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Miracle (2004)

tomatometer

80

Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 157
Fresh: 125 | Rotten: 32

Kurt Russell's performance guides this cliche-ridden tale into the realm of inspirational, nostalgic goodness.

77

Average Rating: 6.7/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 30 | Rotten: 9

Kurt Russell's performance guides this cliche-ridden tale into the realm of inspirational, nostalgic goodness.

audience

87

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 55,540

My Rating

Movie Info

Gavin O'Connor directs the sports drama Miracle, based on the true story of the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid. Kurt Russell stars as hockey coach Herb Brooks, who assembles a U.S. team of underdogs. No one thinks they can make it, as they are up against the previously undefeated Soviet hockey team. Despite the odds, Brooks leads the U.S. team to victory. As the 1980 Winter Olympics happen to coincide with the Cold War, the event is interpreted as patriotic. Also starring Eddie Cahill and

PG,

Drama

Michael Rich, Eric Guggenheim

May 25, 2004

$64.3M

Buena Vista Pictures - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (162) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (130) | Rotten (32) | DVD (29)

If you can tolerate all this phony uplift you'll also get a pretty interesting story about a shrewd Minnesota college coach named Herb Brooks.

February 14, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[T]humbs up for this uplifting and inspirational movie about one of the great upsets in sports history.

February 13, 2004 Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
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Russell is terrific as coach Herb Brooks.

February 10, 2004 Full Review Source: Village Voice
Village Voice
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Big on slogans, but low on personality.

February 7, 2004 Full Review Source: Salon.com
Salon.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie effectively simulates the game's whirl, and should grab all but the most finicky hockey fans. But for moviegoers who think if you've seen one sports flick, you've seen 'em all -- well, you've definitely seen this one.

February 6, 2004
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie brings the audience back to 1980 with bone-crunching verisimilitude.

February 6, 2004 Full Review Source: Washington Post
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Moving story of the 1980 Olympic hockey team.

December 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

A story about people rather than just one a team going for the win. In doing so, O'Connor makes Miracle one of the more thoughtful and enjoyable films revolving around sports.

August 15, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Views

Even if you don't know a "blue line from a clothes line," "Miracle" is a thoroughly enjoyable film that unspools like a Robert Altman movie where many characters' individual essences are revealed at once.

July 17, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com
ColeSmithey.com

Miracle capitalizes on its understanding of team dynamics: the bonding of pain and gain alike, the ownership of integrity over ego, the satisfaction of communal accomplishment. [Blu-ray]

June 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews
Groucho Reviews

This isn't anyone's finest hour.

June 18, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | Comments (2)
Cinema Signals

Russell is at his understated best in the film, which stands as a living tribute to Coach Herb Brooks.

June 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

This inspirational, rough and tumble, profanity-free testament to ingenuity also touches on the conflicts between work ethics and domestic responsibility.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review
Sacramento News & Review

A complex portrait of a man, and Kurt Russell delivers a major performance as that man.

July 18, 2008 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com
eFilmCritic.com

Kurt Russell is perfect as hockey coach Herb Brooks in a true story that still manages to be rousing and inspirational despite its inherent predictability.

December 20, 2005 Full Review Source: Fantastica Daily
Fantastica Daily

Esquemático em toda a narrativa, é apenas mais um exemplo inferior do gênero "azarão-com-espírito-de-vencedor".

November 30, 2005
Cinema em Cena

Believe in the greatness of Kurt Russell.

May 4, 2005 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness
Lessons of Darkness

While I don't like the way it simplifies history, I have to admit that Miracle is a hugely effective crowd-pleaser.

March 5, 2005 Full Review Source: NYC Film Critic
NYC Film Critic

[It takes] a wonderful story and transforms it into by-the-numbers entertainment that doesn't show us anything new about hockey or this historic event.

December 31, 2004 | Comment (1)
Looking Closer

It's not too hokey, not politically correct, not a mass of chewy, Disney-fried steak, not even a miracle -- it's just good storytelling.

September 16, 2004
Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas)

The best sports movie I've ever seen.

September 15, 2004 Full Review Source: tonymedley.com

Captures all the excitement of U.S. hockey win.

June 4, 2004

Catch the enthusiasm as you watch the U.S. team pull off a miracle win in a movie that makes you want to stand up, shout and wave a flag.

May 25, 2004 Full Review Source: Entertainment Spectrum
Entertainment Spectrum

Audience Reviews for Miracle

The movie that tells the story of the greatest moment in sports history. That moment would be the Miracle on Ice. The reason it's a miracle can't be fully explained unless you were alive in 1980 or you see this movie. (Or just look it up on Wikipedia.) Kurt Russell stars the interpretation of how everything with the 1980 US Olympics hockey team played out. Russell easily the performance of his career in Miracle. He plays Herb Brooks, the head coach of the hockey team and he fits the role perfectly. He could've easily been nominated for an Oscar for his performance but you know, a biased Academy since the beginning of the 21st century. I also have to give props for Gavin O'Connor for his style of directing. During the on ice hockey scenes the cameras are on the ice, right up in the actors faces and you get to feel the intensity of the game. O'Connor also does a great job of making you feel for the characters. When Herb Brooks is angry at the players, you can feel just how pissed he is. When the players feel dejected about a loss or injury, you feel dejected. When they want to jump Herb Brooks and rip his head off...well, you don't feel that because you're always on Brooks's side in this movie. I was also pleasantly surprised at the actors playing the hockey players. Not only were they really good actors, they looked just like the actual players. The director could've easily picked a bunch of bad acting, active NHL players but he chose the more appropriate route. Another thing I liked is they chose to have Al Michaels do the commentary for the games. He was the original commentator for the real games played in the 80's. Every US game he commentates except for the last twenty seconds of the final game. (If you've seen actual footage of the last twenty seconds of the game, you'll understand why. The emotion conveyed is a once in a lifetime kind of thing.) This film has everything a sports movie needs. It's inspiring, emotional, well acted, well directed and shows why people were inspired by the actual event.
January 11, 2012
Tyler Robertson

Super Reviewer

"Do you believe in miracles?"

Miracle tells the true story of Herb Brooks (Russell), the player-turned-coach who led the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to victory over the seemingly invincible Russian squad.

REVIEW
With a professional and intense performance by Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks, Miracle, the story of the U.S. Olympic hockey team's miraculous win over the vaunted Soviets at the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, is by far one of the best true-life sports movies ever made. Russell definitively captures the intensity of Brooks, who in real life just missed the cut on the 1960 Olympic hockey team at Squaw Valley (where the Soviets last lost) and has now been given the task of fielding what the U.S. Olympic Committee wants--the best team of hockey players. But Russell is after something more--like the right team of hockey players, the right combination that will ensure not only competitiveness but also give a winning edge to the squad once the Olympics start. Though he resorts to cajoling, temper outbursts that would nearly rival anything Bobby Knight ever did, and extremely strenuous skating exercises, the team gradually grows to respect him and, in one of the great moments in sports history, Brooks' team defeats the vaunted Soviets 4-3 in the Olympic semifinals, setting themselves up for the subsequent gold medal win against Finland.

Aside from Patricia Clarkson (as Brooks' wife) and Noah Emmerich (as Brooks' assistant coach), the main cast of Miracle consists of real-life hockey players, not actors. This adds a great measure of realism to the proceedings, as do the television news flashbacks to a turbulent post-Vietnam America and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan only two months before Lake Placid. The real-life Herb Brooks, sadly, didn't get to see this film; he passed away shortly after principal photography was completed, and Miracle is thus dedicated to him. He would no doubt have been as proud of what this film accomplished on the big screen as what he and his Olympic squad did on the ice all those years ago.
December 5, 2008
LorenzoVonMatterhorn
Lorenzo von Matterhorn

Super Reviewer

    1. Herb Brooks: Great moments are born from great opportunity.
    – Submitted by Dann M (8 months ago)
    1. Herb Brooks: Again!
    – Submitted by Ryan K (19 months ago)

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