Gloves Off

If this was made in the mid nineties it would have got similar plaudits as The Full Monty and Brassed Off. We are in different times but to me that doesn't detract from this easy and fun watch.

It doesn't tax your brain or overload your senses with special effects but it is a wholly enjoyable film.

Some great comedy moments and some heart wrenching ones too, a film to chill out to and not take too seriously.

Big plus, I watched it all the way through knowing how it would end. The cast were great at their roles, the laughs weren't actually that plentiful. It was like boys from the blackstuff meets Snatch. It's nowhere near worth 10 but worth watching.

This film was very easy watching, great cast, light hearted and fun.

Enjoyed watching this entertaining movie. Found Bradley Moore to be a very natural actor.

Rocky meets The Full Monty.

This British comedy drama has some good character actors. Ricky Tomlinson, Paul Barber and Alexei Sayle. It is let down by a banal script that mistakes silliness for comedy.

Doug (Brad Moore) plays a once promising boxer. Now he is managing a boxing gym which has debts that he cannot pay. Some fight club type posh boys are pressurising him especially as one of the old geezers in the boxing club knocked one of them out.

One day Vera (Denise Van Outen) comes to his gym wanting Doug to train his son. When the money pressure gets too much for him, Vera who is a gypsy wants Doug to get her dim brother in shape for a £100,000 bare knuckle fight. This would enable Doug to pay off his debts but the brother has to win the contest and these types of fights get dirty very quickly.

The film has too many broadly sketched caricatures. Posh boys who think they are hard, Irish, gypsies. It feels dated and lazy.