At first when I saw the trailer for The Million Dollar Arm I thought, this movie is a rip off of Show Me The Money Jerry Maguire; because I had no idea it’s based off a true story. A sports agent named JB Bernstein came up with the idea of going to India to find boys with a pitching talent. Now India is a nation that at the time was more obsessed with playing cricket than it was with knowing anything at all about baseball. I think it’s still true just because our neighbors who happen to be from India still love to play cricket.
Anyway, the movie Million Dollar Arm comes out in theaters today and I recommend going to see it because it’s so much better than the trailers make it out to be. The Sports agent JB Bernstein is played by Jon Hamm(Mad Men) and he does an amazing job playing a shallow guy that is looking out only for himself desperate to find someone to represent in the Sports industry. Who later transforms into a guy with heart. Traveling to India to find Rinku and Dinesh and seeing their situation wasn’t enough to change him. It ended up a team effort for JB to see that there is much more to life than money and super models.
With the help of cantankerous but eagle-eyed re red baseball scout Ray Poitevint (Alan Arkin), he discovers Dinesh (played by Madhur Mi al from “Slumdog Millionaire”) and Rinku (played by Suraj Sharma from “Life of Pi”), two 18-year-old boys who have no idea about playing baseball, yet have a knack for throwing a fastball. Hoping to sign them to major league contracts and make a quick buck, JB brings the boys home to America to train. While the Americans are defi nitely out of their element in India, the boys, who have never le their rural villages, are equally challenged when they come to the States. As the boys learn the fi ner points of baseball, JB, with the help of his charming friend Brenda (Lake Bell), learns valuable life lessons about teamwork, commitment and what it means to be a family.
I cried and laughed and really enjoyed the movie so much more than I thought I would. I feel like the trailers do not do this movie justice. It’s the movie that is so under played in advertising. It’s an inspiring story that needs to be seen.
My nephews watch a lot of new releases and go often the the theaters. I think this is one they would enjoy so glad you reviewed since they are always asking who heard of any good movies.