the Documentary was better...

Rating: Null/10 (9 February 2004)

"Miracle" will come and go as a decent film, inspirational to Americans and hockey fans alike, but, as much as I would like to, I wouldn't call it a 'great' film.
Kurt Russell cannot be faulted. He was an excellent Herb Brooks in his cleaned-up Disney-fied characterization of the crass Olympic coach.
Historically, the movie was almost perfectly accurate, in comparison to the HBO Sports documentary "Do You Believe In Miracles". The problem lies in the drippy melodramatic writing ("They are starting to believe"... apparently Morpheus was in 1980 Lake Placid), and the less-than-inspirational directing. In most of the game sequences, the shots were so choppy I couldn't figure out what was happening. Most of the acting on behalf of the players was subpar. Granted, in a film like this the actors have to be skilled hockey players in order to pull off the role. Obviously most of the team are hockey players first, actors second.
"Miracles" wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. The film will come and go. It didn't pull at my heartstrings, and I believe that Coach Brooks and the team would have enjoyed the film, but I think they deserve better. Try and find the HBO Sports documentary, it is a lot