MILLION DOLLAR ARM is based on the true story of JB Bernstein and his dream of finding the next great baseball player in India.  He is a struggling sports agent who gets investors to hold a competition called the Million Dollar Arm and the winners will be trained to be baseball players and try out for the teams in front of baseball scouts.  The winners end up being Rinku and Dinesh who strive to dream like JB Berstein and move beyond their communities in India.   The only hurdles are JB not paying attention to the winners, the struggle of these two young men to be baseball players, and JB trying to pull off the improbable by promising to present players who can try out in a year. MILLION DOLLAR ARM has all of the elements of the type of inspirational stories that Disney sometimes makes and it is the type of movie that is suitable for the whole family.    It is about going for your dreams, caring for the people you are responsible for, and believing in yourself along with finding new friendships (and relationships).  JB must find a balance between his relationships and his job as he struggles to make his agency survive as he is distracted by an on and off football player client named Popo (who is the type of player who wants everything to be about him and wants his agent to pay attention to him all of the time, but seriously the name spells ego issues).  Jon Hamm resembles the real JB Bernstein as the actors who play Rinku and Dinesh capture the real life winners (even though they don’t look like them).  Jon Hamm is an interesting actor as he gives an understated performance that isn’t easy to judge, but I think it is down to the way he wants to wants to play the characters he tackles on movies and TV.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

TRAINING CAMP- behind-the-scenes of training the actors who play Rinku and Dinesh how to look like baseball players on screen with a special appearance from the real Rinku.

THEIR STORY- the real Rinku, Dinesh, and JB Bernstein talk about their experiences and how it changed their lives.

MILLION DOLLAR MUSIC BY A.R. RAHMAN- the composer talks about the music and the mix of Indian music and Western pop.

 

Three deleted scenes and an alternate ending that were wisely cut from the movie, but they are still nice to see and maybe the last deleted scene could have fit back into the movie where the alternate ending could have worked if it had more material (and a rewrite).

 

Also included is a code so you can stream and download a Digital HD copy of the movie across several devices from TV to computer to tablet and smart phones.

FINAL ANALYSIS: MILLION DOLLAR ARM is an inspirational film that is a perfect fit for Disney and will appeal to the whole family.  I wish the disc did have more extensive extras and actually go into the process of how they made the movie.

 

This review is ©10-8-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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