| Overall Grade: |
B |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
B- |
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| Direction: |
B |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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Really Not Bad
by Monica (movies profile)
Jul 23, 2007
62
of
62 people found this review helpful
Despite some iffy reviews, I really wanted to go ahead and see this movie. Sometimes I do wonder what movie reviews are thinking.
Years ago, I read, not this book, but another by Dan Millman, "The Warrior Athlete" (now, sadly, out of print). At the time, I put a tremendous amount of time into athletics, and found very little success in it, just continual judgment of myself. The book totally changed the way I looked at myself and athletics. It was certainly life changing.
Now, sitting down with the movie, so many years later, I'm reminded of why this changed my life so profoundly.
I'd be willing to admit, I cringed my way through a few moments in the movie where, yes, it did descend to what felt like non-stop clichés. The acting, though not horrible, also needed to be cringed through on occasions. In the end, the movie managed to hold up anyway.
The reason being the story was so strong and despite the cliché, you ultimately had to admit there was a great deal of truth to it and a great deal to take away from it. In the end it was inspiring.
From time to time, I thought I knew exactly where the movie was going, and sometimes, that was true. There were other times, however, it was a little hard to tell. It eventually became an adventure trying to figure out when the main character was ever going to stop being a complete jerk. (It is somewhere just about at the end.)
I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes athletics and can relate to failing in a competition or sustaining an injury and feeling like your life is over. I can equally recommend this to anyone who tries out any type of activity and finds the crap in their head seems to prevent them from succeeding, or if they succeed, prevents them from ever really feeling like it was a success.
In the end, the story won out. It turned out to be a good movie, and worth the time and a few cringes. |
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