Million Dollar Baby

[astrangerhere]

Wow. I make it a point every January of trying to see all the Oscar films, and this was no exception. I can't tell you how glad I am of that now. Million Dollar Baby was one of the best films I've seen in a very long time.



I've never liked Clint Eastwood, so it would figure that he would be 74 before he made a film I enjoyed. But I can honestly say that his Frankie, Swank's Maggie and Freeman's Scrap all have my wholehearted support in thier respective Oscar races.



Anyone else?



ash

Can you help me with this heart in my chest? It ain't perfect, but you should see me use it.

[walker]

I saw this a week ago and hated it. It was a fairly standard and well trodden sports movie premise - plucky sports star wannabe overcomes all the odds with the help of a disullusioned former champ (or in this case top boxing coach) and then, unsuprisingly, tragedy befalls them. It even has the obligatory "zany" character.



What drags this above other sports movie's is the acting. Even with the predictable plot and awful script you can't have an entirely bad movie when Morgan Freeman is involved. He was brilliant, as were Hilary Swank and Clint Eastwood. On the other end of the scale what was that stereotypical and entirely offensive depiction of Maggie's "trailer trash" family all about?



I was looking forward to it so I think my disappointment may have partially been down to the expectation I had for it. Note to self, stop reading movie reviews. If you really want to see a boxing movie I would recommend Girlfight as a better choice than this movie.



But hey, this is just one person's opinion and as far as I can tell from the reviews I'm vastly out numbered.

If you've lost your faith in love and music the end won't be long - The Libertines

[LizPuRR]

i saw this movie last night and i thought it was amazing

Hilary Swank was soooo good! i hope she wins the oscar!~

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dripped through the hallway casue we started in the shower, we didnt finish til we hit the kitchen counter...

[astrangerhere]

Walker, I understand where you are coming from. I think because i read the short story the movie spawned from I have a little different approach. The story is from a collection entitled Rope Burns, by FX Toole. I assure you, the movie gave much more depth to what was only about a 50 page short story.



I think the story in itself wasnt supposed to be great, much less awe-inspiring. I think it was supposed to be about the characters. To that end, I think the script was stripped down of almost everything but that. BTW, the obligatory zany character of Danger was indeed in the book.



At any rate, thanks for responding!



ash

[Candleshoe]

I took a friend to see this just after both her parents died. It had only just come out, and the reviewers were being shy about telling us the actual story. I though "Yay, a film about female empowerment, some boxing and my friend will fancy Hilary Swank - like Girlfight meets Tomb Raider" I thought.

We got half way through, and I just wanted to run screaming to every reviewer and throttle them all. No-one said it was sad, or about dying, or about as "female-empowery" as a bicycle. I spent most of the time taking sneaky peeks to see if my friend was OK, and perfecting my apology in my head.

My friend loved it, she saw it again twice, and now has the DVD. I have strange friends....

I thought Hilary Swank was good, and Clint Eastwood was terrible, but then again, I'm biased.