SOUTHPAW

If all this looks quite familiar, if it seems like we’ve been here before - a boxer who has it all, falling from grace and having family troubles etc then you might just have seen a boxing movie at some point in your life. It’s sad to see a film with such impressive performances squander them by showing lack of effort.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance as Billy Hope is impressive (although perhaps not quite as impressive as the actor’s physical transformation) as is that of Forest Whitaker (who sadly does not bulk up) and the two spark off each other well with Gyllenhall’s drunken, embittered fighter against Whitaker's calmer, sober trainer.

The acting, sadly, is not all above board; Curtis Jackson (aka Fifty Cent) gives a bland performance as fighter promoter Jordan Mains. To be fair to Mister Cent this is not entirely his fault as the character is pretty bland and pointless to the overall story and really just feels like a second rate Don King. The real overarching problem with Southpaw is that it feels like a patchwork of clichés stitched together into a story. Now clichés are not in themselves all bad and the film uses the material that it has effectively with the final fight being very well shot and not coming off as a copy of Rocky or Raging Bull.

It’s just that given the aforementioned performances I wish they could have done something a bit more original; give the actors something to really get their teeth into (with the exception of Fifty). At the end of the day Southpaw is a solid entertaining film that holds your attention and gets you invested in the character, it just feels like it had the potential to be more

FINAL VERDICT 6/10 it goes to points rather than being a knockout but it’s still standing at the bell

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Unknown 16:29  No comment

TERMINATOR GENISYS

The Terminator is one of the most iconic characters in cinema, in both of his manifestations as cold killer and protector he remains easily on the most recognisable character to pay homage to and parody. And sadly it is parody that this latest offering seems closest to, with a Terminator nicknamed ‘Pops’ (even Arnie can’t make a nickname like that anything but laughable). Things actually start out rather promisingly with Kyle Resse (Jai Courtney) fighting the machines in the future along with saviour of humanity John Conner (Jason Clarke). The film then does something interesting by going into the past and re-enacting some of the famous scenes from the original classics, these are some of the film’s best and most innovate scenes, although, as we shall see, reminding people of the original classics might not be the best idea. The overriding problem with this film is that the plot is a total mess, plotlines go nowhere and others - that frankly no one could care less about - are given bizarrely large amounts of attention. First among these is a dull and plodding romance between Kyle and Sarah Conner (Emilia Clarke) - since when did the Terminator movies need to be so convoluted? Aren’t these supposed to be action movies? Now this is not to say that there are not some good action scenes, one car chase involving a school bus in particular is quite good. Overall though for an action film there is far too much talking and brooding and not nearly enough well……action! There are two more films planned in this new revamped series so time will tell if the true Terminator ….will be back (sorry couldn’t resist) FINAL VERDICT 4/10 A lacklustre use of an iconic character.

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Unknown 22:53  No comment