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Million Dollar Baby
Million Dollar Baby Image
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Metascore
86 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 39 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.9 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 433 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman
  • Summary: Two retired boxers who run a Los Angeles gym are caught off guard when a woman approaches them with her dream of stepping into the ring.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 39
  3. Negative: 2 out of 39
  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    100
    Under Eastwood's painstakingly stripped-down direction -- his filmmaking has become the cinematic equivalent of Hemingway's spare though precise prose -- the story emerges as that rarest of birds, an uplifting tragedy.
  2. The New Republic
    Reviewed by: Stanley Kauffmann
    60
    If we can watch this picture at all, it is because this universally admired person (Eastwood) is in it.
  3. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Charles Taylor
    20
    A compendium of every cliché from every bad boxing melodrama ever made, Million Dollar Baby tries to transcend its cornball overfamiliarity with the qualities that have long characterized Eastwood's direction -- it's solemn, inflated and dull.

See all 39 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 227 out of 293
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 293
  3. Negative: 45 out of 293
  1. grandpajoe6191
    8
    Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" illustrates Hilary swank (Beast performance) as a under-seen boxer emerging to her fame and ultimately, to her downfall. As expected from Clint Eastwood, the film is filmed and written richly and immensely. It certainly is one of the year's best.… Expand
    • 3 of 3 users said yes
  2. Spielberg00
    5
    Bottom Line: Best Picture? I’m positive that there were at least ten films from 2004 that truly deserved that award–and this is not one of them. Best Picture winner? I kind of wish that wasn’t true. MILLION DOLLAR BABY, marking Clint Eastwood’s 58th credited acting role and 25th feature film directing role, is just a typical underdog story, this time with an additional theme of sexism. Some of you reading this review may think I am being too hard on this film. Something good about this film was that Morgan Freeman narrated and acted strongly. But that didn’t stand out of course, because it’s hard to name one film in which the man did not perform well. As for Clint Eastwood, his dialogue was scripted terribly, and he can never seem to talk like an everyday human being. Hilary Swank, also, is just a spunky, female boxer who seems to be repeating the same phrases over and over. It just gets old. I can’t claim watching any of the other nominees for the 2004 Best Picture Oscar, but there had to be something better than this. Best Pictures should never be mediocre–even the films that truly shouldn’t have won (i.e. ANNIE HALL, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, FORREST GUMP) weren’t average! The film was quite moving. I’ll give it that. But the dialogue, performances, and energy given by nearly every single cast member were truly those of pure ridicule–and racism, if that! Next time I see an underdog-boxing flick, I won’t necessarily expect ROCKY, but I’ll expect better than this. It just looks like Eastwood left MILLION DOLLAR BABY without all the finishing touch-ups it needed to become a true Best Picture.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. MattF.
    3
    I thought that this film was well-made; beautiful direction from Clint Eastwood and terrific performances from everyone in the cast. However, I had some problems with some of the material. The depiction of poor people in the film was ignorant and offensive; Haggis seems to think that all poor people are white-trash slobs who don't even care about their loved ones. Also, the film seems to think that one is better off dead than paralyzed, I suggest that Paul Haggis views "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," the best film of 2007, and a much finer picture than this one.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 293 User Reviews

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