For the first half hour of Cinderella Man, I was rather bored. For the final half hour, I was shaking with excitement. I figured that Braddock would win his boxing match against Max Baer — that's the way these movies usually end — but I didn't know (and I'm not going to ruin the movie by telling you. The scene was set up so well in the movie that I was totally caught up in the suspense.

Russell Crowe is an incredible actor. Several of the men who played his opponents in the movie were actual boxers, and during the fight sequences, he took several hard blows that gave him a couple concussions and a variety of other injuries (which explains Craig's comment that the scenes looked real). The Depression-era settings and cars were interesting to see too, although I'm guessing there was a lot more squalor in real life. The events of Braddock's life and fights followed history fairly closely and added another level of interest.

So while it was a formula underdog-makes-big movie (think Seabiscuit with gloves on), it was also well-made, well-acted and exciting.