Spoilers! Fun at times, suffers from clichés and maudlin ending

Rating: 3/10 (6 January 2005)

SPOILER ALERT! I enjoyed the cinematography. The gym looked great. Hilary Swank was good and the banter between Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood was highly engaging- but reminiscent of many "buddies" from many different movies. There was little original here.
The strange character of Danger was, well, strange. In the end he seemed to exist primarily so A) Eastwood could say grumpy things about him thus appearing to be gruff and lovable at the same time, and B) so Morgan Freeman could have a moment of glory when he punches out Danger's tormentor. I didn't mind these moments in the plot, but we must admit that they are not the stuff of genius. Disney provided countless similar moments in their live action movies of the seventies (See the Herbie series).
The boxing was utterly unbelievable for anyone who has actually watched boxing. However it was amusing to see Hilary knock out boxer after boxer much to her coach's- Clint's- exasperation.
The final opponent- the evil woman who cheats and knocks Hilary out- would surely have been suspended several times based on the behavior depicted in the film. This might not be obvious to everyone- but boxing is not professional wrestling.
Hilary's family is so ridiculously evil that I have to laugh when I remember them. The scenes of Hilary sitting by the hospital window day after day while her family went to Disneyland were painful- but not in the way they were meant to be.
The final scenes seem like a vote for euthanasia and I felt a little ripped off. There is a great deal that's implausible in these scenes. Where does Clint find the needle and the drugs? How does he know what to do? Why don't the nurses on duty catch on? Why isn't there an investigation? But even more importantly- there was no need for the secrecy. As far as I understand, Hilary needed to be on a ventilator or she would die. There is no law that says you have go on a ventilator- at least not in the province where I live. She could have requested to be removed from the machine and died peacefully, without Clint's apparent heroics.
Overall, very disappointing for a movie that was so hyped by critics. There was nothing outstanding about it. What was fun was far from original. What was bad was so bad that it seriously cripples the whole thing.
I can't imagine why intelligent critics loved it in such large numbers. Had this movie been released in February, I believe many people would have cooled toward it by the time Oscar season rolled around. Now I fear it may displace superior movies at the awards show, causing future critics and fans to scratch their heads.