A Million Dollars Worth Of Disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (15 November 2005)

Eastwood is revealed yet again as a mediocre director, who is not capable of making a decent film from a script that clearly needed some viagra injected into it.
Looking back at my viewing experience, I mainly feel disgust. Disgust at having someone pressing my tear glands so unceremoniously.
What Million Dollar Baby fails most miserably at is creating a believable interaction between it's main characters. As all the actors for the main parts have shown they're capable of better, we must blame the director. Especially sad is Eastwood's own performance. Usually very dependable, Eastwood is so weak in this film, it's almost irritating to watch him. Swank and Freeman manage to make the most of their weak roles but to call their appearances "noteworthy" would be an exaggeration.
Of course the real baddie in this drama is the story itself, which is chuck-full of crudely-drawn clichés, caricatures and plain stupidity. Even a B-movie deserves better than this drivel.
Eastwood is badly in need of material for a rehabilitation after this latest performance.
By the way, putting this movie on a par with Raging Bull is both ridiculous and an insult to Martin Scorcese. Even Clint himself would be appalled.