Growing up, a staple of my movie diet was the numerous feel good sport movies coming from Disney. Cool Runnings, The Mighty Ducks, and many more, I lapped them all up, and with each one the House of Mouse proved their mastery of the formula, delivering an entertaining, heart warming tale every time. In recent years, it has been put on the back burner somewhat, as opposed to the 90's when every year we got the inspirational tale of a sports team, usually made up of kids or people seen as the absolute underdogs (and sometimes both), triumphing against the odds. Million Dollar Arm, based on a true story (a must for this type of movie), sees Disney trying their hand once again, with the tale of two young Indian men brought from their home country to the U.S. to play professional baseball.
Jon Hamm takes the lead role of down on his luck, money grubbing sports agent J.B. Bernstein, who sees the Million Dollar Arm competition to turn a cricket player into a baseball player as his shot at the big time. Mush of the movie is Bernstein focused, charting the positive effect Rinku and Dinesh (Suraj Sharma and Madhur Mittal), the young men he sees as his meal ticket have on his life. With director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) getting the right balance of good natured sentiment and humour, Million Dollar Arm never fails to put a smile on your face. It doesn't outstays its welcome, steers clear of the well worn cliches, and really lets you get invested with these characters. But its ace up its sleeve is the spot on cast. Hamm is perfect as the initially smarmy Bernstein, even dropping a few Mad Men references along the way, and his fast talking ways are endearing to the audience, even when he is being a bit of a dick. His transformation from money obsessed opportunist to someone who actually thinks about others over himself never feels forced, even though his character development seems to go back on itself in the second act as a means of manufacturing drama, only to right itself for the big, feel good crescendo of a finale.
As the heart of the movie, Sharma and Mittal play their roles very well indeed, handling both the fish out of water antics and the more emotional beats of the story with ease. They really come into their own with the third act in sight, and the movie will have you holding your breath during the finale, even though we all know the outcome. The main players are surrounded by an able supporting cast, with the likes of Bill Paxton and Alan Arkin, now fully settled into his new role as cinema's grumpy old man for hire, putting in brief but memorable turns, and Lake Bell making the most of the love interest role. Special mention has to go to Pitobash Tripathy as Amit, Rinku and Dinesh's translator. Spending much of the movie as the comic relief, he pulls out an amazingly up lifting speech that made me want to fist pump right there in the cinema.
At times, Million Dollar Arm feels like old-school Disney at its best, the type of movie that we all watched several times over as kids. It's wonderful and upbeat story that is told well, and keeping the schmaltz far, far away, delivers a great, feel good movie.
Jon Hamm takes the lead role of down on his luck, money grubbing sports agent J.B. Bernstein, who sees the Million Dollar Arm competition to turn a cricket player into a baseball player as his shot at the big time. Mush of the movie is Bernstein focused, charting the positive effect Rinku and Dinesh (Suraj Sharma and Madhur Mittal), the young men he sees as his meal ticket have on his life. With director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) getting the right balance of good natured sentiment and humour, Million Dollar Arm never fails to put a smile on your face. It doesn't outstays its welcome, steers clear of the well worn cliches, and really lets you get invested with these characters. But its ace up its sleeve is the spot on cast. Hamm is perfect as the initially smarmy Bernstein, even dropping a few Mad Men references along the way, and his fast talking ways are endearing to the audience, even when he is being a bit of a dick. His transformation from money obsessed opportunist to someone who actually thinks about others over himself never feels forced, even though his character development seems to go back on itself in the second act as a means of manufacturing drama, only to right itself for the big, feel good crescendo of a finale.
As the heart of the movie, Sharma and Mittal play their roles very well indeed, handling both the fish out of water antics and the more emotional beats of the story with ease. They really come into their own with the third act in sight, and the movie will have you holding your breath during the finale, even though we all know the outcome. The main players are surrounded by an able supporting cast, with the likes of Bill Paxton and Alan Arkin, now fully settled into his new role as cinema's grumpy old man for hire, putting in brief but memorable turns, and Lake Bell making the most of the love interest role. Special mention has to go to Pitobash Tripathy as Amit, Rinku and Dinesh's translator. Spending much of the movie as the comic relief, he pulls out an amazingly up lifting speech that made me want to fist pump right there in the cinema.
At times, Million Dollar Arm feels like old-school Disney at its best, the type of movie that we all watched several times over as kids. It's wonderful and upbeat story that is told well, and keeping the schmaltz far, far away, delivers a great, feel good movie.
