Miracle (2004)

I'd never actually seen Miracle all the way through before tonight. The parts I had seen included the opening montage, the formation of the team, one training montage, the hellish post-game workout in Sweden, Kurt Russell's excellent pre-game speech, and the climactic Soviet game. In other words, except for a scene in which the coach makes an unexpected roster cut, I hadn't missed a thing of any importance whatsoever. I'm kind of torn when it comes to judging this movie. I can't help but compare it to another Disney sports film, Remember the Titans, in which a ragtag group of kids learns to work as a team and overcome adversity thanks to a fantastic coach. And that's weird, because the similarities really end there. I liked Miracle. I did not love it. And although I can't speak for the world as a whole, I think that's the general consensus most people came to. The thing is, the real "Miracle on Ice" is such an awesome triumph story that it's almost impossible to dislike any movie based upon it, so long as said movie has decent acting, directing, editing, writing, and production value. And this one did. But none of the aforementioned areas were done in spectacular fashion. It's almost as if Miracle was just good enough not to be a disappointment. Remember the Titans worked so well because it was a little known feel-good story. Miracle almost didn't work because it was such a well-known feel-good story. And yet, it's tough not to like this movie. It's extremely basic and methodical in its approach to storytelling, and I could have used a lot more anti-Soviet emotional fuel to help make the on-screen game actually feel half as significant as the real-life one must have felt. But still, at the center of all the unspectacular filmmaking is a great story. It deserved a movie, and Miracle fits the bill just fine. It just seems like the movie could have been better in almost every way.