The Boxer (2009)

So much average

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Absolutely Fantastic

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

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!

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 just finish watching "The Boxer" and this movie had a lot of potential but being a "white collar" boxer myself, I just couldn't help noticing the mistakes they kept making in the film. The Movies starts of about a young man who just got out of prison and wants to start a new life. Now usually when a prisoner gets out of jail, they set him up with some info like where to stay like a boarding house or shelter, and usually the prisoner may have a few bucks put away from working in the jail. The guy on his first day out starts sleeping in Skid Row?! The young man starts to try to contact his mother via a phone call but she wants no part of him, which of course builds up the curiosity. The "Ben" character tries to find work but to no avail until he finds a "cleaner wanted" sign on a boxing gym door. Ben character goes into gym to inquire about job and meets the Gym Owner/Trainter character played by Great Veteran Actor Stacy Keetch. Mr. Keetch does a OK job explaining the old line of "boxing is 90% mental, 10% physical" quote. You can probably guess that they would execute that movie formula of "teacher never likes student at first but warms up to him" scenario. Eventually after much resistance from Ben not to learn to box, he caves in and takes lessons from the Keetch character. Now this is where the "hollywood magic" gets a bit hokey. The guy fights like 3 fights, and somehow Stacey gets him in a Light Heavyweight title match eliminator? In the "Real" world, he would have to get at least some amateur fights in, plus at least 20 or some professional fights to at least get in the position. But the director seems to want to rush the movie, that might work in CSI but not in boxing. By the way, there's a "bad guy" in this movie as well played very well by O'Shea Miles even though his boxing style didn't look very professional but he made up for it by his bad attitude. Oh, there's also a love interest (like always) and shes happens to be the girlfriend of ..guess what?...The bad guy! I don't want to give away to much on this movie, but I believe that even though boxing is considered the "poor mans" sport, doesn't mean it should get poor scripting. This could have work with better writing, more realistic buildup of the fighters skills and career. This was a poor, poor man's version of "Million Dollar Baby". shame.

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.