Same Story As The Last Movie, But Different

Rating: Null/10 (26 February 2004)

In comparison of the last movie made on the 1980 Gold Medal USA Hockey Team, "Miracle On Ice", the story is the same as the 1981 movie, but the story on how they got to where they did was a little different.
In the 1981 version, Karl Malden played Herb Brooks. Karl Malden's version was more standoffish, vicious mentally, played plenty of mind games with his players and used Captain Mike Eruzione as the team's "whipping boy".

This version, Kurt Russell was just as demanding and could be just as vicious, but compared to Karl Malden, he was a kinder, gentler Herb Brooks.
That's not to say in any way, this was a bad movie. I throughly enjoyed it. The storyline was good and the action was wonderful. You felt like you were there and enjoyed seeing the old clips of Al Michaels and Ken Dryden calling the game. I liked that they used the old footage and not actors playing them. No one else could imitate Al Michael's saying, "Do You Believe In Miracles???? YES!!!!!" when Team USA beat the Soviets.
In addition, I liked how they incorporated the current events from the gas crisis, the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran taken over by the students, the Soviets invading Afghanistan and President Jimmy Carter's announcement of boycotting the Moscow Olympics, which followed the Placid Winter Olympics about 5 months later. I remember all of those events and I liked the fact that it wasn't just a hockey movie, but a movie about the USA Hockey Team and the time it took place, since those events potentially affected the team.
At the end of the movie, I really liked the 2 tributes they did for Herb Brooks. The saying in one of the tributes was a beauty.
On a personal note, I liked the players they used for the hockey scenes. I recognized nearly all the players in the cast as almost all of them are former Western Hockey League players and seeing a couple of former WHL/National Hockey League players in Ryan Walter as the referee in the USA/USSR game and Bill Ranford as Eddie Cahill's (Jim Craig) double.
I can't wait for the DVD to come out.