The Mighty Macs
Ocean Avenue Entertainment | Release Date: October 21, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
10
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerOct 20, 2011
Sometimes a film feels a bit too pat and yet is impossible to resist. The Mighty Macs, based on the national championship run of the 1972 women's basketball team at Immaculata College near Philadelphia, is such a film: lots of button pushing, but in the end you're glad you saw it. Read full review
70
VarietyJoe LeydonOct 18, 2011
Family-friendly and abounding in uplift, The Mighty Macs is an undemandingly pleasant indie drama. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 19, 2011
It's a nice movie, and can certainly be inspirational for the proper audiences. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 21, 2011
This true story fills a needed niche, spotlighting women's basketball in the era before Title IX promoted equal treatment. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyOct 20, 2011
One wishes that Chambers had more gracefully integrated the stories of the individual players into this celebration of Rush. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 20, 2011
The film doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is: a story of one woman overcoming low expectations. Gugino and Burstyn and the young performers playing the young players do likewise. Read full review
63
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreOct 16, 2011
This tiny Catholic school for women dominated the sport at a turning point in history, and this plucky, old-fashioned sports drama sets the scene and tells the tale with a lot of heart and a dash of wit. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 21, 2011
Carla Gugino has yet to find the right movie that clicks with her spunky outsider appeal, but The Mighty Macs, a gauzy, inspiring true-life drama about a girls' basketball team, at least gets her close and provides a lot of assists. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttOct 22, 2011
The movie does say a lot about female athletes and the changing role of women in American society, but in aggressively pursuing the formula, writer-director-producer Tim Chambers is prone to exaggeration and a moralizing tone. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithOct 21, 2011
Everything plays out exactly as you'd expect in a cheerful, well-meaning movie in the style of something made for the Disney channel. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 20, 2011
Mighty Macs further distinguishes itself by, for once, giving a fair shake to nuns, who are treated with respect both in the performance of Ellen Burstyn, as the mother superior, and of Marley Shelton, who plays the assistant coach. It's about time. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 20, 2011
The Mighty Macs sticks so closely to the underdog-sports-movie playbook that it's practically generic. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertOct 19, 2011
There is nothing to complain about except the film's deadening predictability and the bland, shallow characters. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 19, 2011
Carla Gugino, however, energizes the film with every step of her self-assured stride. She genuinely manages to create a dimensional character who is fulsomely inspirational – and as I said at the outset, that's not too shabby an accomplishment when it comes to the world of women and sports movies. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsOct 19, 2011
There must have been a reason why the real-life Rush could do so much with seemingly so little, but The Mighty Macs never captures it. It lets canned inspiration provide the uplift, instead of something more tangible. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMelissa AndersonOct 18, 2011
Appears to have been made on a budget equivalent to the cost of a WNBA fleece hoodie. But even at that price, the first feature by Tim Chambers is profligate with sports-movie clichés. Read full review
40
Time OutNick SchagerOct 18, 2011
It's a saga whose clichéd corniness would be practically sinful if not for the mighty Gugino, who almost counteracts the material's pap with megawatt charm and steel-tough resolve - exemplified by a low-angled intro shot of the poised, strutting, tight-sweater-sexy actress. Read full review
38
Washington PostStephanie MerryOct 20, 2011
It all amounts to a missed opportunity considering how many female athletes and sports fans would probably flock to the first film that targets their demographic since "A League of Their Own" nearly 20 years ago. The people behind The Mighty Macs could learn a lot from that film, especially that following formula is fine, as long as you don't skimp on the details that complete the portrait. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundOct 17, 2011
The Mighty Macs is a film from another planet, where stories are told, obliviously, in cryptic, nonsensical code, and people talk to each other in sugarplum proverbs no earthbound adult would ever inflict on another, not even on the set of a Hallmark Original Movie. Read full review
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