Cinderella Man (2005)
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 207
Fresh: 165 | Rotten: 42
With grittiness and an evocative sense of time and place, Cinderella Man is a powerful underdog story. And Ron Howard and Russell Crowe prove to be a solid combination.
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 47
Fresh: 38 | Rotten: 9
With grittiness and an evocative sense of time and place, Cinderella Man is a powerful underdog story. And Ron Howard and Russell Crowe prove to be a solid combination.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 257,906
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Movie Info
The true story of an athlete who achieved his greatest success against the most daunting odds of his life is brought to the screen in this historical drama. In the 1920s, James Braddock (Russell Crowe) from Bergen, NJ, was a promising contender in professional boxing; he had strength, spirit, and tenacity, but the combination of a serious hand injury and a 1929 defeat in a bout with light heavyweight champ Tommy Loughran sent his career into a serious tailspin. As Braddock's career in the ring
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Cast
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Russell Crowe
Jim Braddock -
Renée Zellweger
Mae Braddock -
Paul Giamatti
Joe Gould -
Craig Bierko
Max Baer -
Paddy Considine
Mike Wilson -
Bruce McGill
Jimmy Johnston -
Ron Canada
Joe Jeanette -
David Huband
Ford Bond -
Connor Price
Jay Braddock -
Ariel Waller
Rosemarie Braddock -
Patrick Louis
Howard Braddock -
Rosemarie DeWitt
Sara -
Linda Kash
Lucille Gould -
Nicholas Campbell
Sporty Lewis -
Gene Pyrz
Jake -
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All Critics (210) | Top Critics (48) | Fresh (173) | Rotten (42) | DVD (39)
Howard's movie skillfully delivers that primal, heart-pounding satisfaction that is the promise of all boxing tales.
Top CriticAs for the fights themselves, Howard brings nothing new to the canvas. Like the movie as a whole, they work fine enough, even while encased in leaden certitude.
The fight scenes have a stinging authenticity and, although at 144 minutes it outstays its welcome, this is Howard's best film since Apollo 13
The joy is in the playing, and Ron Howard pulls out all the stops like the organist at the old Madison Square Garden.
The storytelling is fluid and gripping.
Just an O.K. vintage fight movie.
It ain't no Rocky, but it ain't half bad.
The final justification that Russell Crowe is without a doubt one of the best actors to come along in years.
A very solid cast, one of the most reliable directors in Hollywood, and one of the most malleable subjects in film make Cinderella Man one of the best films of 2005 thus far.
Cinderella Man plays like a movie actively hunting for awards. But it's also a pretty darn good story.
Handsome, manipulative, simplistic. It packs an uplift that bludgeons you into submission.
Gritty boxing saga not for the faint of heart.
Cinderella Man is a contender, but it's not exactly a knockout.
A cross between Seabiscuit (because of the Depression) and Rocky (because of the sport), yet a fine enough film to stand on its own, even if the production falls short of both in terms of its emotional punch.
What makes this picture unique and, thus, memorable is how it effectively paints James Braddock as a desperate man all out of options whose ring career was fueled more by a primal urge to provide for his family than by a narcissistic desire for notoriety.
And as far as Cinderella's pumpkins go, though the movie ends with Braddock's boxing triumph in Hollywood's notorious freeze-frame approach to history, both Braddock and Baer went on to be decked by Joe Louis.
As entertaining and uplifting a film as we'll get all year.
At moments it almost had me, but for the most part I just felt cold and watched with all the interest of a disgruntled spectator.
A fine alternative to the louder and more brainless summer movies competing with it -- an excellent drama that relies on heart and action instead of schmaltz and melodrama.
Howard may have replicated the family scenes as accurately as if he'd found film from a camera hidden in the walls of the original Braddock apartment, and yet the movie can't shake the sense that the scenes away from the boxing ring are somehow false
Audience Reviews for Cinderella Man
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Max Baer: This isn't a joke, pal. People die in fairy tales all the time.
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- Mae Braddock: Every time you get hit, it feels like I'm getting hit, too.
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- Jim Braddock: If we can't stay together, that means we've lost, that means we've given up!
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- Jim Braddock: This time around I know what I'm fighting for [reporter asks 'What's that, Jimmy?']
- Jim Braddock: Milk.
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