Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Fembots
Posted on | January 23, 2005 at 4:09 pm | 4 Comments
The only boxing movie I ever liked was Fight Club, and that wasn’t really a boxing movie. It wasn’t even really a fighting movie to me – I saw it as more of a comedy. I’m just not into flicks about the “sweet science”. I’ve still never seen a single Rocky movie, not even the first one. I can’t watch boxing sporting events either. I’m both bored and horrified by the sport. There’s something about watching people pummel each other in the ring that makes me recoil in ways that other types of screen violence do not. Every time someone lands a punch, I flinch. I just want it to be over.
So I went to see Million Dollar Baby anyway, since I heard it’s not really a boxing movie. Maybe not, but there is a lot of boxing in it. I was really interested in what the twist in the movie was, since all the critics talked about how there was one, but refused to spoil it for people who hadn’t seen it. I’m going to respect that, of course, but it sure does make it hard to talk much about the movie, or at least about the plot. I will say the movie does pack a punch, in more ways than one.
Kudos to Hilary Swank for continuing to take unglamorous or unusual roles (The Core notwithstanding). After seeing the movie, it’s hard to imagine some other 30-something actress-of-the-moment (like say Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, or Angelina Jolie) in the role. Clint Eastwood is his crusty old lovable self, and his husky voice didn’t bother me as much this time as it usually does. Morgan Freeman co-starred as Morgan Freeman, a role at which he excels. Props for making him a comic book reader, though didn’t Crossgen go under? The direction by Eastwood is top-notch, with nary a wasted frame or scene. Visually, everything is seen through a gritty bluish filter, just like Mystic River and a hundred other movies these days. The splashes of bright green are welcome when they come around. The blood is dark.
All I’m willing to say about the story is that if you’re the kind of person who cries a lot at movies, be sure to bring lots of tissues. This one gets a one on the Nod-O-Meter. That’s kind of a cumulative score, as there were a few little semi-nods, but I never missed a line of dialog.
Latre.
Comments
4 Responses to “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Fembots”
January 24th, 2005 @ 11:57 pm
I liked Fight Club too.
January 25th, 2005 @ 4:51 pm
The next time you feel the urge to find out the twist in a movie that all the critics are talking about without blowing the cash to see it, check out http://www.themoviespoiler.com. It’s like cliff notes. I haven’t had to go see a movie in months, and yet I still remain culturally relevant.
January 25th, 2005 @ 10:25 pm
Well, you know, there’s something to be said about putting the spoiler in context and enjoying the ride and all that. It’s much more enjoyable finding out Hilary Swank’s character is an alien once you’ve sat through all the boxing stuff, than it is just reading about it. Whoops.
January 26th, 2005 @ 11:06 pm
Hey DJ, thanks for the tip – only the other day I meant to track down just such a site, to look up plot outlines of movies I’m not going to bother to see. Now my only problem is, I can’t remember which movie I was curious about…