Review of Million Dollar Arm (2014) by Patrick L — 19 Aug 2015

"This latest addition to the Disney sports canon brings nothing new to the table".

DVD Movie Review: Million Dollar Arm.

Date Viewed: October 8 2014.

Directed By Craig Gillespie (Mr. Woodcock, Lars and the Real Girl and Fright Night).

Written By Tom McCarthy.

Starring: Jon Hamm, Aasif Mandvi, Lake Bell,.

Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mittal, Bill Paxton, Pitobash Tripathy, Allyn Rachel, Tzi Ma and Alan Arkin.

"Million Dollar Arm" feels like every other sports movie we've seen before. It is sappy and pure formula but it has a sharp performance from Jon Hamm playing Jerry Maguire. Just about everybody in this movie is playing type, Lake Bell as the next-door neighbor turned love interest, Alan Arkin as the cranky old scout, Bill Paxton as the pitching coach, Aasif Mandvi as the business partner and Madhur Mittal and Suraj Sharma (from "Life of Pi") both have the Cuba Gooding, Jr. role. "Million Dollar Arm" wants to be both "Moneyball" and "Jerry Maguire" but it brings nothing new to the table.

Based on a true story, Jon Hamm plays Jerry Maguire, I mean J.B. Bernstein, an American sports agent who is struggling to find new talented players. An Asian businessman named Chang (Tzi Ma) wants Bernstein to find players from Asia. While watching Britain's Got Talent and a cricket match, Bernstein comes up with an idea to find Cricket players and bring them to the United States. He markets the Cricket players through a contest called Million Dollar Arm, which will identify the best players.

The two finalists will win a major league baseball contract and a lot of American money. The two finalists are two 18-year-old boys named Dinesh Patel (Madhur Mittal) and Rinku Singh (Suraj Sharma) and once they arrive in the US, they struggle to learn the game. If they fail at their try-outs, Bernstein is done so he really needs them to do well (which means that he becomes a total jerk) but his next-door neighbor and possible love interest, Brenda (Lake Bell) convinces him to believe in them and find the one thing he wasn't looking for, a family. How predictable is that.

"Million Dollar Arm" is a lazy pitch. You get the idea, this movie is completely by-the-numbers. It doesn't have enough drama, humor or charm to make it a home run. Even with a top-notch supporting cast, the screenplay by Tom McCarthy (Win Win and The Visitor) is derivative and formulaic. Even though it is inoffensive and inspiring, director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) fails to make "Million Dollar Arm" swing it's bat. In addition to "Lars", Gillespie was also responsible for making the unfunny Billy Bob Thornton comedy "Mr. Woodcock" and the 2011 remake of "Fright Night". Jon Hamm gives it his all here but it's not enough to save this movie from throwing a foul ball.