3.5/4  Million Dollar Baby
Its a film that reaks of quality. It looks suitably gritty given its film-maker and theme, and there is a real pumping heart at the centre. Hilary Swank is Maggie Fitzgerald. A dreamer with ambition to burn. She meets Clint Eastwoods grizz... (read full)

3/4  Review - Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) was never the greatest boxing trainer. He could get a man to fight well, but never to win a championship. When he met Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), however, all of this changed in the Best Picture winning ... (read full)

4/4  Ma Cushna means my darling, my blood.
This is probably the best acting I've seen in a sports movie. I can't say it's the greatest boxing movie yet, since I have yet to see Raging Bull but it's up there with the best. I wish the ending wasn't as sad as it was, but it's a good... (read full)

3.5/4  Million Dollar Baby Quick Review
Deserved every one of it's oscars. The story was perfect as well as the acting with one of the greatest endings of the decade. You'll never see it comming..... unless you've seen Scary Movie 4.

3.5/4  Million Dollar Baby Quick Review
Anything with Eastwood and Freeman in it has to be a masterpiece. And this is no different, especially since you add Swank into the mix.

3/4  Million Dollar Baby Quick Review
Good movie, but too dull at times. In the end I liked it but it dragged a bit too much especially at the end.


3.5/4  Million Dollar Baby Quick Review
A better story line could have helped this movie. Some of the scenes were great, but over all I don't think this is my type of movie. While I do think it is a pretty damn good movie, the second viewing is a disappointment.

5/5 excellent Clint eastwood movie
  by chfancier (Brookings SD)
it was a good clint eastwood movie wityh not so much killing in it as most of his do
I had seen it before so liked the story about the lady boxing
and acting
chfancier

5/5 The best boxing movie ever...
  by Daniel H. Price (tucson, arizona)
In 2004, Clint Eastwood produced, directed and starred in the best boxing movie I have ever had the pleasure of watching on the silver screen.I love "Rocky" movies...because I love "Rocky" movies. I do not expect every actor in a "Rocky" flick to garner an academy award, but there I sit anyway as the final boxing scene unravels. But in "Million Dollar Baby", I expect the three main characters played by Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman and Eastwood to walk onto the stage at the Academy Awards and pick up their Oscar. I expect it. I want it to happen. And I'd be shocked if it didn't happen. The movie won for Best Picture. Eastwood collected the Best Director Award. Freeman the Best Supporting Actor Award. And Swank boxed her way to the Best Actress of the Year Award. Jamie Foxx won the Best Actor Award for "Ray", and he not only had to beat out Eastwood, but Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland) and Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda).I'd hate to have been the judges on that one. Swank's character, Maggie, walks into the boxing gym at the beginning of "Million Dollar Baby" and captures our hearts and she doesn't let loose until the very end.I walked out of the movie, desperately wanting to change the ending. The movie was that good. As for Freeman and Eastwood, they were both outstanding,Freeman as "Scrap" and Eastwood as "Frankie". They were together in the academy award winning western, "The Unforgiven". I didn't think they could top those performances. I was wrong. Buy the DVD. See it over and over again. Make plenty of popcorn and bring plenty of tissue.

5/5 Wonderful story
  by Angela R. Lloyd (Orleans, Indiana)
I loved this movie, even though it had me in tears at the end. Great performances, and wonderful story.

4/5 A Boxing Film That's Actually Tender
  by D. Mikels (Skunk Holler)
MILLION DOLLAR BABY has to be one of the saddest movies I've ever seen--so sad that if I catch it on cable I find myself changing the channel before the tragedy strikes. That said, this is an acutely tender, compelling drama, featuring three very believable characters in an unusual setting: women's boxing. And of course, this is a film directed by Clint Eastwood, who has become one of the elites of even elite filmmakers.

We all know the story. An impoverished waitress (Hilary Swank) wants to be a champion boxer; as her mentor, she wants grizzled, veteran manager Frankie Dunn (Eastwood). Yet Frankie resists, and resists aggressively, as he wants no part of women's boxing, yet Maggie (Swank's character) persists. Plus, she touches a nerve in the old, wily manager, a parental nerve in a lonely man who is very much estranged from his own daughter. Aided by Frankie's longtime friend and partner Eddie (Morgan Freeman), the duo achieves skyrocketing success along the women's boxing circuit--until unspeakable tragedy takes place. And then Frankie is faced with some very difficult decisions.

Believability. That's what is so strong in MILLION DOLLAR BABY, from Frankie's grungy boxing gym, to the boxing action, to the tenderness between Eastwood and Swank's characters. It's all very compelling--it's all literally heartbreaking. Obviously, my bias is showing; I'm giving this exceptionally good film four stars instead of five because it's simply too painful to watch the final half hour. But it doesn't keep me from heartily recommending it.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning

4/5 Very touching, very sad
  by Charlie Brooks (Vermont)
In all truth, Million Dollar Baby is well-crafted enough to deserve five stars. The dialogue is believable, the acting is terrific, and Clint Eastwood proves once again how much talent he has as both an actor and a director. The only reason I'm giving this movie four stars instead of five is because it's not something I want to watch over and over again. That's got nothing to do with the quality of the film - in fact, part of my reasoning is because the film is so powerful. The reason why I don't want to watch the movie very often is because it is so very sad.

Explaining exactly why the film is sad would ruin it. I'll just say that the movie starts off almost like a female version of Rocky, with a cocky by aging fighter making a run to the top. A surprise twist changes everything, though, and the mood does a complete 180. This film, more than any other movie in recent memory, does an uncanny job of making you not just like but love the characters. Then it strips them bare and puts them through the ringer, bringing you along with it.

Do not purchase Million Dollar Baby if you're looking for a light-hearted sports film or if you want an uplifting tale of a zero rising to become a hero. Do purchase the movie if you enjoy a terrific work of art and don't mind your emotions being openly manipulated by the masterfully created film. Despite the way it begins, Million Dollar Baby is a tearjerker, albeit a terrific one.