2014 Movies: #49 & #48

Congrats, dear reader! You have slogged through the wooded thicket of the bottom 10 and made it out unscathed.

We now enter a group that is maybe more like a moorland terrain. Low growing vegetation, acidic soils, some prettiness-at least some redeemable qualities.

Put on those hiking boots and let's trudge!


49) Million Dollar Arm

I am a baseball fanatic. Apparently, so is Jon Hamm. He is a diehard St. Louis Cardinals fan (he grew up near there), and this would of course be unforgivable if it weren't for one of the best performances of the last decade as Mr. Draper.

For a movie about baseball, Million Dollar Arm featured surprisingly little baseball. That was perhaps the biggest disappointment. The second biggest disappointment was the despicable amount of cliches being thrown at the viewer. Sports agent J.B. Bernstein (Hamm) travels to India to recruit cricket players to try out as pitchers on pro baseball teams and is immediately taking us through the motions. Why are there so many people here? Why is my air conditioning broken in this hot country? Why is everything so spicy and colorful? It's just as bad on the other side, when his apprentices come to America and are overwhelmed by "attractive white women" and "cable tv packages" and "alcohol". There is even the quirky neighbor Brenda (Lake Bell) who gets Bernstein to question his being set in his ways and the ornery old baseball scout with the "trust me, I've seen it all, kid" disposition (Alan Arkin). Despite every  opportunity for Million Dollar Arm to fall completely flat, Hamm, Bell and the Indian actors (especially Aasif Mandvi) turn in good performances.

48) Wish I Was Here

10 years ago, Zach Braff was at the height of his Scrubs run. As hospital resident John Dorian, he became the poster boy for whimsical, heart-on-the-sleeve dramedy. This experience transferred seamlessly into his first foray into writing and directing with the excellent Garden State. Of course, there were a lot of other factors at play to make it such a quality product: the heartfelt script, Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard, an outstanding soundtrack, and of course, Method Man.

He did not make lightning strike twice. Wish I Was Here has plenty of good moments, certainly, but it feels like an Outback Steakhouse--even though we all love steak and potatoes, they find a way to make it underwhelming. In some ways, it feels like Garden State 2. Our Braff protagonist is grown up with kids but still struggling with making it as an actor, resolving issues with his own parents (His ailing father is played by Mandy Patinkin), and having plenty of "what does it all mean?" moments. The premise that Aidan (Braff) ends up in between acting gigs and home-schooling his kids, while wife Sarah (Kate Hudson) ends up winning the bread. Meanwhile, he is trying to convince his degenerate brother Noah (Josh Gad) to reconcile with his father before it's too late. While trying to convey life lessons to his offspring, his own life is kind of falling apart. He has recurring fantasies about wearing space helmets and going on dangerous missions which are meant to show his true connection to his brother, but mostly they are out of place and add nothing, save a couple of cool visuals. The best thing about this film may actually be the kids (Joey King and Pierce Gagnon), whose misbehavior and curiosity are both hilarious and realistic.