Everyone knows the traditional baseball story: an underdog team overcomes challenges and eventually ends up winning the entire championship. “Moneyball,” a story involving baseball economics, strayed far from this stereotype.

Brad Pitt stars in “Moneyball” as Billy Beane, an ex-baseball player who becomes the general manager for the Oakland Athletics. The team is going downhill because it is losing its star players to richer teams. Beane must find a way to create an all-star team on a low budget.

Jonah Hill, straying from his usual comedic role, plays Peter Brand, an economics major who introduces the idea of applying economics to baseball in order to make a better team. Beane and Brand work together and eventually lead the Oakland Athletics to success using this new method.

The best part of the movie was the interesting idea of economics being applied to something other than money. I have always thought of economics in terms of currency and business; I never thought it could be related to sports. This movie proved otherwise as Beane and Brand show that economics applied to baseball can help to retrieve teams out of a bad slump.

The cast worked well together, with Pitt and Hill forming an on-screen-bond that was highly credible. Pitt was effective in the role of a general manager who distances himself from his players, showing his emotional issues and eventual growth to change his way of living.

Kerris Dorsey, playing Beane’s daughter, Casey Beane, was an actress I had never heard of prior to seeing the movie. Not only did Dorsey prove her acting abilities, but she and Pitt provided an authentic father-daughter relationship that wasn’t tacky or seemingly fake.

I was particularly surprised and pleased with Hill’s performance. As the movie progressed, I thought that Hill would not be able to pull off such a serious role, seeing as he has not done it much before. It was refreshing to see his true acting skills on display.

I only had two problems with the movie overall, both at the end. First off, the movie could have been cut down by about 20 minutes because it dragged on for too long. A movie that is over two hours should be able to keep the audience’s attention, but towards the end, my mind was began to drift.

The second problem was the cheesiness factor at the end. This was one of those movies where the film stops and a black screen is shown, then a message is displayed across the screen in text. I think the movie would have been much better had this not happened, and if it had been film all the way through.

Overall, I would rate “Moneyball” four out of five stars. I highly encourage anyone who is interested in baseball, economics or in gaining new knowledge on either of those subjects to go see it. It is a brilliant underdog story, straying far from the average sports flick. “Moneyball” is rated PG-13 for some strong language.