2004 Top 10 - #6
December 25, 2004#6: Million Dollar Baby : One could make a strong argument that this is the best movie Clint Eastwood has ever been involved in, either in front of or behind the camera. Although Million Dollar Baby will be classified as a "sports movie" by many, such a pat label diminishes the power and scope of this emotionally wrenching production. If you're one of those who doesn't cry at movies, this may test the dryness of your tear ducts. Million Dollar Baby is about three characters (played by Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, and Hilary Swank) who happen to be in the business of sports. The heart and soul of the film has little to do with what goes on in the ring (the boxing sequences tend to be perfunctory). Instead, Eastwood concentrates on how the members of this trio interact, and, ultimately, the agonizing decision that one must make out of friendship and love. With the exception of an irritating and over-the-top performance by a secondary character who gets more screen time than is warranted, this is a nearly perfect movie. I wish more English-language dramas were like this one. Of all the Hollywood-financed motion pictures to arrive in theaters this year, Million Dollar Baby is the best.
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Predictable as Ever?
From my review of Aeon Flux: "I'll never understand why studios sometimes choose to withhold films from critics. The lack of advance screenings of Aeon Flux establishes an expectation that the film is likely to be tough to sit through. It's the ...
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The Death of the Print Critic
The rumors of this death, sadly, have not been exaggerated...I can remember as a child seeing my father sitting at the kitchen table in the morning, drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. I have similar memories of my grandfather when I...
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The Best Medicine
It has always fascinated me how one person's work of comic genius can be another's bat guano. What impulses are there that tell our brains something is worth laughing at, and why are there dramatic differences in what intelligent people find funny? ...
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