​FILMS

million dollar arm

Million Dollar Arm (Drama/Comedy): 75 out of 100: If you like feel-good sports movies, then you can't go past this based on a true story baseball flick.

 

Jon Hamm has charm and charisma as the manager who goes to India to search for some cricketers to try to convert them in to major baseball league players. The scenes in India are fresh and vibrant, depicting the sights and sounds of several places like Mumbai and Agra. The Indian sounding music score by Oscar winner A.R. Rahman is a bonus, providing the film with extra mood and atmosphere. Alan Arkin nearly steals the film as a retired pitching scout and several of his scenes are quite funny. The scenes in America involving the Indians also add weight to the humour, albeit the highlighting of the culture clash is cliched. You can see the ending from a mile away and there's many predictable moments but the story is still a lot of fun, nevertheless.

 

Baseball films are not always released on the big screen in Australia but with its cricket influence, "Million Dollar Arm" is scheduled for release in early September.

Starring Jon Hamm, Bill Paxton, Alan Arkin and Lake Bell
(124 minutes)
Parental advice: Mild coarse language

Additional scene during or after credits: Yes, during the credits we see the real life people the two main baseballing characters are based on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiC8o7i_ZqE (Movie trailer)

(Reviewed on Tuesday 8th July, 2014)