Million Dollar Arm Review
Director: Craig GillespieStarring: Jon Hamm, Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mittal, Pitobash Tripathy, Lake Bell, Aasif Mandvi, Alan Arkin, Bill Paxton, Allyn Rachel Rating: PG Running Time: 120minutes The only other movie I’ve seen of Craig Gillespie’s was MR. WOODCOCK, and if you had seen that, then you might understand why I was a little concerned with how MILLION DOLLAR ARM would turn out. Thankfully, Mr. Gillespie did not disappoint! MILLION DOLLAR ARM is based on the true story of how sports agent, J.B. Bernstein, started the Million Dollar Arm competition, after his business was going broke. Bernstein needed baseball pitchers so he started a contest (and eventually a reality show) called Million Dollar Arm that took place in India. It was a contest where the first place prize was one hundred thousand US dollars and the second place prize was ten thousand US dollars. Both however, were brought to America to start training to try out for a Major League Baseball team. Most of the boys who tried out have never watched or played baseball which adds to the thrill and fascination of this story. To sum up the movie without completely spoiling it, the audience witnesses the yearlong journey in store for the all three of these characters. The story is amazing. Very uplifting, encouraging, and quite funny, too! I assumed this movie was going to be a complete drama with maybe two funny parts, but I was proven wrong. I felt every emotion throughout the entire film: happiness, anger, sadness, confusion, joy, nervousness- it was all there! When you can make an audience feel all of that in one sitting, you are well on your way to having a successful movie. What also helps is having a phenomenal cast. Jon Hamm is listed as the top-billing star, but I want to give a round of applause to Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mittal, and Pitobash Tripathy. They were definitely the stars of this movie. I believe they are all from India, so they were able to channel what it is like to come to America for the first time because I am sure they all went through what the real Patel and Singh went through; culture shock. I could feel their emotions and at one point cried with them because they were so believable. That, my friends, is astonishing acting. Everyone else in the movie was great, too! With actors like Jon Hamm, Alan Arkin, and Bill Paxton, you can expect an authentic story to be portrayed. I never heard of Lake Bell until tonight, but she played her character Brenda so well, you could not tell me she isn’t like Brenda in real life. If you love sarcasm, you will love Brenda. The soundtrack was outstanding. There were a few songs that featured some popular names, such as Kendrick Lamar and Wale, but A. R. Rahman composed the majority of the songs. If you’ve seen SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, then you’ve heard some of his material before. Not only were they really fun songs, but the timing and usage was dead on. It helped with the pacing of the movie and helped enhance certain scenes like Bernstein traveling through India, and the scenes were the boys are training for the competition. Credit must also be given to the editors and producers for their music choices and editing. Great cuts, great transitions, absolutely fantastic work! I only have two criticisms with this movie. I was bit confused at first because it’s called MILLION DOLLAR ARM, but the contestants didn’t make a million dollars. After thinking it over, I suppose the millions went to the business people from all the publicity they recieved, or it is fancier and cooler to say ‘million dollars’ instead of ‘one hundred thousand dollars.’ In any case, this title is extremely misleading. The writers can’t be blamed for that though, because this is based on a true story, so if that’s what it was called in reality, at least the film is staying true to the facts. My second criticism would be that towards the end of the movie, it dragged for like 3-5mins. However, it wasn’t enough, to put a damper on the entire thing. Overall, MILLION DOLLAR ARM is a must see. If you have children, definitely take them to see this movie. It teaches us about different cultures. It’s a great reminder of how fortunate a lot of us are to live where we live. The different settings throughout the movie make that lesson very clear. The ultimate lesson is best said with the quote: “The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.” When you see this movie and everything that the stars went through, you will learn how to appreciate and cherish the most important things in your life: family, friends, and yourself.
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