The Brawler

Chuck Wepner was a boxer that most boxing fans from the 1960's - 1970's could easily forget about, if it wasn't for the movie Rocky.

The movie starts around the middle part of Wepners boxing career, and takes a few seconds looking at his life before boxing. The movie then goes forward and tells the story of Wepners highs and lows in life.

Chuck Wepner was a heavyweight boxer, who fought his way into the bottom part of the top 10 rated heavyweight fighters in the world. Wepner was seriously never a real threat to any top rated fighter or world champion. He eventually gets a match against Muhammad Ali, by far the biggest event in Wepners boxing career. After his epic fight "The Rumble in the jungle" with George Foreman, Ali picks the 35 year old Wepner for an easy fight in 1975.

After his fight with Ali, Chuck Wepner becomes a bit of a minor celebrity. With the fame Wepner indulges in late night partying, girls, booze and drugs.

Being a movie its obviously dramatized at times, but the story seems to be consistent from what I have read, and the documentary I saw about this subject.

The acting is Ok for what the movie is. The story telling moves a long at a steady pace, and there is usually something happening, for good or bad. One issue is well known characters in the movie like Ali and Stallone look very little like the actual people. I suppose it's not always easy to get really good look a likes. However Zach McGowan who plays Chuck Wepner looks absolutely nothing like Chuck Wepner. The hair and moustache are all wrong. Wepner has a rough boxers face with a pug nose, Zach McGowan looks fresh and has a big nose. The one saving thing is Zach McGowan carries himself like a struggling boxer in the movie. Even though he looks more like a wrestler.

I found this movie watchable as I like boxing and offbeat life stories.

If you want a good chuck wepner story watch the espn special called the real rocky or the movie chuck that is on Netflix

The acting and the script in this film are so incredibly bad that I have to believe it's bad on purpose. Especially Muhammed Ali, his character portrayal is nothing short of a hysterical comic.

Asking his opponent to call him the N word. I'm a pugilist fan, but this film really shows the underside of this dark sport.

Only if you are a boxing fan would should you consider watching this movie and even then think twice as this movie is god awful. The whole movie is centered around Chuck Wepner and his self-destructive habits. I did not think movies this bad would even be allowed on DVD or streaming, but Hollywood continues to show they have now idea how to make a good movie anymore. Chose something else to watch and this is really not worth your time. But if you insist on watching it, you can scan through the movie quickly as it is such a slow dreary movie you would miss nothing.