In this corner the champ "Rocky III". In this corner, the inadvertent remake "Southpaw". Gentlemen, keep the blows low and the fight dirty. BEGIN!Round 1: Main character name. The champ comes out swinging with the titular title character "Rocky" invoking a time, place and ethnicity. The laughably bland main character name in "South" - Billy "The Great" Hope - sounds the writers were trying to come up with some intriguing name but eventually principal filming needed to start and they couldn't answer the question "The Great" what? Did they mean he is the Great Hope? But not the Great White Hope with it implicit kinda racist overtones? Anyway, few real boxer nicknames and no movie boxer nicknames can stand again the memorability of the "Italian Stallion". And the challenger is down and the fight end early!Round 2: the kid: The challenger avoids the early knockout with Oona (that's a name?) Laurence's portrayal of Billy the Goat...er Great's daughter who is traumatized by the shooting death of her mother and Billy's incompetent parenting. While Laurence winds up just shouting at the televised climatic fight much like Ian Fried's Rocky, Jr. does, at least she has a character arc and some dramatic moment. Looks like the fight is on.Round 3: the death that pushes the champion into a downward spiral: and we got ourselves a battle! We had 2 fully "Rocky" movies to come to know Burgess Meredith's Mickey Goldmill so his heart attack before the first Clubber Lang fight is affecting. However, given how much Billy and Leila rely on Maureen to parent them both, her shooting by Miguel Escobar's squad equals the pathos of Mickey's death.Round 4: the baddie: Oh, and the champion comes back hard! The monster of 80's cheese Mr. T. somehow projects both a menacing and ludicrous screen presence. He plays the hungry, scrappy underdog that Rocky was before his Ferrari and house robot made him soft. Miguel "Magic" Escobar amounts to little more than off-the-shelf disrespectful thug with little to distinguish him from his crew.Round 5: the savior trainer: But the challenger isn't done yet! The excellent Forest Whitaker plays the also unfortunately named Tick Willis (seriously, who came up with these character names?) He is kind to street kids and who takes on Billy when he is at his lowest point despite Billy treating him like crap and he is some kind of boxing training savant (his expertise is never explained). While the round goes to "Southpaw", Carl Weathers Apollo Creed (see, that's a great character name) is a mostly one note Rocky support system for Rocky but his physical attractiveness and easy smile makes his a highly engaging actor to watch on film.Round 6: the big fight: And the challenger is against the ropes! The eventual Escobar Vs. Hope or "Magic" Vs. "The Great" battle excels at verisimilitude and therefore not so much at drama. An open Hollywood secret director Antoine Fuqua missed in film school is that while audiences complain about the lack of realism in movie boxing matches, they actually want them to include dozens of uncontested punches per round. Balboa Vs. Lang includes enough haymakers to give both men CTE before the ring girl strutted around the ring with the "4" card. When Jim Lampley's monolouging during the climatic Miguel / Hope showdown is the most interesting part of the proceedings, your fight staging is a little too accurate.And the challenger is out! There won't be no rematch or a "Southpaw" sequel for that matter. The plodding, overly serious, staging of a story that's been done better multiple times before unfortunately wastes Gyllenhaal's impressive physical transformation. In short, "Rocky!", "Rocky!", Rocky!"

I like boxing movies. I'm almost a sucker for them. Cinderella Man, Rocky 3, Creed, and on and on. I do like the hardworking underdog/redemption story theme, and a well-choreographed match.And these fight sequences are okay, plus Gyllenhaal clearly got in shape for them.BUT he SO overacts, and the character is SO obnoxious, that it just isn't that fun to watch.Whether scripted or not, you feel like Gyllenhaal is ad-libbing a constant patter of nonsense babble in many scenes. We're supposed to care a lot that he loses his great wife, and his daughter is taken away from him. But BOTH happen because HE DOES NOT LISTEN, and he never really confronts that killing flaw.Even in the courtroom scene, when the judge is informing him what's going to happen, Gyllenhaal (I can't feel it's the character) is mugging and clowning and yapping at his daughter across the room, clearly not taking the trial or the judge seriously -- and so, predictably, when the sentence is finished, he says "What?" Yeah, Enstein: what she said while you were acting like a dimwitted toddler.What arc there is feels jerky and lacks credibility. He's an idiot, he's an idiot, he's an idiot...oh, okay, now he's really going to train for this fight. Well, great, so I guess everything's all fixed now. And if he can beat that other fighter, he'll be a fit father. Great.It left me more irritated than entertained, and not in any good way.I gave it a 5 because the fight sequences are decent, and the little girl who plays the daughter (Oona Laurence) is one of the more consistent, empathy-provoking characters.

I couldn't even bare to watch a full hour of the movie that is riddled with clichés that are so typical with fight movies. A street kid, orphan or someone else who had a rough childhood rises up to be a champion or a star or something else, only to gain millions of dollars, having everyone leech his money and end up losing it all. I mean how is it possible with every movie? I already lost hope when this movie started to repeat Rocky: A fight ends with a win. A contender opens his mouth immediately. It just seemed so stupid to come out of a winning fight only to have people pushing you to take the next one immediately. It's so stupid.When 50 cent came up on the screen and opened his mouth I lost all hope. That man is a bad actor. Period. Just horrible.It was just unbearable to watch because it repeats the same stuff that every other movie does.

All Billy Hope knew was how to fight inside of the ring but he was never prepared to take life's greatest punches in Kurt Sutter's Southpaw. As a young boy, Billy Hope is in the child protective service and gets into many fights. He doesn't have anyone to teach him how to take life's greatest punches. Until he meets his wife Maureen in the child protective service. She opens up a new door in his life and helps keep him in check.Southpaw begins with Billy Hope fighting recklessly in a match. He comes out bloody and beaten up. Maureen tells him to stop fighting recklessly otherwise he won't be around for her and their daughter. Billy's life takes a drastic turn when he lets his quick temper get in the way and he gets into a fight during a press conference with a newcomer who wants to challenge him. The fight ends in gunfire and Maureen is shot in the stomach. She dies before the ambulance is able to reach her, leaving Billy devastated. The one thing that was stable in his life is now gone, all because he lost his temper during a press conference. His actions become suicidal and his daughter Leila is taken away from him by child protection services. When the last remaining person that he loves is taken way from him, for the first time, Billy becomes determined to change himself for someone in order to get them back. After seeking a new trainer to help him train for an upcoming fight, Billy's entire character changes from cocky and not wanting to follow directions to wanting to follow the rules to get his daughter as soon as possible. He looks to the new trainer with admiration and realizes that Maureen would've liked the new trainer because they both care for his well being.Billy slowly becomes more responsible by maintaining his job and focusing on getting his daughter back. When Billy is called back to the court to determine if he can have his daughter back, the judge demos him not stable enough to get her back. After finding out that she has to stay another month in child services, Billy's daughter wishes that he were the one dead, not her mom. Billy is more determined than ever to win the boxing championship. This time it is not for the money, but for his daughter. His determination to get his daughter back is relatable because that is what I would do in Billy's situation. Come the day of the match, Billy fights responsibly and not with his anger. To end the fight, his trainer tells him to use a Southpaw. When his opponent is knocked out, Billy finally gets his daughter back. Proving to himself that he does have the skill to take life's greatest punches. This movie is a great example of perseverance and grit. I love how realistic the training and fighting scenes are. The characters are very relatable and the viewer is able to connect with the characters and experience the emotions that they are feeling. It's a good reminder that everyone, no mater the age and skill always has to work their way to the top in order to achieve what they want.