LoginTo be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since it was the last movie directed by Craig Gillespie that I haven’t seen so far and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be a pretty neat story and the movie himself was not bad at all. Indeed, even if the story was rather generic and predictable, it was still quite entertaining though. In fact, it did remind me of ‘Jerry Maguire’ which wasn’t a bad thing though. Indeed, it was basically dealing with a sports agent working on his own, working with only one last client(s) who was his very last shot. However even if Jon Hamm was not bad, in my opinion, his role turned out to be rather thankless though. I mean, even though it made sense to portray the guy as a cold-hearted businessman, they still wanted to show him being a nice guy after all. As a result, it was rather frustrating to see almost every supporting character reminding him that he should do the right thing and to see him still being jerk again and again just to add some dramatic tensions. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
Million Dollar Arm Reviews
An average movie
Posted : 4 years, 6 months ago on 18 October 2019 08:19
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Million Dollar Arm review
Posted : 8 years, 10 months ago on 18 June 2015 10:35
Initial Thought: I have been planning to watch this for awhile, but I never got around to it. I'm a sucker when it comes to inspirational sports dramas. I never really got into the real thing though except for baseball. Something about baseball always had my interest.
Characters/Acting: This has a pretty great cast. I haven't seen Mad Men or anything recently where Jon Hamm is the lead. He does seem to be a very good actor from what I have seen of his work. It's nice to see Suraj Sharma after his career starting Life of Pi performance. Madhur Mittal from Slumdog Millionaire is here too. Lake Bell is always a pleasure to behold on screen. Alan Arkin is quite a well versed actor with his plethora of film roles. The acting is quite good. The characters are all fun and unique.
Story: I find it intriguing that a guy could find baseball talent within a group of Asian cricket players. This really didn't feel like a Disney film. There was some risque humor that I think younger kids of this generation would catch on to. It was interesting to see how Indian culture translated with baseball. Who knew that the two best pitchers would not have any experience in any sort of ball sports. The ending was great and even gave us some of the real footage of these two.
Directing/Writing: Craig Gillespie has done pretty good work with Lars and the Real Girl as well as the Fright Night remake. He did however flop with his Mr. Woodcock film. Thomas McCarthy is the writer of Up! He also directed The Cobbler though which wasn't too popular.
Final Thought: You can do anything you set your mind to doing. I really enjoyed this. As I knew I would. The story was just powerful and well executed. It was a little cliche, but it's fairly unavoidable in most underdog sports films. If you like those kinds of movies I recommend giving this a shot as well.
Characters/Acting: This has a pretty great cast. I haven't seen Mad Men or anything recently where Jon Hamm is the lead. He does seem to be a very good actor from what I have seen of his work. It's nice to see Suraj Sharma after his career starting Life of Pi performance. Madhur Mittal from Slumdog Millionaire is here too. Lake Bell is always a pleasure to behold on screen. Alan Arkin is quite a well versed actor with his plethora of film roles. The acting is quite good. The characters are all fun and unique.
Story: I find it intriguing that a guy could find baseball talent within a group of Asian cricket players. This really didn't feel like a Disney film. There was some risque humor that I think younger kids of this generation would catch on to. It was interesting to see how Indian culture translated with baseball. Who knew that the two best pitchers would not have any experience in any sort of ball sports. The ending was great and even gave us some of the real footage of these two.
Directing/Writing: Craig Gillespie has done pretty good work with Lars and the Real Girl as well as the Fright Night remake. He did however flop with his Mr. Woodcock film. Thomas McCarthy is the writer of Up! He also directed The Cobbler though which wasn't too popular.
Final Thought: You can do anything you set your mind to doing. I really enjoyed this. As I knew I would. The story was just powerful and well executed. It was a little cliche, but it's fairly unavoidable in most underdog sports films. If you like those kinds of movies I recommend giving this a shot as well.
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Two talented boys in one man's dream journey.
Posted : 9 years, 12 months ago on 16 May 2014 10:15
The Hollywood's exploration of India based subjects is continuing. I have been enjoying those. Something quite refreshing which traveling on a new perspective to entertain the world audience. Especially, this movie was not a bigger one like 'Slumdog Millionaire' or 'Life of Pi', but cute emotional family drama like 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel'.
It was a biopic-sport-drama about an American sports agent, J. B. Bernstein, who brought two young fastest arm Indians to the States to train as the professional baseball pitchers. Before that, he conducts a reality show called 'Million Dollar Arm' in various Indian locations to find the perfect one. In the end he gets two and takes back them to the country. What follows is the cultural collision where these two finds hard to fit in and perform. With many inspiring lines and tears in our eyes it comes to the conclusion.
It was a nice story and inspiring. This movie teaches many things like about family values, sharing culture, hard work for a better future, having faith, true love and all the above the most deserved second chance. It was a predictable story. The minor problem with the movie was it won't explain thoroughly some of the contents it portrays. It is due to cultural different some will have a hard time to figure it out the meaning of it. But for South Asians and Indo-American it will be a perfect movie.
The movie had more than sufficient humorous scenes and many of them were in an Indian accent. I had a great time laughing for those comedies. Those comedies are because of the difference pronunciation of the same word between the people of two countries. The character Amit is the center of the attract when it comes to the humour. In the other end, especially in the second half the story drags most of its parts towards the sentiments. I can't say it was unnecessary, but truly was impeccable and touching.
I never knew this director. After checking out his filmography, yeah, I have watched many and liked a couple of his movies, especially 'Lars and the Real Girl'. He did a great job, especially shooting in Indian summer is not an easy task. He himself told in Q&A meet about his struggles. All the actors well cooped. John Hamm's one of the best performances. No doubt he was remarkable.
The boys from 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Life of Pi' are the two Indian characters. Suraj Sharma as Rinku and Madhur Mittal as Dinesh did justice to the respective roles, though they were not similar kind of face to the real ones like usually filmmakers choose for a biopic. They were really good, did key performances alongside John Hamm's JB character. Lake Bell was a surprised attraction of the movie. I found her kind of cute in some of the scenes than never before. And other major attractions were Alan Akin with his usual incredible show in the small span, and a few others, especially that Indian character called Amit.
Even before it was released many had criticised it by saying a TV movie and so 90s. But I had faith in it and watched and it never disappointed me. I have already said in my many reviews that I love tearjerker movies, so it was my perfect one. Some mighty one's are releasing on the same week this movie hitting the screen. I believe this is the only one pure family drama that one could ask for an alternate. In fact best by so far in this summer, according to the family friendly films. I highly recommend it, but all you need is to have a low expectation.
It was a biopic-sport-drama about an American sports agent, J. B. Bernstein, who brought two young fastest arm Indians to the States to train as the professional baseball pitchers. Before that, he conducts a reality show called 'Million Dollar Arm' in various Indian locations to find the perfect one. In the end he gets two and takes back them to the country. What follows is the cultural collision where these two finds hard to fit in and perform. With many inspiring lines and tears in our eyes it comes to the conclusion.
It was a nice story and inspiring. This movie teaches many things like about family values, sharing culture, hard work for a better future, having faith, true love and all the above the most deserved second chance. It was a predictable story. The minor problem with the movie was it won't explain thoroughly some of the contents it portrays. It is due to cultural different some will have a hard time to figure it out the meaning of it. But for South Asians and Indo-American it will be a perfect movie.
The movie had more than sufficient humorous scenes and many of them were in an Indian accent. I had a great time laughing for those comedies. Those comedies are because of the difference pronunciation of the same word between the people of two countries. The character Amit is the center of the attract when it comes to the humour. In the other end, especially in the second half the story drags most of its parts towards the sentiments. I can't say it was unnecessary, but truly was impeccable and touching.
They need to know that you care them. 
I never knew this director. After checking out his filmography, yeah, I have watched many and liked a couple of his movies, especially 'Lars and the Real Girl'. He did a great job, especially shooting in Indian summer is not an easy task. He himself told in Q&A meet about his struggles. All the actors well cooped. John Hamm's one of the best performances. No doubt he was remarkable.
The boys from 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Life of Pi' are the two Indian characters. Suraj Sharma as Rinku and Madhur Mittal as Dinesh did justice to the respective roles, though they were not similar kind of face to the real ones like usually filmmakers choose for a biopic. They were really good, did key performances alongside John Hamm's JB character. Lake Bell was a surprised attraction of the movie. I found her kind of cute in some of the scenes than never before. And other major attractions were Alan Akin with his usual incredible show in the small span, and a few others, especially that Indian character called Amit.
Even before it was released many had criticised it by saying a TV movie and so 90s. But I had faith in it and watched and it never disappointed me. I have already said in my many reviews that I love tearjerker movies, so it was my perfect one. Some mighty one's are releasing on the same week this movie hitting the screen. I believe this is the only one pure family drama that one could ask for an alternate. In fact best by so far in this summer, according to the family friendly films. I highly recommend it, but all you need is to have a low expectation.
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