The Boxer

The Boxer has some good points going for it but clearly shows how film is a visual medium - what looks and sounds good on paper doesn't translate up on the screen.

The plot, ex-con doesn't want to fight, but trainer Stacy Keach persuades, is pretty paper thin, but and here is the first big mistake: the script is blatantly clichéd from beginning to end - and not in a good way. This film clearly has aspirations to be an inspirational sports movie but Raging Bull or Rocky it ain't.

It's all too simplistic, even the training scenes don't build enough, and while the fights scenes are well choreographed, if lacking real oomph, the camera lacks the imagination to follow through.

The biggest fault lies in the grading of the film: it is just too Hallmark in its coloring and angles and more thought on production design would have helped enormously.

The one real negative of this however is smoking. For a sports film to see chain smoking in every scene was just too much - was it really necessary for character? Off putting to put it mildly.

Not a dreadful film, it just lacks that spark.

If boxing or the boxing genre are your thing then you may well enjoy this - it is too clichéd for our taste - but it has its moments.

I watched this movie because of my new love for the TV series 'Once upon a time' were Josh Dallas plays one of the main characters. I think he is extremely hot and when I saw that he was in a boxer movie, and me loving boxing I thought it was just to good to be true. But oh dear was I wrong. The script feels like it has been written by a 14 year old and the execution was even worse. The actors just doesn't come through making the script feel any worse. It is so cliché, to the frustrated guy who doesn't wants to box at first but then learns to love it. Obviously he is an ex con and with a mysterious troubled past. Of course there is the bad guy who just can't stand the main guy and just have to make everything worse for him. And domdomdom.. there is a girl, who of course is together with the bad guy, making even more trouble for our hero. Me being a student in film making am sad to see how a movie can get so wrong, the filming isn't even good. and as the cherry on top of the cream the trainer smokes through every scene of the movie, I mean come on didn't we leave cigarettes in movies back in the 50's. In conclusion,don't see it. If you want to see a boxing movie watch The fighter, Rocky, million dollar baby, never back down etc. To save your self from losing 1 & half hour of your life you will never get back, do not see this horrible thing called a movie.

i've just finished watching the movie and wanted to see how it was rated on IMDb. it seems people didn't like it very much, well, i did... i'm not terribly interested in boxing/ fighting movies as a rule. i don't usually watch them. still, this one caught my eye. the scenario has some clichés,the theme of becoming someone from no one has been used in hundreds of films, from Cinderella to Karate Kid.

but maybe the director didn't care very much about the scenario itself. it's not just another boxing movie, it's not about fighting in the ring, it's about fighting in life. i liked the atmosphere (smoky light, beautiful classic music), which is rather poetic and meditative, as if someone had tried to make a nice painting of a fighting scene.

I watched this twice and almost got off on it. I was very disappointed that Stacy Keach gave us such a weak boxing movie - I thought I recalled that he did one a lot better than this, but at least he kept his hands off the real star - Kelly Adams, grrr. Must be thousands of us who are in love with her!