DVD: Moneyball (12)

Bennett Miller's charming sports film, scripted by Steve Zaillian (Schindler's List) and Aaron Sorkin, is on paper as dull as they come: the general manager of a baseball team, the Oakland A's, recruits a whizz kid at economics to help build a winning team on the cheap.

That it works is down to a smart script and a committed performance from Brad Pitt as the cash-poor boss Billy Beane. When Beane loses three players, he takes the advice of Jonah Hill's numbers genius, who devises a revolutionary player-selection system based on a statistical analysis of each player's skills. Inevitably, the pair come up against grizzled coaches who don't like change. Oddly gripping stuff.