Doesn't make a good movie

Rating: 1/10 (22 January 2006)

I'm going to try to make this as short as possible, because you people deserve it after sitting through Million Dollar Baby (or not). If you liked Rocky, don't see MDB. If you liked Gladiator (the boxing one, not Russel Crowe), don't see MDB. If you liked any boxing movie, DON'T SEE MDB.
Plain and simple, this is not a boxing movie. This is not a movie about hope, or dreams. This movie is about giving up. This movie is against every thing a movie should be about, entertainment and thought provoking material (if that's your bag). MDB works in two halves, the good half, and the bad half.
The good half consists of the main character (Maggie) struggling to realize her dream of becoming a boxer. Eventually she does, after bugging Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) into submission. We see her in her prime, you get this feeling that she realized her dream because she never gave up. The second half happens after Maggie takes a fall after a dirty hit causes her to sustain a spinal injury.
The last 30 minutes of the movie are spent watching Maggie die in a hospital. She does nothing, she barely says any thing. She simply lays there and Frankie stands by her bed as she does. Eventually Maggie says "Put me out of my misery" and without much question, sure enough Frankie injects her with an unknown substance, after which Maggie shortly dies. So what are we left with? An ending that tells us it makes no sense to go on once we can't move our limbs.
That it's better to give up than to die trying. I'd have been happy with this being another Rocky, at least that was entertaining. And admittedly so was this until the last 30 minutes. The only thing I can give this ending is that it's probably the most realistic, given the circumstances of her injury.
That still doesn't make up for the fact that when I watch a movie, I want to be moved. I want to be entertained. I do not want to feel depressed and like I should just give up all hope of ever achieving any thing. I am not a picky man when it comes to movies (see my comment history) so you know it's something else when a movie gets a very low rating from me.
If you want to see a movie that will do what a movie is supposed to do rent Rocky's 1,2, and 4.