12 Round Gun

The movie is enjoyable but has its flaws. First the son Tommy "Gun" was a character in Rocky 5. Stallone tried to mentor Tommy Gunn. Do some research people. And a alcoholic , homeless fighter who hasn't fought in 20 years no way possible could be or get in the shape he was in a months time.

Sam Upton has not been on my radar until I saw this. Great performance, good directing, camera work, writing, and acting (for the most part.) Great freshen full-length film debut.

While this movie has problems, they are not really acting problems. But one can see that the script is amateurish, as is the filming. The movie drags the main character's shiftless alcoholism on too long. His son, Tommy, is vaunted as a boxing prospect, but apparently has never seen a punch he could not stop with his face. Actually, the boxing scenes in this movie are the worst I have ever seen. Clearly trying to emulate the Rocky films, the fights look almost prissy and idiotic. The repeated shot of a glove impacting the side a a boxer's face is done over and over again, each time worse and worse. Then the film ends abruptly, giving us no pay-off for hanging in through all this dreck!

The lead actor, is unrecognisable Sam Upton, who also wrote the script and directed. Now this is a low budget movie, with a script that needed improvement. The whole cast is okay, although Mark Boone Junior could have done a little better, being the good actor he is. But then again the script, what can an actor do when the script is below par. And the budget was so low that some scenes suffered and made the movie less believable. Anyway, the lead is amazing. He really carries the whole movie, and is really the only one, besides some guys who beat him up, who is completely believable. He really did a tour de force. Jared Abrahamson did a descent job (as did Cassi Thomson, who plays his wife), and also was convincing, especially in the end. In other words this movie has some memorable scenes, it's about pain, and it does capture that. But it's not really clear in what it wants to say. But perhaps that does not matter, perhaps that could even be it's strength. A 6 for effort and the two lead actors.

Watched it because it was trending on Netflix. I like boxing movies but this wasn't close. Maybe I have high standards but the fight scenes couldn't save this movie to make up for the long drawn out drunk dad story. Not worth watching.