Million Dollar Arm was not exactly the most talked about summer movie before or after its release, since it was competing with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Godzilla, and Neighbors. It was, however, one of those movies that provided an option for the parents or older folks to watch while they dropped of their kids to see the previously mentioned movies. Sports movies have a hard time pleasing audiences, with most films being based on true and predictable stories. Though there have been some genre defying examples in the last few years, many were not expecting this one to be one of them. Does Million Dollar Arm hit the ball out of the park, or is it an uninspiring strikeout?

The plot focuses on sports agent J.B. Bernstein who is searching for new recruits. In order to impress businessman Chang, who is looking for Asian athletes, Bernstein has an idea to recruit some of the best cricket players in India with a contest called “Million Dollar Arm”. He manages to find two good candidates and has them trained in the United States. Though they struggle to adapt to baseball, with the hopes to make the Indian athletes into baseball stars.

Unsurprisingly, the story is as predictable as inspirational sports movies go. It’s a combination of the underdog tale and the fish out of water. There’s drama, peacefulness, speeches, a few chuckles, the usual in these types of movies. Good or bad, it’s just there. There’s nothing really at risk and it’s not a large historical movement that you would see in Invictus or Moneyball. It does offer some nice Indian scenes allowing the audience to explore the culture a little bit more.

Jon Hamm stars as Bernstein a decent role as he seems invested in the character, but it’s not a performance that would make me beg people to see this movie. Since sports movies can be predictable, acting is everything. Acting is the primary reason films like The Blind Side and 42 succeeded. Million Dollar Arm doesn’t really succeed in that area, but we do get some good performances from Aasif Mandvi, Lake Bell, Madhur Mittal, and Suraj Sharma.

There’s  not much else to this movie. Million Dollar Arm is a typical inspirational sports movie. It’s tough to make fantastic work in this genre as demonstrated in the past. It’s not bad, but it’s not really something I can get myself invested into.

-Brady Lass