 |
| Jake Gyllenhaal and Curtis Jackson (r) stars in Southpaw |
The Great White Dope
IMDb Plot: A boxer (Jake Gyllenhaal) fights his way to the top, only to find his life falling apart around him. Directed by Antoine Fuqua.
"From an orphanage in Hell's Kitchen" to Light Heavyweight champion of the world. Sounds like a fairy tale; but Southpaw is just another Rocky retread, without an ounce of originality. Boxing's dead (Mayweather-Pacquiao notwithstanding) but Fuqua appears hell-bent on faking its relevance, filling the big screen with every cliché ever invented (including Forest Whitaker's Members Only jacket.) Gyllenhaal gives it his all (Jake's straight-up talented) but Fuqua and screenwriters Kurt Sutter & Richard Wenk give him nothing to work with. One can only hope this is the last boxing movie for a long, long time: This one didn't fool anybody.
Grade: D
