The Challenger

I noticed Justin Hartley's name in the credits, so the first 5 minutes of the film I thought I was seeing Hartley on the screen. Then when there was more light in the next scene, I thought this actor "can't be" Justin Hartley, and I wondered why does he look so similar?! The film's protagonist is actually Kent Moran, who's several years younger than Hartley and has a similar hair color, hairline, hair style, eye color, face shape, chin cleft, and body type as Justin Hartley. It was like watching Sylvester Stallone fight Frank Stallone in a Rocky movie. Other than the film's main characters looking so similar, the movie was decent. It depicts a black woman who adopted a white son, and that's something you don't see every day.

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.

Possibly the best part of this movie was the fact that Michael Clarke Duncan starred in it, three years after his death. The movie does showcase what a good man we lost.

Duncan plays a coach who sees potential in a poor kid from the Bronx who tries to fight his way out of his stereotypical life story.

Unfortunately, the timing of this movie stinks. Despite the fact that it was most likely made first, it's released after the far better South Paw, makes me think of it as a low budget South Paw.

What does set it apart from other boxing films is it's commentary on where boxing is today and what can be done to fix it, namely a Cable station wants to exploit the challenger with a reality show that leads up to his fight with the current heavy weight champ as to way to bring back the Heavy Weights that have been long gone since Tyson/Holyfeild.

The challenger has a lot to its story without being too overwhelming. Although the actors were not that convincing for me as even light Heavyweights, they all worked together well to give an emotional heart filled story.

The Best part of the boxing scenes is the advice the coaches would give the athletes in-between rounds. The focus on this, especially with Duncan's character is what the challenger brings to the table.

Not the best boxing movie I've seen but it works for me. R.I.P Michael Clarke Duncan.

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.

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.