Million Dollar Arm
Director: Craig Gillespie
Writer: Tom McCarthy
Cast: Jon Hamm, Lake Bell, Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mittal, Pitobash, Aasif Mandvi, Bill Paxton, Alan Arkin
Walt Disney Pictures
Rated PG | 120 Minutes
Release Date: May 16, 2013

Million Dollar Arm strikes the right feeling in Disney’s winning line of sports films. With an aptly cast Jon Hamm portraying real-life agent J.B. Bernstein, the movie balances the essence of the tough and sometimes manipulative world of athletics with the right amount of heartwarming spirit. But does Arm play hardball or go straight for the sentiment? The uplifting tone may be everything you would expect, but the journey it takes in reaching that point throws some curveballs along the way.

Ride Along
Director: Tim Story
Cast: Kevin Hart, Ice Cube, Tika Sumpter, John Leguizamo, Laurence Fishburne
Universal Pictures
Rated PG-13 | 100 Minutes
Release Date: January 17, 2013

Directed by Tim Story (Think Like a Man), Ride Along stars Kevin Hart as Ben, a hyperactive hardcore gamer who joins his potential brother-in-law James (Ice Cube), a detective, on a 24-hour patrol of Atlanta in order to prove himself worthy of marrying Angela (Tika Sumpter), James’ sister.

Tim Story is the filmmaker responsible for such cinematic atrocities as Taxi, Fantastic Four, and Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The director came onto the scene in 2002 with the well-received comedy Barbershop, which also stars Ice Cube, but hasn’t made a decent movie since.

I’d like to tell you that Ride Along serves as a set of shock paddles to Story’s flatlining career, but this contrived mess of clichés is dead on arrival. An odd-couple comedy starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart has a lot of potential – just look at this clip from Conan – but Ride Along is such a colossal misfire because of its uninspired, unfunny script.

A new trailer has been released by Disney for Million Dollar Arm, a new movie starring Jon Hamm of Mad Men fame.

The movie is a sports flick from the producers of Miracle and Invincible. It tells the story of a sports agent who heads to India in hopes of finding the next great baseball pitcher.

You can read a synopsis and check out the trailer below.

2012 was a fantastic year for movies. Films like The Dark Knight Rises and Marvel’s The Avengers entertained audiences with blockbuster action sequences and the ultimate in childhood wish fulfillment, while movies such as Drew Goddard‘s Cabin in the Woods and Gareth Edward‘s The Raid: Redemption will long be remembered as putting the nail in the coffin of their respective genres.

We saw new films from acclaimed directors like Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, Ang Lee, David O. Russell, Paul Thomas Anderson, William Friedkin, Steven Soderbergh, Ben Affleck, Sam Mendes, and Kathryn Bigelow. Not to mention the latest offerings from Rian Johnson, Joss Whedon, Richard Linklater, and newcomers Colin Trevorrow, Benh Zeitlin, and Stephen Chbosky.

So many memorable characters – so many great lines delivered by talented actors inhabiting their roles. Here are some of the best (and a few of the worst) film quotes from 2012. Feel free to include your own in the comments! You can also check out my Top 25 Films of 2012 here!

Argo
Directed by Ben Affleck
Written by Chris Terrio
Starring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Kyle Chandler, Clea DuVall, Philip Baker Hall
Warner Bros. Pictures
Rated R | 120 Minutes
Release Date: October 12, 2012

So you want to come to Hollywood and and act like a big shot without actually doing anything? You’ll fit right in.

In 1979, during the Iranian Revolution, Islamic militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran and hold 52 Americans hostage. During the chaos, six men and women are able to flee the embassy before becoming hostages, seeking sanctuary at Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor’s home.

The Central Intelligence Agency and its retrieval specialist Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) concoct an unorthodox plan to help the six U.S. embassy employees escape Iran. Under the guise that they’re scouting exotic locations for a futuristic, science-fiction film called Argo, the six Americans will play the part of Canadian filmmakers so they can leave the country safely.

Directed by Ben Affleck, Argo is based on the true, declassified story that took place during the Iran Hostage crisis. Chris Terrio wrote the screenplay based on the 2007 Wired article “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran” by Joshuah Bearman. CIA agent Tony Mendez’s heroic work was kept top secret until President Bill Clinton lifted the mission’s classified status in 1997.