After 24 years, this story still makes me scream YES!

Rating: Null/10 (29 May 2004)

Miracle, Disney's latest sports biopic, scores a hat trick. Kurt Russell as a stifled Herb Brooks plus 20 kids who can skate and understand the position of the 1980 US Olympic hockey plus the inevitable ending is a powerful package that I will watch again, and again. Russell seems to have morphed into Brooks and his spartan portrayal is mesmerizing. Brooks was known as a man of great ideas and few words; Russell brings those traits to life on the screen without going over the edge. I have always thought his talents have been wasted on a lot of throw away parts; this one is worthy of him. The on-screen team, including Buzz Schneider's son Billy playing his father, are great skaters. Their Olympic counterparts worked their butts off in 7 months of drills, and these kids look as though they could have kept up with them. The moment when Al Michaels said, "Do you believe in miracles?" in 1980, I did. When he said it again in the movie, I remembered how it felt 24 years ago, and it was as good now as it was then.