Rating: 
Summary: One word for "Miracle": AMAZING
Review: I saw "Miracle" three times in theaters, and it was absolutely amazing! I love hockey, and I was not around when the Miracle on Ice happened, but from learning a lot about it, this movie was extremely accurate! But, above all, Kurt Russell does an amazing job as Herb Brooks. Everything he does is just right on. Seriously, this is an Oscar-worthy performance! Patricia Clarkson and Noah Emmerich also do extremely well as Patty Brooks and Craig Patrick. The guys who portrayed the players did an excellent job. Patrick O'Brien Demsey did an excellent job as captain Mike Eruzione, having no acting experience prior to the movie, and I hope to see him in more movies after this! The other actors, such as Eddie Cahill (Jim Craig), Nathan West (Robbie McClanahan), Mike Mantenuto (Jack O'Callahan), and Billy Schneider (who portrays his father Buzz), also did excellent jobs! The movie follows the team from day 1, and follows them to the very end! During the credits, they even tell you what the actual player is doing now! When I saw this movie, I was clapping, booing, I mean I was getting really into it! I didn't check my watch once when I saw it, like I usually do! I wouldn't even let myself go to the bathroom because I didn't want to miss a second of the action! Even if you aren't a big hockey fan, you will love this movie because it's not just a hockey movie: it tells you the team's story off the ice as well! So, if you need to see a good movie that will make you feel good, this is it!!
Rating: 
Summary: A fine movie about a glorious victory.
Review: I've never been a hockey fan, but I remember exactly where I was when the U.S. Olympic hockey team beat the Soviets in 1980: at the old Lou & Hy's Deli in Akron, Ohio. Somebody yelled, "Hey, the U.S. team just beat the Soviets!" and the entire restaurant broke into cheers and applause. The great thing about Gavin O'Connor's "Miracle" is that it makes us remember what a glorious, giddy moment that was. O'Connor carefully places the U.S. victory in historical context; in an America demoralized by Vietnam, Watergate, the energy crisis and the Iran hostage crisis, the Olympic hockey team's triumph was like the sun coming out after forty days of rain. The first half of the movie shows how Olympic coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) painstakingly built his team, and the last half is dominated by action on the ice. The last 20 minutes in particular--O'Connor's recreation of the U.S.-Soviet match--are as breathtakingly exciting as any audience could hope for, aided immeasurably by Daniel Stoloff's photography and John Gilroy's editing. Kurt Russell--perhaps the most underrated actor in Hollywood today--gives a rock-solid, finely nuanced performance as the tough, obsessive and somewhat anhedonic Brooks. It's greatly to Russell's credit that he seeks the truth of the man he portrays, rather than to make the audience love Kurt Russell. Brooks drove his players to the limits of human endurance and deliberately made them hate his guts, on the (correct) assumption that a team fighting mad and united against him was still a team fighting mad and united. He didn't want his team to love him; he wanted it to win, and win it did. Similarly, Russell gives us not a lovable but a truthful portrait of Brooks, and we end up loving him anyway because he is so three-dimensionally human. The movie's only real shortcoming, indeed, is that Russell and Brooks dominate it so much that the other characters don't register very strongly. (With such a huge cast of characters, including 20 hockey teammates, that probably was inevitable.) Patricia Clarkson as Brooks' wife, Noah Emmerich as the assistant coach and Kenneth Welsh as the team doctor all do fine work in underwritten roles. (Russell and Clarkson have such great chemistry in their few scenes together that one hopes they'll work together again, this time in a straight-up love story.) As for the team members--most of them actual hockey players acting here for the first time--none has a real chance to stand out, except possibly for Eddie Cahill as goalie Jim Craig. But they seem like a real team, they look great on the ice, and they deliver the goods when called upon to do so. Which is, of course, the whole point of the movie.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Film
Review: MIRACLE is a wonderful little film that thankfully avoids a lot of the usual sports-movie cliches. The always-reliable Kurt Russell gives a great central performance as hockey coach Herb Brooks and, at times, the film functions as more of a character study than anything else. What also makes MIRACLE such a unique sports film is its strong emphasis on world events at the time in which this film takes place. By doing this, the film strengthens its main claim that the USA's 1980 victory run at the Olympics was "more than just a hockey game." After watching MIRACLE, you'll come to the same conclusion. Well done!
Rating:
Summary: feel-good movie for all family members
Review: It may be somewhat odd to label a movie about hockey as "feel good". My husband, a player for decades, knows first hand that a lot about hockey does NOT feel good! Yet those who play experience the exhilaration, the chaotic opportunism, the additive nature of this "simple game," as Coach Herb Brooks' wife, Patty, refers to it. Coach Brooks is superbly played by Kurt Russell, in a self-contained, understated performance that captures the man as well as the sturdy, stoic, northern plains American culture that gave rise to him. A dedicated, intuitive man who shrewedly understands how to motivate his players, Brooks is driven to put together the best ever American amateur Olympic hockey team. In part he is fueled by his own disappointment at being cut at the last minute from the gold-medal winning 1960 team. But even more, he seeks to put together, by sheer force of will and endless ice drills, a true "dream team". Patricia Clarkson turns in a polished performance as his supportive wife. The hockey players are well cast, good skaters all, with fresh young faces, among them the son of an original team member. Although the crowd chants of "U-S-A" may seem a little offputting in these days of terrorist strikes and anti-US sentiment throughout the world, this movie is not about imperialism or arrogance: Rather, it is about doing your absolute, no-excuses best, about setting your goals high, about believing in what hard work and dreams can accomplish. One note: it looks to this reviewer as if the original Olympic crowd background scenes were used for this movie, judging by the hairstyles and modes of dress?
Rating:
Summary: MIRACLE--Just when America needed one the most
Review: MIRACLE takes us back to a triumphant moment in American history just when Americans needed one--the miraculous win by the U.S. Olympic hockey squad over the vaunted team from the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York. Framed by the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate that had settled onto our country like a malaise, the film ratchets up things even further by giving us glimpses of the Iranian hostage ordeal and the December 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets. Stepping into the fray is Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell), a veteran hockey coach who as a player came within one step of joining the 1960 U.S. Olympic hockey squad that handed the Soviets their last loss in ice hockey at Squaw Valley. As the film opens, in the summer of 1979, Brooks is given the task of putting a respectable hockey team onto the home ice in upstate New York for the Olympics. For Brooks, however, merely putting a respectable team onto the ice wasn't good enough for him. He wanted the best; and through his relentless drive and his not ingratiating himself to his players, he prodded them to put out nothing short of the best they had in them. The result was that miraculous 4-3 win over the Soviets in the first medal-round game that a few days after that propelled them to a Gold medal via a win over Finland. Russell, never the showiest of actors but nevertheless one of the best, gives a superb performance as Brooks (who was killed in an auto crash shortly after filming was completed), a man who dedicated himself to putting a winning team into the history books and succeeded. As had been the case in THE THING, EXECUTIVE DECISION, TOMBSTONE, and BREAKDOWN, Russell shows us his professionalism by not necessarily being Mr. Nice Guy, but a man who strives to achieve the extraordinary in his players. Patricia Clarkson is good as his wife (in a too brief role), and Noah Emmerich does a good job as Brooks' assistant. The gut-wrenching game between the U.S. and the Soviets is recreated in vivid detail with all the hard hits and chants of "USA! USA!" rumbling throughout. But MIRACLE is, thankfully, not about American jingoism and arrogance. It is about achieving the impossible, which is exactly what all Olympic games are supposed to be about. It is an incredible piece, well worth seeing more than once.
Rating: 
Summary: a white miracle
Review: The americans cheated in every way possible. How can anyone except this worthless made up plot. Most of us were watching soul train while this game went on and nobody cared. Kurt Russel's performance was ok but I think Wesley Snipes could have done the part better. The Hockey scenes could have been shot better but unfortunately there was no good hip hop music to back it up. In summation, I would have to say if you want to chant USA USA make sure you don't wake your neighbors.
Rating:
Summary: I still sob at the ending
Review: What a great feel-good movie...even though i know what's going to happen, I still watch it for its great moments. The real commentary from the last game has me sobbing as i watch it.
Rating:
Summary: If you like hockey you will love this DVD!!
Review: The Youthhockeyforum.com gives it two thumbs up!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Tough love in Norway, Kurt Russell style
Review: "Miracle," a story of the 1980 gold-medal winning U.S. Hockey Team, rolls its opening credits over an impressive montage of the 15 years leading up the Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. - Vietnam, Watergate, the oil crisis, disco - that promises to reveal an understanding of how the team's unlikely upset of the Soviet Union delivered the nation an optimism lost during the Nixon/Ford/Carter eras. But writer Eric Guggenheim and director Gavin O'Connor only occasionally revisit that theme, and just as "Remember The Titans" eventually morphed into a romp-n-stomp football picture - clothesline hits, last-minute heroics - "Miracle" is content to end as a goal-by-goal sports drama - the mystery and method of victory having been removed over time by seemingly weekly ESPN features - and as a character study of the team's coach, Herb Brooks, a stoic who funneled his creativity into weave plays. There is a reason coach portraits are generally on the dry side. Coaches are generally dry men. And Brooks, played by Kurt Russell, was arid and driven - shunning the U.S. Olympic committee in crafting his team, relegating his assistant (Noah Emmerich) to a whistle-blowing stooge, applying mind tricks to his blue collar squad of players. Russell gets inside Brooks - his tics, body language and "Fargo" accent - to create a decent, winning man, repressed but ambitious, given to celebrating (or genuflecting or even smiling) in private. Brooks' moral rectitude makes for an education - "Miracle" is built for the family library - but the movie is workmanlike and stodgy, too. Were Patricia Clarkson not on hand as "the wife" to jazz up scenes - Clarkson raises domestic performance to a kind of art - Brooks would emerge as an anti-hero. "Miracle" charts the maturity of Brooks' vision, which is to craft a team as the Russians would, on Communist principles - submerging the I for the team, group punishment for individual discretion, a fiendish devotion to sport. "I'm not looking for the best players," he says. "I'm looking for the right ones." Socialism fails as a government but not as an ethic of sports organization, and the Russians won four consecutive gold medals honing that theory. Brooks goes so far as to make his team unavailable for interviews at the Olympics, although the savior of those Winter Games, goalie Jim Craig (Eddie Cahill), staved off one Russian slapshot after another, opening the door for the Americans to attack the Soviets with a similar offense and deserved at least as much credit as Brooks did, having played nearly every minute for seven months leading into the Lake Placid. The movie's turning point arrives early: After a subpar performance in Norway, Brooks hauls his team back onto the ice and skates them to exhaustion. Director O'Connor takes a risk here, dragging the scene out beyond all cinematic purpose for a thematic one: Brooks yells "again" well after we would have expected "enough," and yet this gamble works, playing against expectations. Unlike "Seabiscuit," crisply edited into two-minute chunks yet shallow for the choice, Miracle" makes its stand as the lights go out and Brooks nods once more for the whistle. It is the best ten minutes of the film. "Miracle" employs broadcaster Al Michaels, who announced the original game, to provide voiceover - it doesn't sound like play-by-play, but canned narration (the movie not-so-subtly shifts to his original "Do you believe in Miracles? Yes!" call near the end of the U.S. victory). The hockey scenes are fast and violent, but indistinct; about all we can really gather is that Craig made an enormous number of saves.
Rating:
Summary: U-S-A!!!
Review: Going into the theater, I expected a heart-pounding historical account of the Miracle On Ice. My expectations were met. My parents have told me many a time about how they sat on their couch together watching the acual game and how exciting it was. They told me how much national pride this movie instilled in the hearts of millions. This movie did the same for me. This movie was an accurate (and exciting) depiction of the single-greatest moment in the history of sports in the United States. It left my friends and I chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!" by the conclusion. It gives the younger population a chance to see how crucial this moment was, not only for sports in the US, but for the entire nation in terms of esteem. Despite the fact that the Miracle On Ice occured seven years before I was born, I still have a great deal of appreciation for the moment as an achievement and as a story of national triumph. I would have probably given anything to see the actual game. Do you believe in Miracles? I do.
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