Rating: 
Summary: The True Cold War
Review: I remember sitting around the television, with members of my family, to watch the USA Olympic Hockey Team defeat the Russians in 1980. At the time, the country was in desparate need of a morale boast, in part because of the Iran hostage crisis. The spirited and hard fought victory in thae pivitol game did just that. As a hockey fan and considering the state of NHL today, I was wondering if Miracle would help recreate that sense of pride I felt at the time.This is the true story of the late coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell), who in 1980 had the distinction of having been the last player cut from the U.S. hockey team the last time the team won the Gold at the Olympics (in 1960). Brooks got his chance at being part of a medal-winning team, however, when he led the U.S. hockey team to victory over the Soviets (who had won the medal the last four times: 1976, 1972, 1968, and 1964 since that 1960 U.S. win) at the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid despite overwhelming odds. Directed by Gavin O'Connor, the film faithfully honors the actual events. As Brooks, who sadly died in a car crash in August 2003, Russell gives yet another great performance. His work here demonstates something that I think few folks realize--just how good an actor he is. He plays Brooks as he truly was, a multi-layered man, whose style and innovation are the stuff of legend. I also enjoyed the performance of actress Patricia Clarkson playing Brooks' wife. She deserves all of her newfound acclaim and success. The film will take you back to that era--right down to the clothes and interesting hairstyles. The hockey footage is staged very well and is almost as exciting to watch as the real thing. The movie takes the David and Goliath aspect to the story and does it justice without going overboard or making it seem artificial. The cast of "players" are very good as well (and they can actually play the game). The 2 disc DVD set has a solid bunch of extras. The audio commentary with O'Connor, editor John Gilroy and director of photography Daniel Stoloff, gives listeners a well rounded discussion on how the film came together. "The Making of Miracle" is a fairly typical featurette..."First Impressions: Herb Brooks with Kurt Russell and the filmmakers" ends up being a fine tribute to Brooks. I also enjoyed the ESPN roundtable with members of the 1980 team, actor Kurt Russell and host Linda Cohn and "From Hockey to Hollywood: The Actors' Journey" featurette, how real life players made the movie teams. Outtakes/deleted scenes and a sound effects/soundtrack featurette rounds out the set. With those in charge of the NHL nattering over the fate of the league's future, Miracle restores my hopes for the game. I think both sides should be required to watch this film.
Rating:
Summary: An Inspirational, Feel Good Film For Everyone
Review: I'm not a big fan of spectator sports. A group of guys batting, kicking and/or hitting a ball around a field doesn't do much for me, usually. But one time when guys, pucks and sticks made me cheer, as I sat riveted to my TV screen, was during the 1980 Olympic "Miracle." 1979-1980 were not good years for the United States. Militant Iranians took US citizens hostage in our embassy in Teheran, the USSR invaded Afghanistan, the Cold War was at below zero temperatures, and at home gas prices were sky high, as were interest rates. The film is set in the context of this period, which makes it even more exciting. Americans really needed something to cheer about. In the summer of 1980, newly hired US Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks took a group of boys, average age 21, worked them 'til they dropped for seven months, taught them new strategies, made them into a cohesive team, and miraculously led them to unbelievable victory. They beat the pants off the unbeatable champion Soviet hockey team in what has been called the "Miracle on Ice." In a super surprise win, the underdog US team, which had played poorly against the much older Russian veterans a few weeks before at Madison Square Garden, made all the right moves to score success, 4 to 3. The team then went on to win Olympic Gold! The Cold War may be long over, but remembering the moment still feels sweet. The look on the Soviet coach's face alone is worth the price of the rental. And now the "moment" and more can be relived - seen on the big screen, with accurate details and superb characterizations, in director Gavin O'Connor's and screenwriter Eric Guggenheim's "Miracle." Kurt Russell is superb as coach Brooks. He has the Minnesota accent down pat, chews gum like Brooks - 500 chews per minute...and even looks like him. Actual ice hockey players were cast as teammates in O'Connor's quest to make this an authentic sports film. The last 30 minutes of footage are devoted to the US - Soviet match. But the movie is as much a character study as it is a film about Olympic sport. And Russell's understated, intense performance is compelling. Patricia Clarkson is excellent as Brooks' wife Patty, as is Noah Emmerich as assistant coach Craig Patrick. The movie is dedicated to Herb Brooks, who was tragically killed in an auto accident over a year ago. He is portrayed as a complex man who was totally dedicated to his sport and his team, to the detriment, at times, of his family life. This is a wonderful film to see with the entire family. You don't have to be a hockey fan to remember February 22, 1980.
JANA
Rating: 
Summary: A big surprise
Review: I didn't have very high hopes for this one. I expected a stereotypical sports movie with lots of "We're number one!"jingoism and lame little sub-plots about team members who overcome various personal issues at the last moment so they can help their team win the big game. Instead, what I saw was a gripping recreation of a specific moment in U.S. sports history, the 1980 victory over the Soviet Olympic hockey team--the mood of the country, what this particular victory meant to Americans, and how one driven man, coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell), forged a team that was capable of pulling it off. In a sense, there are really only two main characters in this film--the coach and his team. Although I came to recognize the players' faces by the end of the film, one of the courageous decisions made by director Gavin O'Connor and screenwriter Eric Guggenheim was to focus on the dynamic between Brooks and his team rather than on individual team players. This choice allows the filmmakers to avoid many of the usual sports film conventions and tell a story that we don't see very often, the story of the coaching style that brought them success and the enormous pressures placed on the coach himself. The cast is wonderfully restrained, but Russell is especially good.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm Not A Big Hockey Fan
Review: Sports movies aren't my thing. REMEMBER THE TITANS was an okay movie, but this didn't do it for me because I'm not much into sports except baseball. This is based on a true story, but it wasn't all that great. I know everyone else just absolutely loved this movie, I wanted to read a book.
~Phantom Master
Rating:
Summary: "Do You Believe in Miracles?"
Review: 1979-1980 was a critical time in U.S. history. In fact, the post-9/11 world in which we now live in many ways resembles the beginning of that fateful decade. The Middle East was in turmoil and terrorists had hijacked a plane with a bunch of American citizens and was holding them hostage. People were afraid of traveling overseas because of the threat and gas shortages and prices caused people to begin carpooling, walking, and biking to work. The Cold War had been going on for almost 35 years without WW III breaking loose, but for the first time since the Cuban Missle Crisis, the Cold War was heating up in a major way and everyone was fearful of world annihilation through a nuclear war. There was talk that the Soviet Union was thinking of boycotting the Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid as a sign of contempt (something President Carter actually forced the U.S. to do during 1980 Summer Games in Moscow) and the nation was on edge.
But in February of 1980, the nation witnessed something that revived everyone's spirits and united people in a way they hadn't been since the middle of Vietnam. During the Semi-final game of the Olympic hockey game, the amatuer U.S. team beat the mighty Soviet powerhouse in a sport they had dominated for more than 20 years. The chanting of "U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A" was first heard during those games and the little team that could went on to win the gold medal by defeating Finnland.
MIRACLE is a movie that recreates those events. The tone, mood, and setting is captured almost perfectly and places the audience right in the midst of what it was like living in America in 1979-1980. Great pains have been taken not only to just physically recreate the events that the members of the U.S. hockey team went through, but the emotions and mentality, too.
The "actors" playing the hockey players in the movie really aren't "actors" but are instead first and foremost real hockey players. This is just one example of many that illustrates the extent the filmmakers went through to get things right.
However, though the movie is thought as being about the 1980 U.S. hockey team, it's really a very personal movie that really isn't about the team, but about the man who led them there, Herb Brooks. Brooks had played on the 1960 team that lost to the Soviets for the first time and since that time had made it his life's ambition to beat the Russians at their own game. The majority of the country had no idea at the time of Brooks' unusual and somewhat controversial training methods and even if they had I don't think most people would have given it much thought. It was Brooks' determination and leadership that formed the team and gave them the opportunity to perform a little "miracle" for all the world to see.
A couple a bits of trivia about the film. The scene in MIRACLE where the players are forced by Brooks to skate back and forth doing drills after their 3-3 tie with Norway was filmed over the course of 3 days, 12 hours a day because the filmmakers wanted the "actors" to look as exhausted as possible. Also, the shot of New York that is seen in the movie with the World Trade Center in the background is actual footage shot for the movie, post 9-11. The Two Towers are seen in the picture were actually digitally recreated, making MIRACLE the first movie to "create" the towers since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
MIRACLE is a movie sure to stir up some sort of emotion from those who were alive to watch the famous moment of sport live. For those who have only read about the event in history books or watched it on ESPN or on a DVD, the effect isn't quite the same and the movie will probably not have as much significance. Nevertheless, the film is well made and makes for a great sports picture.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Movie
Review: This is an outstanding movie. It chronicles the 1980 US Hockey team from the choosing of Herb Brooks as coach in the summer of 1979 until the game with Russia in the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, NY in Feb. 1980. Kurt Russell did an outstanding job as Herb Brooks. If you want to see a movie that is all about triumphant, see this movie!
Rating:
Summary: PLEASE DISREGARD ALL 1-STAR REVIEWS....
Review: Don't know exactly what agenda those 1-star reviewers had(something about Russia throwing a game and hip-hop music). If you have nothing better to say.....DON'T SAY ANYTHING!!!!!! This was a GREAT movie. Outstanding acting by the otherwise ordinary Kurt Russell. Enjoyable all around....please don't pay attention to reviewers who don't have a clue.
Rating:
Summary: Re-live the game for the ages.
Review: Kurt Russell is perfectly cast as Herb Brooks; a gruff, stern,taciturn,coach of a patchwork bunch of underachieving cocky group of college hockey players.
Not necessarily the best and the brightest, Brooks took this group of misfits and molded them to HIS liking against all odds, and against the convential wisdom of everyone within the realms of amateur hockey, to take them to the very pinnacle of superstardom; an Olympic Gold Medal.
Like multiple millions around the world, I watched that game live and rubbed my arms as chills convulsed my body in wave after waved as the clock wound down "10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0."
The feelings were still the same watching this wonderful movie, both in the theater, and on DVD.
As a hockey fan, I was greatly impressed with the quality of the skating in this film. The action is breathtaking, and like I said, for a moment in time I was swept back to that special Olympiad when the impossible dream was made possible.
This film makes a great gift for the hockey fan, young and old alike. My 11 year old hockey player loved this film so much, he too wants to be in the Olympics. (I bought it for him for his birthday).
A truly sensational film, and one of the all-time great sports movies.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest feat accompished in hockey, possibly all sports
Review: I am a HUGE hockey fan (poor me, no hockey this season) and miracle is definitely the best hockey movie ever made, and it ranks high on the top sports movies ever made. Miracle really was a hard movie to make, because they needed to make sure the hockey scenes were believable, but the acting had to be there too. They chose to do the right thing, which is teach great hockey players how to act rather than having actors have stunt doubles play hockey for them. This way they can do head shots while they are on the ice and make it way more believable rather than just seeing feet skating along the ice. The Mighty Ducks movies (though great for kids) really lacked in the hockey scenes, as most people know. Another thing that makes the movie so hard, is that now that they have good hockey players, they still need to make the goals/assists/body checks as close to the real thing in 1980 as possible. On the special features they show you tape of a real goal scored against the Soviets, which went right through the goalies legs, and they show you the movie version...its a spitting image. Amazing job on the directors part, and the hockey players who, in a sense actually have to "act" while playing hockey. All in all, Miracle does a great job at showing how much of an underdog U.S.A. was (though i wasnt born then, i can only imagine what it was like) and how amazing of a feat it was to beat the russians. Miracle also ties in some smaller stories that make the movie better, such as Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) and his family life and how his coaching gets in the way of being with his wife and kids. I could go on forever about Miracle, but the only way to end this is to go with Al Michaels' famous line counting down the last 3 seconds of the game against the soviets : DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? YES!
Rating:
Summary: GOOD SPORTS
Review: The amazing thing about the film version of the 1980 USA Hockey team's incredible victory over the Russians is that even though we know how it ends, director Gavin O'Connor makes us feel the tension so that the result is as exhilarating as if we'd never known.
MIRACLE is one of the best sports movies I've seen. Starting with a fresh uncompromising script, a lot of heart and an incredibly controlled performance by Kurt Russell, this movie shows us how the twenty diverse young men who had never played together before as a team, learn how to become a team. At first, it may seem Coach Herb Brooks is way too harsh on his team, but as the movie unfolds, we see that he was smart in knowing exactly what had to be done to get the team to the point it reaches.
The fiercely unrecognized Patricia Clarkson is marvelous as Brooks' understanding, yet outspoken wife. Noah Emmerich is very good as Craig, Brooks' assistant coach who takes a while to fully understand Brooks' sometimes questionable coaching tactics. All the guys playing the hockey players are perfect, with Eddie Cahill and Patrick Sean Dempsey standing out. But as in the case with the hockey team, it's not a solo effort, rather a group performance helmed by Russell's outstanding performance. It's sad that the real Herb Brooks never saw the completed film; he surely would have been proud of what the filmmakers did with this envigorating and inspiring true tale. If more sports movies had this much heart, they'd be better movies.
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