Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Let's be realistic.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Blistering performances.

Million Dollar baby is a film directed by Clint Eastwood. I wanted to watch the film but circumstances didn't allow me to do so. Finally, Last night I decided to watch it and was blown away.Plot: Follows Frankie Dunn, an old boxing trainer who decides to train an aspiring female boxer, a thing Frankie has never done in life. Story and direction: The film is just not about boxing (as I thought it would be). It is about the bonding and emotions formed between characters in the film. This is very well crafted by writer, Paul Haggis and director Eastwood. I was actually quite shocked of the themes the film dealt with. I was just fascinated by each and every scene of the film. The dialogue felt so real and struck a lightning bolt in my heart. I could relate to each and every scene in the film. The cinematography in the film is awesome. The boxing scenes were shot in a beautiful way. What added to the intensity of the boxing is the razor sharp editing. In addition to directing and producing the film, Eastwood also scores the film. Although the score is very minimal (which was apt considering the storyline the film was going for) and employs mostly pianos and guitars, it was very effective. My only flaw of the film was the sudden change of tone. It felt the first half was one film and second was another. If the flow would have been even, thw film would have been a notch higher.Performances: Clint Eastwood is a multi-talented personality. He acts perfectly. The grumpiness and mellowed version of his character was balanced perfectly by him. Hilary Swank was believable in every scene of the film. The hard work gone through by her is visible clearly. Morgan Freeman, who does serve as narrator too, does a wonderful job in supporting our main characters as well as guiding the audience through this emotional and soulful journey.Favorite Scene: It would be the scene where Maggie faces her first match with Sally as her manager and Frankie and Scrap watch from the other side of the hall. Frankie repeatedly tells Maggie to keep her left up. But when Frankie realises that Sally is making the match go his way for his own benefit; Frankie steps up to help Maggie. This scene showed the bond formed between Frankie and Maggie and how much Frankie cared for Maggie even if Frankie wants to hide it.Verdict: No wonder this film won big at the Academy Awards the subsequent year. Filled with earnest performances and a heart-filling emotional story and set-up, the film is definitely as must watch for those who feel that emotions surpass everything.I am going with a 9/10.

This is perhaps the greatest sport movie of all time. The screenplay successfully avoids the usual genre cliches, and is suspensefully and sensitively executed. The performances from Swank, Eastwood and Freeman are gritty and nuanced. The music score is memorable. It is just perfect in every possible measure.

I loved Million Dollar Baby, but I think that Ray was way better, but I do not know why because you would expect me to like Million Dollar Baby more than Ray because of the amount of violence in Million Dollar Baby. Well anyway, I would give Million Dollar Baby an A, for the cast's splendid acting, wonderful story, and for Eastwood's superb directing. This is Clint Eastwood's second time winning Best Picture, now it should have been his third time winning it because he should have won it the year before for Mystic River, but he did not which really pisses me off. I am sad that he ( Clint) did not win Best Actor but that was expected knowing that Jamie Foxx was nominated for it too, so there was no way he ( Clint) could have won it. Eastwood does a fabulous job directing like he always does, but you should not walk into Million Dollar Baby thinking it will be anything like Unforgiven or Mystic River. One thing that I really like about Eastwood's more recent movies, is how they are not all the same. You see him in all the western movies from the 60's, then he wins Best Picture in 92 with Unforgiven which is a western movie, then he does some fewer none movies, then he makes Mystic River which is a full-on drama, very different from Unforgiven. He then wins the next year with Million Dollar Baby a movie nothing like Mystic River, now he is making mostly war movies, but he has kept his movies different in their own unique way and I like that he does that. The acting Million Dollar Baby is phenomenal, even if the character is only a minor part, it is amazing. The priest who is only in 2 scenes, he still did a great job. The dick Anthony Mackie plays, I mean he did a good job playing a dick, so good job, I guess? I think the best acting of a minor character would be Danger, the kid who has some mental disadvantage, Jay Baruchel does an amazing job pulling off the part of Danger. Morgan Freeman got his first Oscar which is surprising for an actor as good as himself it surprises me that he has not won any other Oscars. He does a great job in all of his roles, I personally think that he should have won Best Actor for his role as Nelson Mandela in Invictus. Hilary Swank gets her second Oscar so go her, she won her first in Boy's don't Cry, she does a really good job and she deserves the Oscar for Million Dollar Baby. The movie is an adaptation of the story Ropes Burn by F.X. Toole. I have not read it but from what I have heard it was a good adaptation, Paul Haggis does a good job turning the story into a modern time period. Million Dollar Baby is a very good story about a woman who wants to be a boxer. She does become a boxer, but only after intense persuasion and proof that she is ready to fight. Oh yeah, also the fact that she is a woman in 2004 so people were less respecting of women, especially women who were trying to fill in the shoes of a boxer, a role that is normally done by men. In fact, she is so good at boxing that she knocks all of her opponents out only in the first few seconds which is good but Eastwood's character does not think that is giving her any practice. But because of that she barely receives pain from the other opponents, and that will catch up to her later in her boxing career. Million Dollar Baby reminds me of Rocky, Rocky 2, Rocky 3, Rocky 4, but it does not remind me of Rocky 5 or Raging Bull. I think you can see why 4 of the Rocky movies remind me of Million Dollar Baby. To conclude, I would give Million Dollar Baby an A, for the cast's splendid acting, wonderful story, and Eastwood's superb directing.

I can't say that I loved the movie, but I liked it. Throughout the movie I felt like the girl was a bit to forced with the acting, it didn't seem natural to me, somehow I couldn't feel with her. But as the movie went on, you slowly grow with the character, all the way until the end where the story comes to a heartbraking finish and leaves you in tears. Clint and Morgan were top class, as always, one of the best roles they played and one of the best movies Clint Eastwood made.