Review of Million Dollar Baby (2004) by Liam C — 07 Apr 2014

Another great work from a powerhouse that is, Clint Eastwood. Sure, when it started it felt very 'been-there-done-that', it just felt like a re-telling of Rocky for a modern generation, I'm sure many people thought that when they first saw it.

These thoughts disappeared almost instantly and this is because I could just sit back and watch a film made by people who love the industry and people who know what they are doing. You watch a film with any of the three main stars of this movie and nine time out of ten it'll be something worth watching, ignoring the fact that Freeman is in pretty much everything these days.

The film might be about boxing but the thing that is more important and trumps everything else is the human story at the centre of it, this movie is about the characters and those are the kind of movies that are the best to me.

So, naturally, the acting is excellent from everyone from the three big hitters to the little side stories involving Maggie's mother and the always energetic Danger Barch, everything matters and everything is interesting and every story has a great conclusion.

The ending was so shocking and, to talk about it in detail without having seen the movie is a crime of the highest calibre so I will try to be vague, everything just changed so fast and I thought it was out of place at first and I was expecting everything to get back to normal again! But no, its an unconventional story but a good story made for the right reasons.

It was quite strange at first that the big fight was about an hour and a half into the movie, but that just shows you how original it is. I could talk about it for ages but just watch the movie, you're doing yourself a disservice by not.

Incredibly touching, extremely powerful and utterly unforgettable. Perfection.