Bleed for This

This film tells the story of an American boxer, who has a bright future ahead of him. Unfortunately, he is almost killed in a traffic accident, squashing his dreams to continue boxing. He refuses to accept his fate, continues to train and make a spectacular comeback

Our hero in the film doesn't give up, working hard against all odds and then achieve the seemingly impossible. This is guaranteed to be an inspiring story, but strangely enough I don't feel the passion and emotions that I thought I would feel. The fight scenes don't seem intense enough either. Fortunately, the production is good, and Aaron Eckhart is almost unrecognisable as the boxing coach, which makes him even more convincing.

When it comes to film, there is no other sport that has delivered such powerful and emotional dramas on the big screen as boxing. It's the personal drama they delve into that makes them so relatable to audiences. That's not to say we've all climbed the Rocky Steps or assaulted family members as a result of paranoia though.

Many have been based on true stories and that is certainly the case with Bleed For This, a film based on the astonishingly courageous real life experiences of Vinny Pazienza.

Played by Miles Teller, Pazienza was a World Champion Boxer who was left not knowing whether he'd be able to walk again after a near fatal car accident caused severe spinal damage. Rather than let it defeat him, Pazienza aimed to get back in the ring, setting in motion one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history.

The biggest draw of Bleed For This are its performances, particularly the knock-out lead one given by Miles Teller, one of the hottest young actors in Hollywood today. Teller never loses the cockiness of Pazienza, even when he faces a life without boxing, turning him into such a remarkable character.

I really enjoyed the pairing of Teller and Aaron Eckhart as his trainer, Kevin Rooney. Eckhart hasn't really had much to shout about in recent years but I do think he's a good actor, showcasing it here with a good performance. Ciarán Hinds and Katey Sagal deliver fine performances as Vinny's mother and father, taking me a while to realise it was even them with the change in appearance.

The best boxing films are the ones that focus more on the goings on outside of the ring than inside it, and that's where Ben Younger gets it right with Bleed For This. Yes, a big part of the story is Vinny wanting to get back in the ring but Younger chooses to focus on the man himself and how driven an individual he was to get back to his best in the ring.

Younger also delivers some energetic boxing sequences, using quick edits and excellent sound mixing to almost feel like you're taking the punches at times. The brutality of the sport is wince- inducing at times so the film does warrant its rating however, the moment that had everyone wincing was when Vinny has the screws taken out of his head after six months of wearing the halo designed to help his neck recover. It's a moment that perfectly captures the severity of Vinny's accident as well as the aforementioned cockiness, Teller playing it for laughs.

If you're a fan of boxing films, Bleed For This is a film you will want to see. Don't dismiss it entirely if you aren't a big fan of boxing films because there is plenty to admire in this portrayal of one of the most inspirational comebacks in sporting history.

This is a biographical movie about the boxer Vinny Pazienza who broke his neck in a car accident and wear a halo brace for 6 months. His comeback to boxing is amazing. The story is a bit straightforward but it flows nicely and acting is all right. Overall, it is a nice watch.

Bleed for This a sports drama based on the champion boxer Vinny Pazienza and the accident that almost left him paralyzed. It does not stop him on the road to recovery in training to get back into the boxing ring. These films are suppose to make you feel a little inspirational seeing real life situations happening to real people. The film does show very little for the inspiration.

Vinny (Miles Teller) is a cocky boxer, who rigs his body weight to meet the requirements. After the car accident, that leaves him wearing a halo ring on his neck for six months to recover. And the doctors telling him he is unable to ever go back in the ring. He spends his day, eating junk food, watching day time TV, going to strip clubs, and hanging out with his personal trainer Kevin (Aaron Eckhart). Vinny decides that he needs to work harder to train himself to get back into the ring against the doctors wishes.

The positive things about Bleed for This is it tries to have a fun sense of 1980s direction with the music soundtrack. Also, the inspirational true story about a boxer never letting a severe injury from stopping him to doing what he is inspired to do. The climax of the boxing match as Vinny is risking himself from severing his spinal cord from a single bad throw that can paralyze him was cringe worthy. Also, Miles Teller did a great job in portraying Vinny Pazienza. Aaron Eckhart playing a balding out of shape trainer was also good.

The negative thing about the film besides knowing how the turn out and what will happen to the character ends. I felt like the direction could have been a little stronger with its inspirational tone. The film does so well in trying to have a fun 80s tone, or delivering great performances with the cast. To make you feel for the moment and making it memorable unlike the others does not have much going for the movie. It can get pretty slow in the middle of the film until Vinny tries to lift weights while recovering. The music score Julia Holter does so little in making a memorable score besides having a couple of beat down 80s song.

Overall, Bleed for This is a fair sports drama film that has good talent, and an inspired concept but does so little with trying so hard on making the movie emotional. The hard recovery the boxer went through will be inspired as a strong motivation but the film sadly will easily be forgotten. I will rate the film 3 out of 5 stars.

Feeling the lack is the first step to greatness. If you're fine with status quo you may never achieve something bigger. I'm pretty sure I have read something like this somewhere.

At least it's a fitting motto to „Bleed for This", the sports movie about this real-life young boxing champ who broke his neck and still managed to get back in form and claim another world champion belt.

More than that, Wikipedia says that he held it for over the next ten years. The guy's called Vinny Paz and he's 54 now, by the way.

So yes, it's another sports movie aiming „to the infinity and beyond"… but it doesn't go all Hollywood on our asses and actually manages to be a really good indie watch, having both heart and balls.

„Bleed for This" came out back in September and circled some festivals before reaching cinemas. The commercial success of the movie, sadly, hasn't been worthy of its tough-as-nails hero. It pretty much came and disappeared without a splash and hasn't gotten any award nominations either, big or small.

Quite why the producers and distributors didn't believe in the project enough to support it some, for Globes and Academy Awards campaign, at least, is beyond my comprehension. It's a true underdog story, also a sports movie – who doesn't like those, eh? – and also good movie in general.

(Probably the post-Trumpian USA needs more unpretentious happy tales like „La La Land" which has just managed to pick 7 out of 7 Globes.)

OK but what makes „Bleed for This" so great, then? Isn't there enough underdog and sports movies, award-winning or otherwise?

Well, I am glad you asked. In short, I like everything about it! The indie style, the atmosphere and feeling of the early 1990's working class USA, the great group of starring actors, the hardhitting boxing, the screenplay…

The result is not perfect – what is, anyway? – and one could nitpick about many things if wanted to.

For example, the movie runs near two hours which is not exactly a short amount of time… but one does not get a good sense of Vinny Paz's development as a champion sportsman, or even exactly how the recovery from the big accident went. Of course, it's all explained in passing, but it doesn't satisfy to the fullest.

Maybe it's just me because I enjoyed visiting Vinny's world, family and environment so much that I left the cinema wanting more. „Bleed for This" is one of those rather uncommon sports movies that is not afraid to let characters and story breathe and develop enough to lure us in, to make us want really be there for the characters, not just flashy action.

This kind of intimate connection to the movie mostly happens when its makers have strong personal connection with the whole thing too.

Seeing that Ben Younger is the director and the sole writer, we can assume it was a personal project and he makes the most out of everybody on screen.

The big name actors here are Miles Teller as Vinny Paz, Ciarán Hinds as his father (somehow I always confuse the guy with Alfred Molina) and Aaron Eckhart as his boxing trainer.

All the others have given good performances too, but these three are really worth every penny the producers had to spend on them. Which was probably not too much because the budget was about 6 million US dollars and shooting lasted for only 24 days.

They play it rough and raw, turning the characters into believable working-class heroes. Mark Wahlberg would have probably loved to be part of this experience. There are no showoff scenes so there's not much to talk about it, only enjoy it. Feel it, live it, breathe it!

I am especially happy about Aaron Eckhart choosing a worthwhile acting role again for a change. For most of the current decade, he has been doing boring commercial crap which is a world away from the works that made him known in the first place.

Here he seems to channel a younger less fat version of James Gandolfini which is enough for me to wish him a Supporting Actor Oscar, or at least a nomination.

And last but certainly not the least, „Bleed for This" cements Miles Teller's position as one of the most promising young American movie actors of his generation.

You almost remember him from big studio projects „Divergent" + „Insurgent" and 2015's „Fantastic Four" but he has also starred in a row of cool indie-er movies such as „The Spectacular Now" and „Whiplash".

The former quirky cool guy has transformed himself for the never- surrender-type boxer role but manages to turn what on paper seems like a cartoon character into living breathing human being. He should also get nominated for Oscar.

Ben Younger has previously only written and directed two feature length movies, 2000's really good „Boiler Room" and 2005's rather meh „Prime". It's nice to see him back with another success!

"Bleed for This" doesn't offer a biggest amount of boxing I have seen in a boxing movie. But I just read from IMDb that Teller was trained by Darrell Foster, who has trained fighters like Sugar Ray Leonard and helped Will Smith become Muhammad Ali for 2001's Ali.