Shadowboxer is certainly a movie that left me scratching my head, and not in a good way either. The performances aren't the problem, it's the surrealism of the script. I really had a lot of problems getting into this one, and just a lot of weird stuff, in fact too weird happened for my liking. The sex scenes between Cuba and Helen Mirren are not only disgusting to witness, but didn't plant many pleasant visuals in my head either. Mirren and Gooding are above this kind of stuff, but some how they are both game for this movie. There isn't much action to go around, and I honestly felt the story to be rather dull in my opinion. I really don't get why Cuba is floundering in obscurity with these DTV efforts. He's done some decent ones, but his talent level is so above this. The title certainly doesn't live it up to it, because aside from Cuba's playful boxing in the shadows, boxing has nothing to do with this movie.Performances. Cuba Gooding Jr is effective that's for sure. His intensity and quite demeanor served him well, but I wish he was in a better movie. Helen Mirren is classy and excellent in her role here. She could have easily phoned it in, but didn't do that. Her chemistry with Cuba was great. Stephhen Dorff is a good baddie, but his role is sadly underdeveloped. Vanessa Ferlito is OK, but her accent does the talking, aside from a few decent scenes. Joseph Gordon-Levitt isn't yet famous like he is now, and didn't really have a whole lot to do here. Mo'Nique is OK, nothing more.Bottom line. If you can figure out this movie, be my guest and check it out. It wasn't for me though, and it's not something I care to revisit again.4 1/2 10

"Shadowboxer" is a strange movie, perhaps one of the strangest I've seen, and although it doesn't quite work it's still worth watching if you want to see a filmmaker take huge risks, fail, but still succeed at making something...unique. It's the kind of movie that's best to watch late at night, falling asleep. In that dreary state its numerous quirks and idiosyncrasies may make more sense, may seem connected, while enriched by your imagination.Like many Lynch or Jarmusch films it's a genre piece with a hand-made feel, which adds a certain surreal quality to it. It stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as slave/lover to his stepmom, played by Helen Mirren. She's a super assassin, and so is he. They get hired by lunatic crime boss Stephen Dorff to knock off his wife for him, but when Mirren (who's dying of Movie Cancer) sees that the wife (Vanessa Ferlito) is pregnant, she takes mercy. Her, Gooding and Ferlito run off together, forming a strange family unit, while Dorff goes on for years believing the job's been done.The bulk of the movie takes place in the house shared by Mirren, Gooding, Ferlito and eventually her newborn son. Fuelled primarily by Mirren's desire for some sort of redemption they're forced to bond, and bond they do, although the characters are so underwritten the movie is forced to rely on the personalities of its actors to make up for it. This works to various degrees...Gooding ultimately comes off the best, he's far too good-natured to play a badass, but that's sort of the point.Mostly the movie is about people constrained by their own horrifying natures. Greed, lust and hatred are the overwhelming emotions, although as the family unit progresses they're slowly joined by loyalty, tenderness and even, sort of, love. Gooding finds an unexpected companion in Ferlito's son and Mirren squeezes some real feeling into the tail end of a life that seems bereft of it. Dorff is his own worst victim, as is made clear when he meets his son for the first time.And everything - even the deepest recesses of Gooding's quiet character - is made clear by the end, but to very little effect. The movie is not convincing enough for us to believe wholeheartedly in this new family, but occasionally an idea or a feeling will seep through and find us. Director Lee Daniels, who's said his heroes are Jon Waters and Pedro Almodovor, should direct more to his tastes rather than the hip hop/martial arts implications of the movie's title. As a thriller, this film is limp.But as a drama, it could've worked.6/10

I did not find this, as some reviewers here suggest, a really bad movie. It has its redeeming features. But in the end I found myself frustrated and disappointed. It could have been so much better.The plot is an interesting one, and maybe one day a really good film will be based on a similar plot. I try not to include spoilers, so I'll say no more than the trailer does: Gooding and Mirren are professional killers who are faced with a dilemma when they are contracted to kill a crime boss's wife (Ferlito) who they discover is pregnant. The ramifications of their choice changes their lives. But though the film was billed as a thriller, there was little suspense, except in the final act, and the choices made by the three central characters, though necessary for the plot, simply didn't work. I could find no believable basis in the characters themselves for their actions. I'm sure you can explain their actions if you try, but for me it only works if you suspend your belief in the characters and admit "well, I guess that's the plot, so that's why they did it". The cinematography is striking, but the script, unfortunately, is pedestrian, one-paced, and cliché-ridden. Given the one-dimensional nature of the characters, the cast, Gooding and Mirren in particular, deserve significant praise for making much more of their roles than the material offers. If you are tempted to watch this for Helen Mirren, however, you'd do much better to pick one of the 'Prime Suspect' films off the shelf.Much is made in the film's publicity of the unusual relationships between the central characters, but they are barely explored and still less explained, simply taken for granted and illustrated in a few dramatically shot scenes.Given the plot, I didn't find the violence or the occasional nudity gratuitous. By its own standards, the film works: it's a good story (if somewhat unbelievable at times). I just wish the standards had been a little higher.

As another reviewer stated, this movie does break rules. But is that enough? And through all the rule-breaking, there still is a core/central storyline that does seem familiar, to say the least. OK so some people will/might be offended by the sexual nature of the movie and or maybe by the violence. Although the latter isn't quite as brutal as some other movie efforts, you might have seen. Why is this special then compared to those movies? The cast plays into that. Who would've imagined, Cuba Gooding Jr., Stephen Dorff and Helen Mirren (although only the latter is a real surprise here). A nice little movie, but apart from the obvious scenes that try to provoke a reaction (especially in America and the moral standards, that are implied by some), this isn't really a movie that I would call a classic! I thought it was OK, but it won't shake up your world ...