Cardboard Boxer

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.

Worth watching if for no other reason than its raw depiction of life "on the nickel' this is an unusual film. Its antihero, lured by a mere $50, embarks on a course of action pretty much guaranteed to lead to a falling out with the community. I've heard that the majority of homeless people are suffering from mental problems, and this aspect is played nicely by the actors here. And it is a community; this was the part of the film that surprised me most, the parallel world of the homeless, in which street sex is freely available, $5 gets you a b.j. and pussy costs $5 more. The movie is pretty much plot less, except for a rather unbelievable bolted- on ending that failed to convince me. Still, if you like grit and grime, give it a try.

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.

This is the best feel good movie in years. If you have a heart, it will leave you breathless at times, emotionally exhausted, having laughed and cried, and then feeling so good! It is right on with the feelings one has in being homeless, as I too could not get out of my homeless circumstances, though I tried different cities and states, until in Florida, in utter hopelessness and desperation from years of this I begged a police officer in West Palm Beach to arrest me, but instead he took me to his home, became my biggest hero, and got me out of homelessness. But more importantly, buy this movie, don't rent it! It is a rare gem, and the best medicine for anyone who needs to feel good, and a move such as this one will heal the broken heart.