Cardboard Boxer

I don't really care about any body else's review . I'm an Er doc and I've seen homeless people for most of my life and career.He did a great job showing there desperation and how they have been abandoned.These people are human beings not to be manipulated and deserve the same respect as everyone else.It's not a popular fad to help someone in need .It's a need we should inherently have to help our own species.What else have we become ?Not driven by media but by emotion . Not by government and programs but by the the individual who gives that person a hug ( the burnt child that gives Mr Church in the final scene) .Thank you ,if you ever read this Mr Church.

Thomas Hayden Church plays Willie, a homeless man with a little missing in the head. Based on the title of the movie, the film was about Willie getting paid by some rich kids to fight other homeless people for their entertainment. The other star on the poster, Terrance Howard plays a man who was able to get himself off the streets and comes back to help those he left behind, trying to seek out these rich kids and stop them from exploiting the homeless.

The richness of the film comes from Church trying to keep his mind straight, and doing this after coming across the diary of a young burn victim writing about the experience. He finds comfort writing letter to her inside the diary.

Overall the film does a great job of making you look differently at the homeless. It get inside the mind of a man living on the streets, and it does not try to figure him out, just make him human.

However, the movie does clean up far too well, and somehow this takes away from completely getting under your skin about the situation.

It's a well driven vehicle for Church, especially with Howard riding shotgun, but it does not have the emotion needed for people to go out and see it.

This movie shows one perspective of the scandalous life of homelessness. The acting is pretty good. The ending provides a tear jerking moment. Directing was great as this flick mirrors the reality really close.

A powerful and well acted movie.

Thomas Hayden Church - Who? Was exactly the impression he left on me before this movie, then I looked the movie up here and clicked on his name because his face was familiar... oh ya, The Sandman from that weak spiderman movie and wings. Not really an impressive actor -

Until This.

The average person may not make if far through the movie because it removes them from their "out of sight, out of mind" comfort zone.

When the pathetic kind of people who watch bum fights find out there's more to it than that, they will be less inclined to give it a shot, but they're beyond help anyway.

The few with the constitution to watch this movie will not be disappointed. There's a kind of poetry in that I suppose... Just like this film.

P.S. Remember - Food Banks can do MUCH more with money than you can at a supermarket, they can get produce fresh straight from farmers at waay better prices. Half the crap food donated has to be thrown out anyway, so do everyone involved a favor and donate money to food banks.

Generally, I don't go for dramas much, and I really dislike long draw- out dramas. I watched Cardboard Boxer knowing zero about it apart from the title, and got totally sucked into the story. Its a story about a human being, not a "homeless person". It didn't dwell on the plight of the homeless, or try to preach about the class divide.

I thought the movie made outstanding use of its unashamedly simplistic characters and setting to tell a very thoughtful story with a rich vein of truth and humanity at its core. I found much I could empathise with despite never having been anywhere near homeless myself.

But yes, it is no more about "bumfights" than Romeo and Juliet is about hot-rods and Brylcreem. For people wanting to see that sort of thing, give this one a miss and skip straight to WWE.

Whatever its shortcomings may be, this movie tackles some of the darkest places in the soul of man and still manages to bring the viewer through it feeling optimistic and uplifted without having to resort to anything as patronising as a 'happily ever after'.

Cardboard Boxer touches on many facets of human-nature, but at its heart, it's a love story told through the eyes of someone so utterly alone that they have never even known anyone well enough to develop an unrequited crush, let alone fall in love. By rights, it should be the type of utterly depressing movie that makes me switch off after 10 minutes, but it was quite the opposite. That's a pretty neat trick Mr. Lee.