What you'd expect from a sports movie.

Rating: 6/10 (29 July 2015)

Like all sports movies, this is black and white and predictable all over. Let's face it, there's no suspense in who's going to win the climatic game, regardless of whether you look up who won the real game. It's the journey that matters. In this case, the game itself had a lot more significance due to the state of America at the time, and it was emphasized to a reasonable degree. I'm sure that a lot of people who remember the real game enjoyed reliving the event and some of their own experiences during that time.
Most of the movie shows the pre-olympics training and Herb Brooks' challenge of coaching twenty college hockey players to beat the worlds greatest team, Russia. There is a lot of the standard inspirational coach speeches, training scenes, and team togetherness that you find in any sports movie that doesn't double as a comedy. There are no real subplots unless you count the couple scenes where Herb has to figure out how to balance his family and the Olympic team.
Herb Brooks is pretty much the only character of notable significance. He delivers on his word to not be the players' friend and doesn't stand for any slackers. The other coaches are developed but aren't especially important. The same goes for most of the players, though Jim Craig, Jack O'Callahan, and Mike Eruzione are fairly prominent. They players all look pretty much the same, especially when they're in pads and helmets, which is unfortunate because it makes it hard to keep up with conversations involving the players.
The presentation of the hockey games and practices is pretty well done in terms of camera-work and the sequences included. The only exception to this for me is in the climatic game against the Soviets where every goal is done in slow motion. There doesn't seem to be much point in adding drama to a goal if you don't do it to every shot on goal. Not to say that they should have shown all forty odd shots by the U.S. team, but the slow- mo was unnecessary.
The acting was pretty good considering that the actors were all chosen for their hockey ability rather than their acting ability. So the list of recognizable names on the cast list will most likely end shortly after Kurt Russell.
Honestly, I hope there isn't another Olympic rivalry movie like this, because it sort of ruins the unifying spirit that the Olympics are supposed to embody. I'm not trying to negate the positive impact the U.S. victory generated. Sports have similar effects on a smaller scale all the time. But it was also a cause for some racism that was already at a fever pitch. I suspect that anyone who has fond memories of the actual event would enjoy this movie, but for anyone else, it might seem as clichéd as all the other sports movies out there. Overall Rating: 7.2/10.