Million Dollar Arm

You can't help but picture Don Draper when JB Bernstein (Jon Hamm) is making his opening pitch to a Major League Baseball player in the first scene of Disney's "Million Dollar Arm." Desperate to revive his career as a sports agent, and suffering both financially and emotionally, Bernstein can't even land a minor client.

Then one late night while he's flipping back and forth through TV channels, half watching a British sport that totally baffles him and half watching Susan Boyle singing "I Dreamed a Dream," he juxtaposes two ideas together: "American Idol" and cricket.

If he can't land himself a client in the United States, because all of the ball players here are too fast for what he's pitching, he will need to go on a search in another country. This takes him to India, where no one knows anything about baseball but the people are still savvy to the American Dream.

To find baseball's next great pitching ace, Bernstein decides to produce a reality show competition called "The Million Dollar Arm." In order to do this, he needs to enlist the help of a couple of curveballs: The curmudgeonly Ray Poitevint (Alan Arkin) and the hesitant Tom House (Bill Paxton).

As luck would have it, he discovers Dinesh (Madhur Mittal) and Rinku (Suraj Sharma), both of who can throw a fastball but have no idea how to play baseball. They experience a whole new world when Bernstein takes them to train in America, having never left their rural villages before. His goal is to make a quick buck and sign them to major league contracts, but he ends up with something more. With the help of his friend Brenda (Lake Bell), he picks up some valuable life lessons.

Based on a true story, this movie is a cross between "Jerry Maguire" and "Slumdog Millionaire." Still at its heart, it's all Disney with that inspirational charm that we've come to expect and love from the studio.

The bonus features on this Blu-ray offer something unique: An alternate ending, not to mention deleted scenes, outtakes and three making-of featurettes, "Training Camp," "Their Story" and a look at the way the Oscar-winning composer blends India with the U.S. in "Million Dollar Music by A. R. Rahman."

"Million Dollar Arm"
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