Mjeteconer Just perfect...
Beanbioca As Good As It Gets
FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
tdg41988 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.
A_Different_Drummer When Stallone did Rocky I, you would think from the hype at the time that he invented the boxing film.No he did not. He re-invented it. Boxing films have been around forever and the first rule of a good boxing film is to connect with the audience by allowing them to "grow" with the protagonist, to improve from fight to fight.And that was the first rule the producers broke.Given the minimal amount of screen time alloted to the "early" fights for the protagonist/hero (in some cases just 2 seconds per fight) you may have thought that these were real cable fights where the producers did not have the rights to rebroadcast. But no this is a fiction film and they could have made those fights real. They did not.Frankly, once you break that key rule, once you have no connection between star and viewer, there is no turning back.But, almost out of perversity, the producers broke another rule and that amazes me. They cast two actors who look alike for both roles in the ring, hero and villain.So, and I cannot emphasize the bizarreness of this enough, not only does the audience have no connection with the hero in the final fight, but sometimes you can't tell which actor is playing which role.And the final rule? Good choreography in the fights. The audience should feel every punch. Here the audience only feels cheated.A rarity. A boxing film that, like a bad boxer, starts out weak. And then just gets weaker.Of course, the fact that the film is a "vanity" film -- the same guy is the writer director and star -- may be a factor. But what do I know -- I am just a reviewer.Terrible film.
David Damato First and foremost, I am not a critic nor pretend to be one; but I was simply moved with the viewing of The Challenger today. This small independent film exceeded my expectations. What really impressed me the most about Kent Moran's directorial debut feature film was his approach to subject matter, casting and how he utilized the limited resources for the telling of the story. It breathed with an air of sincerity, which is rarely seen these days. Yes, it was rather predicable at times and melodramatic - but that's what movies are made of. Hollywood has been dazzling and manipulating our senses for God knows how long. Remember ROCKY ? However, The Challenger is unusually different among it's former colleagues.What really sets this movie apart for me; was the fact that it was very innovative in style and not so conventional as others. For instance, take the sequence of the final bout. It was not your typical in your face adrenaline shots, most commonly used. It was choreographed in a dream-like state of fragmented movement. And furthermore, the choice of music during the fight scene was impeccably complimentary. Also, let's consider the interesting angular character development which was achieved in the film's short running time.As far as Kent, Cast and Crew goes - I commend them all for their splendid work. My only regret is that Michael Clarke Duncan did not see this theatrical release. His performance along with S. Epatha Merkerson were the heart and soul of this marvelous story.Oh, by the way - Who the hell was that 2nd Unit Director?Somebody Give That Man A Job!
Eric Slick 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.
