Million Dollar Baby A Movie Review	MPAA Rated - PG-13 It's 2:17 Long A Review by The Dude on the Right

Maggie (Hilary Swank) comes from a trailer park and is a waitress. Frankie (Clint Eastwood) is a boxing trainer with a past that doesn’t let him get his star boxer to the next level. Scrap (Morgan Freeman) manages Frankie’s gym, and is always there for some advice that Frankie usually doesn’t want to hear. As it turns out, Maggie is a scrappy woman’s fighter who sets her sights on having Frankie train her, because, well, she considers him the best. Meanwhile, Frankie is having trouble letting his star boxer get to the dream of a title match, possibly because of things Frankie has done in his past rather than the dude’s ability. Maggie’s first meeting with Frankie doesn’t go to well for her, as pretty much Frankie tells her point blank he doesn’t train girls, let alone girls who are too old to have a chance to be a boxing star. But Maggie doesn’t back down. She scraped up enough money to become a member at Frankie’s gym, where Frankie still ignores her, but Scrap sees a fire in Maggie that he knows Frankie needs (no, not that kind of fire, more a father/daughter fire), so he starts giving Maggie a tip or two.

As things have it, Maggie’s persistence, and Frankie realizing she is just getting used by her new manager, pays off, and Frankie takes the task of training Maggie, and Maggie kicks a lot of ass. Another choice made, and this one eventually leads to a title shot for Maggie and more choices to be made. And that’s all I’m going to tell you about the movie because any more and you’ll hate me.

I really loved this movie, even though I have heard some complaints. Some complaints have to do with the boxing itself, that things aren’t that realistic (Michael Buffer on Howard Stern complained about the boxing scenes and that Frankie uses a dry sponge to pat down Maggie in the corner, because, if you ever watch a boxing match, isn’t that sponge dripping wet? And Buzz Kilman on The Steve Dahl Show (in Chicago) complained about the outcome of the title fight, that the wrong decision was given, and most everyone else agreed.) but that didn’t bother me that much because pretty much Maggie just kept kicking everyone’s ass. The other complaints have to do with the ending, which, for me, was the perfect ending rather than your general Hollywood cookie-cutter ending.

Like I opened with, I think this movie is really about relationships and choices and not so much about boxing. Maggie made a choice to pursue her boxing career, what she felt was her only chance to get out of the trailer park and away from a family that is just a total disgrace to the idea of family. Scrap makes the choice to keep working for Frankie, and helping out Maggie so maybe Frankie will start training her. And Frankie makes that choice to train Maggie which leads to many other tough choices being made, both as a trainer/manager, but also more like a father or best friend.

I’ve got to give "Million Dollar Baby" 5 stars out of 5, although I will say there are a couple of slow spots. I’ve got no problem with the boxing scenes, I’ve got no problem with the acting, and I felt the ending was the ending that needed to be up there on the screen. Thank God Clint Eastwood didn’t cave to some pressure, which I’m guessing was given to him, to change it.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!