ivy League dudes sitting around a room beating off over WAR. There's just a lot of dumb stuff that would never happen.
-Billy Beane flies to Cleveland to meet with the Indians' GM for trade talks. Who [expletive] does that?
-Said GM- Mark Shapiro- turns him down for one player after another because the A's can't afford them. Again, how is that even remotely realistic? If I'm a rival GM and you want to give me stuff that I want for a player that I don't, why do I give a [expletive] what your payroll is?
-Beane fixates heavily on Ricardo Rincon. Ricardo. [expletive]. Rincon. A LOOGY.
-The characterization of DePo- aka "Peter Brand"- is reduced to a complete caricature of the standard fat baseball nerd living in his mom's basement. At any moment, I expected Hill to say "Gee willigers, Mister Beane. I sure do hope our calculations work!"
-Carlos Peña is shown as "an all-star" (in 2002) but Beane's angry because Scott Hattieberg isn't being used at 1B. So Beane gets angry one day and during a temper tantrum, calls the Tigers and trades Peña to them in a matter of seconds, all because of Beane's outburst over Hattieberg.
-The movie portrays Hattieberg as a weakling, a total [expletive] who's afraid to play 1B. No, I'm not making this up- he's [expletive] afraid to play 1B. And the evil ol' Art Howe, gosh darnit Mister Beane, won't use Hattie at 1B. Curse those old evil scouty scout types!
-The portrayal of Grady Fuson is just as goofy and wrong as the portrayal of DePo. Fuson is presented as, basically, Snidely Whiplash with a stack of OFP scores.
JL21 wrote:Yeah, but it's a lot more than that. I understand they can't show a bunch of Ivy League dudes sitting around a room beating off over WAR. There's just a lot of dumb stuff that would never happen.
-Billy Beane flies to Cleveland to meet with the Indians' GM for trade talks. Who [expletive] does that?
-Said GM- Mark Shapiro- turns him down for one player after another because the A's can't afford them. Again, how is that even remotely realistic? If I'm a rival GM and you want to give me stuff that I want for a player that I don't, why do I give a [expletive] what your payroll is?
-Beane fixates heavily on Ricardo Rincon. Ricardo. [expletive]. Rincon. A LOOGY.
-The characterization of DePo- aka "Peter Brand"- is reduced to a complete caricature of the standard fat baseball nerd living in his mom's basement. At any moment, I expected Hill to say "Gee willigers, Mister Beane. I sure do hope our calculations work!"
-Carlos Peña is shown as "an all-star" (in 2002) but Beane's angry because Scott Hattieberg isn't being used at 1B. So Beane gets angry one day and during a temper tantrum, calls the Tigers and trades Peña to them in a matter of seconds, all because of Beane's outburst over Hattieberg.
-The movie portrays Hattieberg as a weakling, a total [expletive] who's afraid to play 1B. No, I'm not making this up- he's [expletive] afraid to play 1B. And the evil ol' Art Howe, gosh darnit Mister Beane, won't use Hattie at 1B. Curse those old evil scouty scout types!
-The portrayal of Grady Fuson is just as goofy and wrong as the portrayal of DePo. Fuson is presented as, basically, Snidely Whiplash with a stack of OFP scores.
And on and on and on.
...but you can't deny the awesomeness of Ron Washingtion.
Nerds. Watch a documentary if you want realistic behind the scenes action of how a franchise works.
It's a movie meant to entertain the masses, not give sabermetric nerds another thing to distract themselves from finishing while they have sex with their wives.
