Found this film for $5.50 in a bin of hundreds of DVDs in Walmart who tried to get rid of them because they did not sell well. Never even heard of this film before. What a bargain find and what a surprise. By the cover you think that it is just another so so boxing film with a muscular stud on it. The big surprise was the excellent acting of the cast, the sensitive and deep script written by J.P. Davis and the top flight direction of Eddie O'Flaherty who managed to top off this film with only a $200,000 budget. Unfortunately this film was overlooked by the Academy and fell between the cracks since it did not have any big bankable commercial names in it. The soundtrack and photography was also top notch. Apparently there was not enough money left to include any kind of Bonuses or Subtitles on the DVD. As said by another reviewer, Hollywood should be waiting on the doorstep of J.P. Davis who still hasn't done much in films. Don't miss this film even if you are not a boxing fan, which I am not.Claudio von Fresin

Fighting Tommy Riley is simply one of the best Indie films I've seen. It had me glued to the screen within ten minutes. J.P. Davis is a multi-talented man. In addition to playing the title character, he wrote the screenplay and produced the movie as well. And he can act! On the surface he looks like an underwear model, like so many up and coming 20's actors, but this guy has a complete emotional vocabulary. Mainstream Hollywood should be at his doorstep. He completely inhabits Tommy Riley in a way that very few actors with the right "look" could ever hope to achieve. Casting veteran actor Eddie Jones was a coup. Jones meets Davis's intensity on every level and the two of them create a complicated and wonderful rapport. Jones, in fact, is heart breaking; a character that so often slumps into empty sentimentality is rendered with honest reality.The film is directed superbly. The story is told clearly and directly. The gay subtext of trainer lusting after fighter is handled frankly, sincerely and with a bittersweet truth. It exposes a sad case in our society, straight or gay, that older people are denied physical love at every level.This is a far more engrossing film than Hollywood hype favorites Cinderella Man and Million Dollar Baby. Director O'Flaherty has more talent in his pinkie than does Ron Howard and Clint Eastwood in their collective big buck bodies.

In theme and execution, Fighting Tommy Riley owes less to Rocky and more to Gods and Monsters. I know that there are many thematic differences between the two films, but there are enough similarities to call attention to them. In Riley, written by and starring J.P.Davis, once again an aging homosexual takes a straight, young uneducated hunk under his wing. Here, as in Monsters, the younger man is at first repulsed by his mentor's sexual predilections and then, through frustration, confusion and a feeling of responsibility, offers himself to the older man. Riley, a well meaning, if predictable film, even ends as Monsters does with the older man committing suicide and the younger man finding his way back to his girlfriend. One main difference between the two films is that Gods works on every level from start to finish, while Riley,though laced through with some touching moments and some good dialog, spends too much of its time revisiting the same boxing clichés we have seen forever.I would like to see more from J.P. Davis as a writer as there is certainly promise there. Fighting Tommy Riley is far from a bad movie. It's just not good enough to be able to recommend with no reservations.

What is it with Great White Hope stories? And why do so many of them have to be Irish? Fighting Tommy Riley was an attempt at a boxing film with heart. That was the first mistake. The second mistake was naming it "Fighting Tommy Riley". This whole subject is tired and hackneyed. The element of succeeding against odds is a worthy principle, but there must be a better way to do it instead of yet another "Irish" boxing story.The story is set in LA (I think) - how many Irish boxers are there here? Why couldn't the story have been about 'Fighting Juan Gonzalez' or 'Battling Hector Lopez'? At least then there would have been an element of authenticity. I guess it just doesn't have the same ring. So we're treated to an ahistorical account of Tommy Riley and his fabulous boxing skills with no accounting for his prowess or prominently displayed physique.After being found at a local gym by an agent and a washed up trainer and now high-school teacher with a penchant for quoting Melville, Tommy agrees to be trained by the rotund Marty. Why and how Marty is such an expert is glossed over yet Tommy accepts his wisdom and becomes his disciple. Unfortunately, it seems that Marty's weakness is not limited to self-discipline at the donut shop. His self-loathing is evident in the debris littered around his living room: empty Chinese food boxes, donut crumbs, sleeping pills...The film tries to create a bond between trainer and boxer, as all boxing films do. But Tommy has no past; at least, we don't get much insight into his past. And yet he seems troubled. He has a very attractive girlfriend, who occasionally deigns to reprimand him for "not opening up" and "not knowing where she stands." Poor Tommy grinds out his days on the loading dock and his nights at the gym. So Marty becomes the father figure, and a jealous one at that. But he does get Tommy some fights and victories.When Marty offers to cook for Tommy, you can sense that something is not quite right in his intentions. This is fairly early in the film, yet I found myself wishing the inevitable would not happen. Marty's "protective" instincts for Tommy lead them to an isolated cabin in the woods for a week-long training session. Ah yes, father and son, bonding in the woods: sparring, shadow boxing, rubdowns, quivering hands, and... The ride back to LA is quiet.Tommy's wins in the ring attract the attention of a promoter with self-aggrandizing intentions (as usual). But he can get Tommy a title shot. On the condition that Marty is removed from the picture. The wholesome and principled Tommy will indignantly have none of that, but after a ride in a limo with his chick, the writing is on the wall. Marty slumps home to beat himself up and hit the bottle. Of sleeping pills.Ultimately Marty's sacrifice was for Tommy's gain, a not-unmoving theme. But for weak dialog and one-dimensional characters, "Tommy Riley" might have had a shot. For me, the boxing film (Irish or not)needs to be grittier, the way Rocky Balboa started out in a Philadelphia Catholic hall. Otherwise, the whole theme can hung up like a pair of worn-out Everlast gloves.