The Challenger

With the reluctant acquiescence of his adoptive mother -- S. Epatha Merkerson -- and the compassionate tutelage of his trainer -- Michael Clarke Duncan -- writer-director Kent Moran rises from obscure Bronx mechanic to a title fight.

It's an old and accepted story, probably going back to when Pierce Egan when he was writing his first book on the sweet science in 1813. So why do another? Well, there's always a market for a boxing movie, and here we have a few new things to say: a reality show based on Moran to push him up the rankings; the relationships, some of which are a bit corny; the final fight, which is brutal; and the editing by Anthony Muzzati and director Kent Moran, which is excellent. The acting is pretty good. And if the visuals clearly are, ahem, inspired by Rocky, well, they worked before and they work here.

When Stallone did Rocky I, you would think from the hype at the time that he invented the boxing film.

No he did not. He re-invented it. Boxing films have been around forever and the first rule of a good boxing film is to connect with the audience by allowing them to "grow" with the protagonist, to improve from fight to fight.

And that was the first rule the producers broke.

Given the minimal amount of screen time alloted to the "early" fights for the protagonist/hero (in some cases just 2 seconds per fight) you may have thought that these were real cable fights where the producers did not have the rights to rebroadcast. But no this is a fiction film and they could have made those fights real. They did not.

Frankly, once you break that key rule, once you have no connection between star and viewer, there is no turning back.

But, almost out of perversity, the producers broke another rule and that amazes me. They cast two actors who look alike for both roles in the ring, hero and villain.

So, and I cannot emphasize the bizarreness of this enough, not only does the audience have no connection with the hero in the final fight, but sometimes you can't tell which actor is playing which role.

And the final rule? Good choreography in the fights. The audience should feel every punch. Here the audience only feels cheated.

A rarity. A boxing film that, like a bad boxer, starts out weak. And then just gets weaker.

Of course, the fact that the film is a "vanity" film -- the same guy is the writer director and star -- may be a factor. But what do I know -- I am just a reviewer.

Terrible film.

A lot of shade was thrown on this film that's a bit over the top IMO. I'm not exactly sure who the target audience is for this film. Definitely not boxing aficionados who have already shared their lamentations. It's too gritty and violent for the Up! Family Network. The two main fighters are super good looking but neither of them were stalkers or were being stalked or lived a secret life or kidnapped anyone so Lifetime Movies is out. Here! would be interested if the two boxers were secret boyfriends but they weren't.

If you're all about the Bronx, love S. Empathy Merkerson from Law and Order, and miss Michael Clarke Duncan then give this film a chance. As of today it can be viewed on Prime for free if you are a member. I personally wouldn't pay to see this but your money is your business. 6 stars from me.

Ok, let's face it, there is only so much you can do with a championship boxing movie. To be honest the story is very unlikely. However, this one has something special. The 90 minutes flew past very quickly for me which is my proof that I enjoyed it. The acting was superb, the fight scenes were reasonable and the story, although far from reality drew me in and had me routing for the main character. Although Kent Moran doesn't look like he has ever truly fought in a ring he played the title role really well and was very likeable. Michael Clarke Duncan played the supporting role equally well and was very believable as the trainer. It was refreshing to see a boxing movie without any romantic complications blurring the story. Yes, it was the rise of the underdog as most of them are. And yes, there were plenty of touching family moments but no love interests. Another thing I liked was that the opponents were not painted as the bad guys like in so many other movies. Anyway, I watch a lot of boxing movies and this is definitely worth watching. 7/10

absolutely nothing original about this movie. its a knock off of rocky, or like a bunch of other boxing movies, but very poorly made. The build up is rushed, the boxing training is short, he goes from boxing in a local club to fighting for a title after 7 fights, lol, its almost embarrassing to watch. anyone who has watched real boxing, will find this ridiculous. The main character, the boxer, is sort of lame, he show no real hunger to either train or fight. it feels weird. the main fight of the movie, is poorly made, you don't see, not even half a round; you only get some silly glimpse of the rounds

And both take damage way beyond what they would ever be able to handle in reality, which makes it look even more ridiculous.

I urge you not to waste your time or money.