Million Dollar Arm
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: May 16, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
19
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 14, 2014
It's all very pleasant, very inspiring, just not very surprising. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichMay 13, 2014
What keeps you watching is the charisma of the performers: Hamm does an amiable riff on his Don Draper persona (he’s cynical before the big melt), Lake Bell is a delight as his tart-tongued love interest, and Sharma and Mittal are all charm as the cultures-uniting underdogs. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianJeff BakerMay 17, 2014
The potentially huge audience for Million Dollar Arm deserves a better movie, less derivative and cynical and more like something real. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 17, 2014
The result is sappy, saccharine, and predictable to the point where it's almost painful. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaMay 16, 2014
This supposedly uplifting true-life baseball tale never quite strikes the necessary emotional sweet spots that these types of inspirational sports movies shamelessly if effectively milk, despite a pitch with great potential. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 15, 2014
The movie is grimly efficient on its own terms, a string of ever more naked calculations. But it looks like a business school opened up and all the marketing grads were allowed to start their own studio. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 15, 2014
An unusual story and sharp talents have been put through the Disney family-film machinery and come out flattened into formula. It’s an average movie, and that isn’t bad — just average. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 15, 2014
How could a little story like this get stretched to 124 minutes? It's at least 30 minutes too long. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 15, 2014
Million Dollar Arm is not just a Disney film, but a Disney film that could have been made, with minor elisions and different character names, in 1963. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMay 14, 2014
Million Dollar Arm is the kind of sports movie that crams everything subject-specific into quick-cut montages to make room for maudlin drama and fish-out-of-water comedy — a baseball flick where no one is actually shown playing baseball. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 14, 2014
Dawdling along as it does, Million Dollar Arm rarely shows us the “juice,” a baseball comedy that is as tentative as a base on balls. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 13, 2014
Nearly everything in this movie feels borrowed from other movies and ever so slightly reshaped, and almost never for the better. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithMay 11, 2014
Fatally mild, slow and factory-made, Million Dollar Arm belongs somewhere less competitive than the multiplex. Like the ABC Family Channel — the entertainment industry minor leagues. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlMay 11, 2014
If the filmmakers had been more daring with perspectives and narrative structure, and afforded their Indian characters the screentime and agency JB enjoys on his adventure, Million Dollar Arm might have distinguished itself. Read full review
50
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeApr 30, 2014
This “based on a true story” underdog tale is infectiously determined to make you fall in love with it, like a mangy dog that plops its head in your lap and gazes adoringly at you until you scratch it behind the ears. Eventually, you give in and scratch. And then you wash your hands. Read full review
40
The GuardianMike McCahillSep 22, 2014
Hamm and Alan Arkin's grouchy scout conclude these deals with unarguable professionalism, but we can spot the manoeuvres required to magic neocolonialist playbook into heartwarming fairytale. Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen HoldenMay 15, 2014
Every conflict is softened by inspirational clichés. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMay 15, 2014
As slickly entertaining as you’d expect a Disney-produced inspirational sports movie to be. But it’s so lacking in sincerity and creativity that “inspirational” never rounds the corner to “inspiring.” Read full review
40
The DissolveScott TobiasMay 14, 2014
The only splash of cold water comes from Lake Bell as J.B.’s bohemian tenant, who pops his bubble of self-importance (and the film’s) whenever she gets the opportunity... her chemistry with Hamm, who gives his slickster all the dimension he can, offers a nice relief from the broad culture comedy and sentimental button-pushing. Read full review
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