There's something about baseball that truly gels with movies. My secret conviction is that it's impossible to make a really terrible baseball movie. Even Disney can't botch it up completely, which is why their new true-to-life baseball tale "Million Dollar Arm" will wind up making you cry and glad to be alive and all that.
Not that the film is in the same league as legends like "Bull Durham" (1988) and "Field of Dreams" (1989), and as a story about the baseball business, it doesn't come close to the analytical powers of "Moneyball." Still, as Tom Berenger once said in "Major League" —"It's one more season in the sun." "Million Dollar Arm" can't be all bad, and, thankfully, it isn't.
Directed by Craig Gillespie, the story is pitched at an adult audience looking for something they can enjoy with the kids without being bored, hence the presence of John Hamm from "Mad Men." In the opening scene, Hamm — playing real-life sports agent J.B. Bernstein — tries out some sales talk on his partner Aash (Aasif Mandvi), rehearsing for a hotshot NFL client who he hopes can be smooth-talked into signing up with them. The whole thing reeks of "Mad Men" aftershave and the grown-up world of deals and cash.