Feel good movie, and a fun one.

Rating: Null/10 (20 January 2004)

I was lucky enough to see "Miracle" at an advanced screening for our local NHL team and collegiate baseball team as a team-building activity. That being said, I went into the movie expecting it to be a good, feel good movie. Incidentally, during many of the scenes where we played the Soviets some of us actually cheered during great plays, it was pretty amusing. I mean come on, I knew the Titanic was going to sink too, but it was also entertaining.
I thought that it started out very well portraying the prevailing attitude of Americans at the time. Face it, the target audience was not even born when this transpired. So it was great to get a background to what the times were like and how important this game was to the American people.
Kurt Russell did a great job playing a guy that I had barely heard of. He was convincing as both a coach and a person. I also liked the players. They were a bunch of no-name actors (relatively speaking) playing a bunch of no-name hockey players (at the time). They had that youthful quality that the team also possessed and seemed to work well together.
There was also some pretty good camerawork that went on showing the hockey, not just television angles like on ESPN. There were also some pretty good licks taken by the Americans, a bit more than I expected from a Disney Film.
Overall, I thought it was a very good movie. One that is great for adults that may remember the times, and for those too young to remember but want to see a good/clean sports movie.
I would give it 3 1/2 stars out of four for a movie that made us all walk out entertained and proud to be an American for a while.