The Age of Commercialism

Load of rubbish!!

Fresh and Exciting

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I guess it's an Indy film. It didn't seem cheap. The acting, filming and all that seemed fine. The story was very very lame. A boy is in a pitiful sad life because of too much fighting at school even though he was destined for more. He apparently got into all these fight for good reasons because he has absolutely no rage issues whatever. He's just a sweet, kind, Mama's boy who only wants to take care of his sick mother. He starts boxing and for no reason and barely any time to practice, he's just an incredible boxer. A few motivational words from his new boxing coach whom has a much bigger back story relevant to his life and wow, he's a champion. Geez, I should just go off and be the next ultimate fighter champion. I just have to want it bad enough and no problem, I'll beat all those people for no apparent reason, it's just that easy.

This movie was pretty painful to watch. There is nothing innovative about it. I'm not a critic per say, I've just seen a lot of boxing movies. This is really a combination of every boxing movie all crammed into one poorly executed mess. If you know anything about boxing, you know that the movie doesn't even try to be believable. The boxing itself was pretty bad. The lines were predictable and trite.First of all, no one goes pro, and gets a title shot in 6 months. That's not even enough time to even have an amateur career. Guys train for years just to turn pro. I mean, I realize it's a movie, but give me break.Overall it was really quite bad, and not worthy of Michael Clarke Duncan. If you were trying to make a parody of all the boxing movies, this would be it.

This movie despite some of the bad reviews and press it's gotten is an exceptionally well made film with a good cast that played their roles well. They had a low budget and a limited amount of time to get this movie done but the movie doesn't show that side to it at all, it had gripping moments that made you edge closer out of your seat. Everyone loves an underdog and this movie was all about the underdog, yet it showed with hard work anything is possible, it's an inspirational movie, the story was great, something you see less of day in and day out, no fancy film effects, just brilliant camera-work, excellent choreography that made everything so realistic, so believable. Everything in this movie had a purpose, everything was for a reason, nothing makes you sit there and think "Why was that there?" everything in your mind has a purpose for the movie, it builds the characters, there were no wasted scenes here. I think with a bigger budget and more time, this movie could have added a lot more, and really shown the world an even more in depth character that would make you wish the movie went on longer than it did.For me, I would highly recommend this movie to anyone, a lot of bad movies have been released lately, and it was nice to see something true to the art come from The Challenger. This movie for me was perfect for what it was, I'm not a critic and I don't rate every movie I ever watch and critique it, but I have taste, and I have a mind that can tell the truth from the bull, and this movie was truthfully refreshing.

It's an Indy film, with a very limited budget and a very limited time. And yet, it shows very little of that in the movie. The cast and crew made a film that's fun, engaging and ultimately well worth the time.The cinematography was excellent. The sound and music great. The fight choreography was solid, exciting and believable. The acting was almost uniformly top notch.The way it was filmed, the choices made, like the laundry mat guy watching TV somehow enhanced the movie in subtle and engaging ways. It's not a perfect movie. The believability for the main story line was thin and the film suffers from some missing pieces. But ultimately, I didn't care and it didn't bother me. I would have liked to see the main character getting kicked out of schools for fighting...it would have established his character and helped to build up some plausibility for later when we had to buy into the idea that he was a natural fighter who progressed so rapidly, that he got to the light heavy weight championship in less than an year.I think the story suffered from too much ambition, but the editing and the choices made helped keep this a solid film with a lot of entertainment value.The mother was amazing. She needed a bigger piece of the movie. There are pieces of the movie that you at first go, "hunh?" but are explained later. It should have been more satisfying when the revelations came in, but that, I think, was a victim of the budget and time. Remember, this is an Indy film. It's done on an extremely limited budget.So, the bottom line for me was that I expected to seem more "warts" in the film. Instead, I saw a well crafted, well edited, well filmed movie that I thoroughly enjoyed.I highly recommend it as it being of better quality than most of what's been in the theaters this year.disclaimer: I'm related to someone who worked on the film, so I'm probably not completely objective here. I'm also not a movie critic. If I enjoy a movie, I give it high marks. In this movie's case, I gave it a 9 because I walked out very happy I'd seen it. At no point in the movie did I fail to stay engaged in it. I took 1 off for the issues I mentioned above. They were too minor in my eyes.