You don't have a video library if you don't own this one, and you haven't been to the movies if you haven't seen it.

Rating: 10/10 (15 July 2005)

Where do I begin? OK, how about this. Clint Eastwood. Morgan Freeman. Hillary Swank. Read that list again. Repeat it aloud like you were learning a list of holy sacraments for catechism. These aren't actors. These are national treasures. Consider yourself lucky to be able to see any one of them in a movie. To have a movie with the three of them in starring roles, that's not luck, that's manna from heaven. Eastwood, Freeman. These are stars well established in the firmament, and either could elevate even the most prosaic of films into something magical. But this is no prosaic film. It's magic is overwhelming.
But take note. A new star shines throughout this movie, even in the brilliant light of the infallible Eastwood and Freeman, and I am at a loss to begin to describe her magnificence. Radiant. Beautiful. Brilliant. Let me know when you get the idea, so I can go on. Hillary is stunning, breathtaking. Her subtle and nuanced performance is beyond description. She's a white trash would be fighter, too old to train and it doesn't matter anyway 'cause Eastwood "don't train girls." But she saves tips and scrapes plates and buys a speed bag, and well, why not? And suddenly, she's a contender.
And just when we thought this was going to be another Schlocky Rocky ain't it touching 'cause the underdog wins piece of crap movie, we are reminded oh so powerfully that this is, after all, a Clint Eastwood movie. Swank, Freeman and Eastwood all won Oscars, as did the film itself for Best Picture. But that only beings to suggest how unbelievably spectacular this film really is.
The film's third act the stuff of cinema history. It will be remembered among the greatest achievements Hollywood has produced; and will rightfully call the likes of The Godfather, Rocky, and Raging Bull peers. You don't have a video library if you don't own this one, and you haven't been to the movies if you haven't seen it.