The Boxer (2009)

To me, this movie is perfection.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

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.

Movies this thin on story can sometimes work if they care deeply about the theme they revolve around, and portray it in an exciting way. In this case it was the world of boxing and The Boxer falls hopelessly short. *Spoiler* A kid with no experience at all undergoes a quick karate kid training montage and is able to skip the amateur boxing circuit, go straight into the professional fight game and get a world title shot, without ever having sparred. Seems anyone can become a world champion athlete these days if they train for a couple weeks.Choreography is weak with boring camera work and untrained boxers. The film is riddled with the familiar including the pantomime villain, tired coach, reluctant fighter with checkered past (see From Here To Eternity) and aforementioned use of training montage. The Boxer adds nothing new to the genre and executes its clichéd and predictable plot lazily. 2/10

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.