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After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I saw this movie in theaters for two reasons: 1. I'm a huge baseball fan; and 2. I watch Med Men (i.e. the Jon Hamm factor). Even after 20 or so minutes, when I knew exactly what this movie would be, I still really, really wanted to like it. Unfortunately, this one is schmaltzy "Disney" through and through.For a basic plot summary, "Million Dollar Arm" tells the story of how sports agent J.B. Bernstein (Hamm) starts a competition called Million Dollar Arm in order to find a major league baseball player from the relatively untapped market of India. The two athletes he finds, Rinku (Suraj Sharma) and Dinesh (Madhur Mittal), are in for quite a culture shock as they travel to America for the first time and have to essentially learn baseball from scratch.First of, let me be clear in that I'm not attaching a star-ranking to the overall story here. It is truly a fascinating and inspiring tale for baseball fans and human-interest fans alike.As a movie, though, "Million Dollar Arm" falls far short of being great. The main problem? It doesn't have a clear focus, so it tries to do too much and doesn't really nail anything. This could have been a hard-core baseball fan movie. It could have been a love story. It could have been a redemption story. It could have been a new culture assimilation piece. Had the filmmakers looked at the story through just one of those three scopes (and just bolstered it with shades of the others), it would really have worked.Unfortunately, director Craig Gillespie (or maybe the Disney producers) tries to cram every single theme possible into one movie. It really feels like the old "throw the kitchen sink at 'em" method in terms of trying to evoke every possible emotion from the audience. I realize that this movie is supposed to have a broad, family-based appeal, but but focusing on everything the producers ended up focusing on nothing.The two biggest wastes in this movie? 1. Hamm, a terrific actor who plays as transparent of a character as one can see on screen; and 2. The fact that hard-core baseball fans like myself will not enjoy the baseball aspects of this movie. It is made for the family set first and foremost.Thus, though I wanted very badly to enjoy this movie and all the right pieces existed for that to happen, they just didn't come together. The "Indian culture" angle was interesting, but not nearly as compelling as, say, "Slumdog Millionaire", and recently baseball-themed movies like "Trouble with the Curve" and "Moneyball" will appeal much more to the die-hards.

Million Dollar Arm By Jordon WrightIf you are looking for a sports movie that's funny and inspiring, then million-dollar arm is for you! This movie contains all the great things a movie should have, comedy, plot/background, and it's a true story. This movie is entertaining weather you know anything about sports or not. That's what make this movie so special as you can watch it with family, friends, or anyone regardless of their interest in baseball. Not only is this movie heartwarming to anyone that watches it but it will make you want to watch it again and again. This movie has a compelling plot/ background story to it. Its very inspiration to everyone that watches this movie, which is based on a true story. The way that the characters' progress in this film is astonishing and the progress they make in baseball blows your mind how fast they do it. The main characters came from nothing one was a truck driver that worked for his dad and the other one was just going to school in India. They both had never picked up a baseball or even seen one before. They just took a chance so they could possibly get out and start a new life. They gave up everything they had and hopped on a plane to the USA to try and start their baseball carriers. Leaving behind all their family and friends and all their valuables just to try and start a new life. It is a very inspiring towards the end when you get to see how they end up doing with what they have worked so hard at.All good movies have to have some humor to them, and throughout this entire film it will keep you laugh till the very end. The way the screenwriter integrate comedy into their film is truly great you will always have a smile on your face when watching this film. The humor involved in this film is in no way inappropriate to the younger generation so all ages can watch this movie and enjoy it.All in all, I would recommend this fantastic movie to you. It has the perfect background/plot to it. Plus, it's hilarious and will have you smiling to the end. You can watch this movie with anyone even if they know nothing of sports or is very young. It's truly a great movie, and it is a must see movie.

Million Dollar Arm (2014): Dir: Craig Gillespie / Cast: Jon Hamm, Lake Bell, Madhur Mittal, Suraj Sharma, Bill Paxton: Based on a true story with a title that physically references the arm strength of two Asian teens with arms for baseball pitching. It also refers to the Jon Hamm seeking them out and what his presence means to them. Hamm plays a sports agent down on his luck and after watching cricket on TV he decides to seek out talent in India. The culture references are interesting as Hamm settles in and produces a contest that would have the winners sent to America to train for baseball. There is two impressive contestants that are packed up and sent to the U.S where predictably, they don't fit in and Hamm constantly feeds them pizza because he doesn't know how to relate to them. That's not the end of it. We are given a useless romantic subplot with Lake Bell as a nurse neighbour and the idiotic hints at a relationship. She is all sweet and giddy and totally should have all her scenes in the deleted section on the DVD release. The best performances are from Madhur Mittal and Suraj Sharma as the two Asian potentials struggling to become the next big baseball stars. It is fun watching them try to adapt to Hamm's massive house but eventually we arrive at the obvious conclusion. Bill Paxton is also strong as a coach who is sceptical about the success rate of these two new players. Directed by Craig Gillespie who previously made such diverse films as Mr. Woodcock and Fright Night. Despite the formula Mittal and Sharma bring meaning to the opportunities they are given. Score: 6 ½ / 10

I am surprised by the pretty high score that "The Million Dollar Arm" has gotten.Yes, I know that it's based on a true story, but that doesn't mean that it has to be so bland and disconnected. Setting aside that Jon Hamm's character (the agent) was so remarkably unlikable, the movie, AS A MOVIE, is a big disappointment. After a cute scene of the kids encountering their first elevator, there are almost no scenes where we see someone actually doing something -- we just get oral summaries of the latest incident from one of the characters, e.g., the agent's tenant, or his secretary, etc. This is story-telling as a bunch of news- clippings, not as a MOVIE. About the only acting pizazz comes from the tenant, who keeps reminding the agent to show some humanity, and from Alan Arkin, but he wanders in and out of the movie like a sort of fairy godmother, come to occasionally refocus the agent on the job at hand.This could have been a FAR better movie. As it stands, it played like a dry newspaper story. Truth is, I learned more about the two kids from their respective Wikipedia articles.