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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Walt Disney Video
Salesrank: 2693
Released: May 18, 2004 |
| Our Price: $6.89 |
| Used Price: $1.48 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
From the studio that brought you THE ROOKIE and REMEMBER THE TITANS comes the movie everybody loves -- MIRACLE. Filled with exhilarating nonstop hockey action and heart-racing suspense, it's the inspiring true story behind one of the greatest moments in sports history — the 1980 United States ice hockey team's triumphant Olympic victory against the Soviet Union. Kurt Russell gives a brilliant performance as the dynamic and determined coach Herb Brooks, who had an impossible dream -- beat the seemingly unbeatable Soviets at their own game. Starting with a handpicked group of 26 undisciplined kids, Brooks coached them to play like they never played before, and turned 20 of them into a team that believed they could achieve the unachievable -- and in the process, united a nation with a new feeling of hope.
Description of Miracle (Widescreen Edition):
The miracle about Miracle is that it gets so many details right in telling its 24-year-old story about the historic victory of the U.S. hockey team at the 1980 Olympic Games. It's typical for Hollywood to compromise such period details as hairstyles and fashion when catering to a contemporary audience, but Miracle looks and feels right in every detail, capturing the downbeat mood of post-Watergate America while showing how obsessively determined Minnesota hockey coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) managed to assemble a once-in-a-lifetime team and whip them into a victorious frenzy over their Soviet champion opponents. With sharp support from Patricia Clarkson (as Brooks's wife) and Noah Emmerich (as his long-suffering assistant), Russell grounds the film with a well-balanced combination of aloofness, intimidation, and closely guarded strategy. No doubt the real Brooks (who died in a car accident shortly after filming completed) would have approved. Thanks to director Gavin O'Connor (Tumbleweeds) and the producers of the similarly laudable sports films Remember the Titans and The Rookie, Miracle brings plenty of heart--and historical accuracy--to an old, familiar formula. --Jeff Shannon
Miracle (Widescreen Edition) Reviews:
Miracle Is based on true story 
2009-10-29 - I like true stories and I known this DVD been out for some time But I never got a chance to watch it. Be great if all 3 of the TV companies had few channels that show nothing but good clean movies like this. This movie pitted a bunch of college age young men who played hockey against a Soviet Team who were a bunch of paid professionals and they beat them and made history in the process. If readers of this are looking for a good family movie get the pop corn ready and enjoy it on cold /rainy day
Miracle of Miracles 
2009-09-01 - I watched this movie with my 11 yr old grandson and we both got into the thrill of hockey, the "Miracle" team, the characters, etc. The second disc shows how the casting was done, the background of the filming and characters and really was an added bonus to the movie. It's a great story and was "told" beautifully. I think all of the real team members from the Olympics Miracle team can be proud, not only of what they accomplished, but that their story was told with real heart.
Still waiting for a Miracle...
2009-08-02 - The Cold War, a 40-year pi$$ing contest between the world's capitalist and socialist superpowers came to an end in 1991 with more of a peep than a bang. And be thankful for that. We flushed money down the toilet building up a nuclear arms race to epic fail proportions. And then came the gas shortages, unemployment, the South American Contra affair, hostages in Iran, Soviets in Afghanistan, and everybody still reeling from Watergate and Vietnam, the world was just having a bad hair day (but compared to the last 3 years I'd say it was a walk in the park).
Then the Olympics rode into a little upstate New York town called Lake Placid, and something earth shattering happened. No, it wasn't Armageddon. It was a hockey game. And the good guys won! USA! USA! USA! And the NHL is barely a blip on the American pro sports radar compared to the NFL, NBA, MLB- hell even the PGA gets better airtime! But that's not the point, 20 collegiate nobodies managed to convince an entire country that we can do anything... provided that we had a coach to play mind games and beat our a$$es into the ground 95% of the time.
Herb Brooks was a unique individual. This grandfatherly man who knew the Latin scientific names of shrubbery was a terror on the college hockey circuit. He was also its best coach. Reading like a Greek tragedy, this Minnesotan tempest in a whirlpool bath was the last man cut from the gold medal winning 1960 Olympic hockey team. In short Herbie had a sick bone to pick with USA Hockey. Meanwhile behind the Iron Curtain, the USSR having picked itself up from the ruins of WW II, the mighty Red Sports Machine produced hockey teams that would sweep every Olympic gold medal and nearly every world title from 1964 on. Herb Brooks got his most ardent wish and got a shift for USA Hockey profiling all the "right" players over the "good" ones to challenge the Soviets.
Now I was a bit leery when I saw the Disney logo plastered all over the trailer. The last thing we needed was some Mickey-Mouse-tooth-rotting-happy-go-lucky-afterschool-special-behind-the-scenes-REHASH of 1980 USA hockey. I also wasn't confident of Kurt Russell's (he's from Massachusetts- OH THE IRONY!) ability to portray Brooks, especially since he died after the completion of principal photography. Then I saw two interesting things: 1) PG-13 rating- OOH! Adult Disney! 2) A TRUCKLOAD of hotties! Disney got the 16-25 female range in their crease (because if you saw the original team pic, the real guys weren't so... photogenic). But it was kismet for angry pucknuts since the NHL 2004-'05 lockout left a bad taste in their mouths, so they got themselves a gold medal cookie to nibble on for Miracle's 2/6/04 premier. And it was a success.
I can't give this flick 5 stars because I felt (along with other angry fangirls- NOT PUCKBUNNIES!) that Miracle contained false advertising. All those wonderful scenes with the team you see in the trailer and extras were left to rot on the cutting room floor. I know the story is ESSENTIALLY about Herb Brooks, but it took 20 special guys to make this miracle happen. With the exception of Eddie Cahill (who is a dead-ringer for a twenty-something Jimmy Craig who was a good looking man... from the right angles) all those guys were hockey players (and Billy Schneider IS Buzzy's son). So Disney if you're going to double dip with this Blu-Ray crapola, you'd better get together with Gavin O'Connor for surgery and splice those scenes back in! I'd like to know a little more about Rizzo, Mac, Jimmy, O.C., Bah, Buzzy, Silky, Rammer, Jannie, Coxie, and Magic, because their stories are worth the $22 you want to steal from me. Besides, the fanfics are lacking.
A miracle indeed !
2009-06-08 - I love this movie ! Especially the line "I play for the United States of America !" So powerful !!! Viva America !
THE Hockey Movie
2009-05-13 - "Miracle" is much more that just a true account of an improbable and what should have been a virtually impossible - upset gold medal victory - in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Like a perfect storm the chronicles of Herb Brooks (an intriguing and remarkable man) and the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team is more than just a "story". At a time when the Rissian threat was real and in the midst of the cold war, a bunch of amatuer, rag tag - but talented - US "kids" from college - beat the unbeatable and the "professional" Red Army / USSR Hockey team. It shouldn't have happenned - but coach Brooks conviced his inferior but hard working kids - that they COULD. The casting is as good as the movie - all players / actors in the movie that were cast played hockey at some level. Being from Boston I could relate to the local players and their families who sacrificed so much for the opportunity to play on this team. Kurt Russell is excellent as Coach Brooks. My favorite scene is when Mike Eruzione (the team captain) decides to respond to coach Brooks while the team is being taught "a lesson." The team comes together and Brook's plan as coach does too. You don't have to love hockey to enjoy this movie - but any kid that ever played at any age or at any level MUST see this movie. It is as inspiring as any movie you will ever see!
