by Abbey Stoneman
“Million Dollar Arm,” produced by Joe Roth, Gordon Gray and Mark Ciardi, is an inspiring, heartfelt sports drama about a failing sports agent making a final attempt to save his career and change the lives of three boys.
J.B. (Jon Hamm) meets Rinku (Suraj Sharma) and Dinesh (Madhur Mittal) in India to find a cricket player to transform into a professional baseball pitcher. After endless tryouts in the “Million Dollar Arm” contest, Ranku and Dinesh finally tryout and impress J.B. right away.
The two boys, J.B and his new sidekick, Amit (Pitobash) travel to America where the boys will begin professional training. Their adventure is not all smooth sailing. The boys blow their first tryout in front of all of the professional scouts, J.B. neglects them and the boys struggle with the change of being in a different country.
The first half of the movie was shot in India. The audience gets to see beautiful scenery and theTaj Mahal. Close-up shots make the scenes feel personal so the audience connects to the actors. For the most part, the movie scenes are colorful and intricate.
While the movie paints every boy’s dream of becoming a professional athlete, it is too predictable. Just like any other Disney movie, it is inspiring and full of life lessons with a happy ending. There are no surprises. The movie does not hook the audience.
The movie does succeed, however, in pulling at heartstrings. The audience gets to know all about the characters and their personalities. J.B is more concerned with himself and money than anyone’s feelings, and the boys try to make a dream come true. The movie also succeeds in teaching that “money is not everything,” and the love of family is shown and expressed throughout the whole movie. The movie is inspirational, at times funny and rated PG.
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