Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun Times" gave the film four stars and stated that "Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is a masterpiece, pure and simple," listing it as the best film of 2004. Michael Medved stated: "My main objection to "Million Dollar Baby" always centered on its misleading marketing, and effort by Warner Brothers to sell it as a movie about a female "Rocky", with barely a hint of the pitch-dark substance that led Andrew Sarris of the "New York Observer" ... to declare that 'no movie in my memory has depressed me more than "Million Dollar Baby".'"