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Miracle
Buena Vista Pictures / The Walt Disney Company


8.5

based on 36 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 38 votes
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FILM:

Tumbleweeds

MPAA RATING: PG for language and some rough sports action

Starring Kurt Russell, Eddie Cahill, Michael Mantenuto, Patrick O'Brien Demsey, Kenneth Mitchell, Nathan West, Noah Emmerich, and Patricia Clarkson

The inspiring story of the team that transcended its sport and united a nation with a new feeling of hope. Based on the exciting true story of one of the greatest moments in modern history, the film captures a time and place where differences could be settled by games and a cold war could be put on ice. (Disney)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Eric Guggenheim
DIRECTED BY:	Gavin O'Connor
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 18, 2004 Video: May 18, 2004 Theatrical: February 6, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	135 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

To make a movie about that team and those games requires more than an ability to depict personal dramas or re-enact game highlights. It requires the re- creation of a world and a mind-set, and Miracle accomplishes both brilliantly.

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Russell's conviction is so total that it tingles the spines of the audience.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

An extraordinarily exciting, absorbing and satisfying movie. Not quite "Seabiscuit," but comfortably close.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

This film reminds us you can have a miracle only when David slings a stone at Goliath, not when two Goliaths pummel each other with sticks.

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

What will make the film compelling even for audiences who never heard of the miracle on ice is Kurt Russell's taut, nuanced portrait of Herb Brooks.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

At the movie's core, disguised with pitch-perfect Minnesota accent and bushy comb-over hairdo, the perpetually underrated Kurt Russell (as the late coach Herb Brooks) delivers a brilliant performance of immaculate control.

Variety Joe Leydon

Key to drama's success is the artful underplaying by Kurt Russell in the lead role of Herb Brooks.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

An unabashed flag-waver and one of the best feel-good sports movies ever, this authentic charmer does for its young hockey players what John Wayne used to do for the U.S. Marines, and it lifts us, too, onto the boys' cloud of belief.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Powered by an excellent Kurt Russell performance, Miracle treats old-fashioned, emotional material with an intelligence that respects both the story and the audience.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Reproducing every bruise, blowup and body-check and getting right up on the ice and into the fray, the movie brings the audience back to 1980 with bone-crunching verisimilitude.

Premiere Kelly Borgeson

Miracle is definitely exciting, and it’s family-family to boot. Take the kids. They may not buy the "any dream is possible" stuff, but if nothing else, the story might pique their interest in American history.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

You keep rooting for the team, mostly because director Gavin O’Connor (the terrific Tumbleweeds) cast real athletes instead of actors, a canny decision that pays major dividends when the big game is re-created.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Ordinary folks working together to triumph over incredible odds, depicted in a Disney film that doesn't overdose on sentiment? That's the real miracle.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Although playing a hockey coach might seem like a slap shot for an actor, Russell does real acting here. He has thought about Brooks and internalized him.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Miracle -- the title taken from TV announcer Al Michaels' famous game-clinching cheer, ''Do you believe in miracles? Yes!'' -- wins not when it exhorts by word but when it shows by action.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Miracle is inspirational and uplifting -- qualities we are as much in need of today as we were during the winter of 1980.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Miracle really isn't about the game. It's about the game as metaphor for united we stand.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

What is lacking in suspense is more than made up for in passion and in sports cinematography virtuosity.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

This hockey movie scores, thanks to director Gavin O'Connor's ability to skate that fine line between inspirational and melodramatic and achieve a satisfying balance.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Once these players strap on their skates and take to the ice, it's hard to suppress that lump in the throat.

Film Threat David Grove

Powerful in its recreation of a magical time and place and it really does make us believe that miracles are possible.

Village Voice Ed Park

Kurt Russell is terrific as coach Herb Brooks, psychological tactician out to redeem his being cut from the 1960 U.S. squad, the last one to beat the CCCP.

Film Threat Mark Sells

The film has many great moments, but dare I say, it’s not melodramatic enough. To understand the magnitude of the miracle on ice, you had to live it, breathe it, and feel it.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

You might cheer. You might cry. For a minute, you might even wish it were you on that medal stand.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

While the movie's heroes lay everything on the line, Miracle is too content to skate along the surface.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Patricia Clarkson, who has emerged as one of the screen's best character actresses, plays Brooks' wife with intelligence and down-to-earth warmth.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Does a yeoman's job of recycling the day-old dough that passes for its story.

Washington Post Mark Jenkins

Miracle works best when the players are on the ice, shot in a faux-documentary style that uses the now-customary handheld cameras, fast pans and machine-gun edits.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Kurt Russell gives a terse, unsentimental performance as coach Herb Brooks, but director Gavin O'Connor sticks to the "Hoosiers" playbook.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The best and most moving part of Miracle may be the closing credits, in which we see pictures of the actors accompanied by the names of the real-life characters they played and a strip of type that tells us where they are now.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Unfortunately Miracle is long on cliché and short on originality.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

A suitably rigorous sports movie. On the other hand, at no time does it break out of the "sports movie" mold.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The climax, a 20-minute dramatization of the crucial contest, lacks both suspense and poetry -- essentially, we're left to watch a clumsy recreation of a game whose outcome we already know. That's a sort of resurrection, I suppose, but miraculous it assuredly ain't.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Like the Oscar-nominated "Seabiscuit," though, Miracle fails to ring true as it tries to make a sporting event an all-embracing metaphor for the American way.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

The feel-good finale -- an ending even less in doubt than that of the most predictable Hollywood fare -- is as rousing as you'd hope and the fast-paced, on-ice action is satisfyingly authentic.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

It's sometimes exciting but rarely thrilling, a victory of formula over finesse.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 38 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Myles #13 gave it a10:
THE best and most realistic hockey movie on the market... although I am a Canadian, the hockey fan in me loved this flick. Game scenes were well shot and entertaining and the acting was superb... although Kurt Russell is the obvious standout, every player fits the mould of their character- as the DVD says, the director looked for 'hockey players who could act', not actors who could skate. That brings quite a bit of realism to what otherwise could've been an ordinary movie. I could watch this movie again and again... if you love sports movies, you will enjoy Miracle!

Jake gave it a10:
Well Katrina, I hate sports movies, but this one was pretty good, I must admit. I liked how it showed what was going on in the world at that time, and I really liked the scene with Herb driving home listening to Jimmy Carter's speech. A great film, well acted, and true....pretty damn cool if you ask me, and I don't even watch hockey....maybe I'll start! Too bad, Katrina, that you let your hatred of America stand in the way of a great film. You're missing out!

Michelle B. gave it a 10:
This movie brings the emotional status of what it is to be an American.

Aubrey gave it a 10:
This is my favorite movie now for a few reasons. Firstly, because it showed how much it takes to play hockey and get to the top like the guys did. Secondly, it showed how muh better they got throughout the movie (couple of months!) Also cause it had Michael Mantenuto in it! He is hilarious and wicked HOT! This movie was really similar to what happened in real life and i congratulate the movie producers and the actors for their efforts! Two thumbs up guys!

Katrina I. gave it a 2:
Well, first of all the movie was about American hockey, which I absolutly dispise. That's why i hated the movie. Because I hate Americans. There was also to much Russel in it, there should of been more hockey. Michael Mantenuto was an extremly good loooking guy that made me "a little" interested in the movie. That's the only reason why i watched it.

Don Juan gave it a 10:
Herb Brooks reveals his heart of gold just enough. "Miracle" benefited by telling the story from a hockey coache's POV, and let the players be more of an enigma. it still let him be aloof, sometimes a bastard, hated by his players, and then reveal his sensitive side. When the coach has to cut a player, his remorse is just as it really was. "Miracle('s)" preoccupation with making the audience like Herb Brooks makes him interesting.

Joseph S. gave it a 10:
Though it seems like an overwhelming job to make a movie about hockey in the 80s, Gavin O'Connor had the vision, persistence, insight and patience for this mighty job, plus the smarts to shape stage veterans and overlooked film actors into a seamless cast. He's made himself as immortal as a movie director can be. What an incredilble film. I liked it very much.

Miracle Buena Vista Pictures / The Walt Disney Company

Miracle
Buena Vista Pictures / The Walt Disney Company