Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Fulke Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

jasontheterrible Fuqua gives us the new stereo-type white male. He is weak, addicted to drugs, and talks like a black person. He can only be restored to strength by strong black males who have far superior survival skills and values. Gyllenhaal is such a great actor but even he cannot act out becoming a black man. Nothing rings true. Fuqua, like many far-left zealots, revel in the decline in white males and want them to be as pictured here. Many have become this stereo-type, which is why it exists, and while so many white males actually enjoyed this, and gave it a high rating. The negative reviews were a more precise description and obviously came from those still opposing this crest. They refuse to wear it and extol its virtues despite the reality it represents.

ossi-03306 I couldn't even bare to watch a full hour of the movie that is riddled with clichés that are so typical with fight movies. A street kid, orphan or someone else who had a rough childhood rises up to be a champion or a star or something else, only to gain millions of dollars, having everyone leech his money and end up losing it all. I mean how is it possible with every movie? I already lost hope when this movie started to repeat Rocky: A fight ends with a win. A contender opens his mouth immediately. It just seemed so stupid to come out of a winning fight only to have people pushing you to take the next one immediately. It's so stupid.When 50 cent came up on the screen and opened his mouth I lost all hope. That man is a bad actor. Period. Just horrible.It was just unbearable to watch because it repeats the same stuff that every other movie does.

zkonedog Despite the fact that boxing really hasn't been all that relevant for quite some time, boxing movies (or "fight movies" in general) are a favorite of mine. I count the "Rocky" series, "The Champ", "Real Steel", "The Fighter", and "Warrior" to be some of my favorite films of all-time. The reason? Boxing movies really aren't about boxing. They are about revealing character. There may not be a more straightforward sport: hit the other person repeatedly until him or you can't continue. Yet, it is through that ferocious simplicity that great character stories can be told and relationship examined. Sadly, "Southpaw" doesn't do nearly a good enough job with that character/relationship-building, instead just content to throw out all the old boxing clichés and hope they meld into something inspirational. They do not.For a basic plot summary, "Southpaw" tells the story of Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), a light- heavyweight champion at the top of his game. He has beaten all-comers, has a beautiful wife (Rachel McAdams), and a lovely daughter (Oona Laurence). The only problem? Billy can't walk away from any fight (in OR out of the ring) and it leads to a brawl in which a great tragedy befalls him and his family. Starting over basically from square one, Billy finds a new trainer in Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker) and begins to rebuild both his own life and that of his newly-shaped family.Despite my earlier praise for the "fight movie" genre, many of its movies do use rather predictable clichés when dealing with the actual boxing portion of the flicks. In "Southpaw", every single one of those clichés is used in order to try and create a large amount of drama. There is the riches-to-rags-and-back-again story, the grizzled old trainer with the odd methods, the fracturing of the family life due to a violent sport, and the corruption of the entire business. Heck, "Southpaw" even rips off the old "Rocky IV" sequence of having interspersed shots of two boxing training with different styles...this time just set to an Eminem rap tune instead of a score.Unfortunately, all those clichés do is cover up for the fact that the characters in this movie are not well-written or well-conceived whatsoever, and the plot adds absolutely nothing new to the genre. It is completely hollow once you look past the surface material. Sadder still, there really isn't even anything that I can point to as being really good about the film, besides perhaps the acting of Gyllenhaal (which itself is even "just okay" as there is no dramatic meat for him to work with). To be honest, a more accurate rating of this film for me would be 1.5 stars. I'll round it up to two stars because it at least as some coherency to it, but that is truly the only reason. Nothing else made me care about what I was seeing.I was very disappointed in "Southpaw", as (when I first saw its trailers a few months ago) I predicted it would be perhaps the best movie I've seen all year. Boy, was that ever a "punch to the gut" (pardon the pun). Instead, it ended up as one of the most bland, hollow movies I've seen in quite sometime. Unless you've never seen a fight movie in your life and want to catch up on the mechanics of how they work, "Southpaw" will likely underwhelm you to the point of boredom. It just doesn't have any dramatic substance.

bfsr81 The movie is good, actors performance is excellent, but we have already watched excellent and even better similar movies in the past. I think that Raging bull, Million dollar baby, Cinderella man, Rocky ...etc. are much better !! I also recommend the wrestler or warrior if we want to extend the genre. If you haven't watched previous movies you will enjoy this movie, otherwise you will just find a remake or recompilation of some of the scenes of the previous mentioned movies.