Southpaw (Blu-ray)

My review is more a 3.5 than it is a 3Thanks for reading![THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS]Southpaw is a 2015 American sports drama film directed by Antoine Fuqua, written by Kurt Sutter and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker and Rachel McAdams. The film follows a boxer who sets out to get his life back on track after losing his wife in an accident and his young daughter to protective services.The start this review with one of these films’ strongpoints: Jake Gyllenhaal's ‘Billy’) performance. Gyllenhaal is noted to me as a master of demanding emotional immersion, and this role was of no exception. There's no guessing as to how he feels in specific scenes as the story develops because it is written in even the smallest details - like the way his eyebrows move - on his face. His body language is equally matched, and is never unnecessarily exaggerated. There is a gravity that develops around his character that is heart-wrenching and desires a higher-than-usual amount of connection from the audience that other actors may not be able to conjure with such consistency.[MAJOR SPOILERS START HERE]I have a few complaints about this movie in regards to it storytelling elements, and the one I have the biggest problem with is its pacing. Billy’s wife, Maureen (McAdams), Is shown a contract regarding fights he may be scheduled for in the future if he signs it and she refuses it out right. Billy is challenged to a match by a rookie fighter (Which,Billy doesn’t entertain as worthwhile). Maureen is shot and killed at a charity event this challenger just happens to be at (whom Billy gets into an altercation with). Billy starts to lose his possessions and run out of a steady flow of income.. Billy is reminded of this contract as a way to “fix” his financial situation (He refuses, again). Billy crashes his car and is presumed to be intoxicated. His child is taken into custody by CPS. He joins the gym with the intention of having a job and training for fights at the same time. He is denied twice the privilege of having custody of his daughter granted or having his visitation restrictions lifted. He's offered the opportunity to fight the same man that was suspiciously present when his wife got killed. He asks for help training for this event from the Gym owner: Tick (Whitaker). Tick refuses. An important character in Tick’s life dies. Tick changes his mind and agrees to train Billy.…..Sorry to put so many spoilers in a row because I absolutely usually try to avoid that, but I feel like I had to to illustrate this point. This film seems so interested in getting from point A to point B that the chaos is almost used as a replacement for character development that would have been appropriate given the circumstances. Other people may not agree, but this is not a scenario in which melodramatics help the film move in a way that is seamless.This is sort of related to the point I've already made, but the dialogue also suffered from this need to be emotionally heavy at all times. More specifically, the dialogue is unusually snippy and doesn't always match the tone of the scene we are watching or it changes the tone in a way that doesn't feel natural. The clearest example of this Is when Billy is visiting his daughter (supervised) and she (Leila) is told she is not allowed to come watch Billy fight due to expectations her mother had previously put in place. Leila Is understandably upset at this news, but she starts saying things like “You should have been the one that was killed, not mom!” with no suggestion in the first place that she has this much anger harbored towards him. Other audience members may argue that this is a result of complex emotions the characters are attempting to make sense of, but because we don’t get any Insight regarding this process I'm just not able to give the director the benefit of the doubt.[SPOILERS END HERE]Storytelling and content wise (Because, I will say, this is a good story) I would give this film a 3. My bias and love for Gyllenhaal's presence bumps it up to a 3.5:I would recommend it! (At least once!)

A pretty decent movie, another good performance by Jake Gyllenhaal, worth watching if you enjoy boxing movies!

Everything from the storyline to the acting is phenomenal

Great movie.

I love you

Southpaw is a Boxing Drama film directed by Antoine Fuqua & written by Kurt Sutter , Starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Billy Hope , Rachel McAdams as his wife Maureen , Ooona Laurence as their Daughter Leila , Billy Hope is the reigning middle weight champion of the world who has it all with an impressive carer , a great wife , lovely daughter , money , house & car living a great life style till his wife is accidently shot , B . Hope begins abusing alcohol & drugs, attacking a referee out of frustration after loosing a fight gets suspended and driving while intoxicating crashing his car into a tree which also causes him to loose custody of his daughter who's under child protective services and his long time manager & friend Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson leaves him , All This makes Billy change his ways & sober up , gets a job in one of the cities toughest run down gym as a cleaner owned by seasoned retired boxer Titus "Tick" Will Forest Whitaker and eventually convinces him to become his trainer for a main event tittle against Miguel Gomez as Miguel "Magic: Escobar with some really good fighting sequences and great Boxers like Roy Jones Jnr & Victor Ortiz , commentators Jim Lampley and Referee Tony Weeks , ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jnr .I'm a Boxing fan and watch almost all main events also like Antoine Fuqua's films and Southpaw is a bit depressing and realistic when you're on top of the world only to loose it all overnight , ( J. Gyllenhaal ) Billy Hope playing the part as a punch drunk and bad tempered Boxer till he changes his ways for the better looking pretty fit with some really great Boxing action especially towards the end against ( M. Gomez ) as Miguel "Magic" Escobar with an awesome picture & great sound Approx. 124 minutes long , A region locked .

Worth the admission!

Had never heard of this movie, glad to have streamed it. Excellent cast, story, feel good.

Llego antes de lo esperado y perfectas condiciones.

Buen producto entrega rápida y excelente película

Ich hab mir den Film gekauft, aber nicht realisiert das der auf englisch ist da der ein UK Import ist 😂Naja ich kann ja englisch also alles halb wild, nur sollte man alles zu erst richtig lesen.

Firstly, a quick review of the movie followed by a slightly more in-depth review of the Blu-ray itself.I've always been a fan of boxing movies and I know they usually adhere to the same tropes; boxer is successful/tastes success, something tragic happens then comes back stronger, or underdog upsets the odds etc. Rocky did it, Cinderella Man and Ali did it (although the latter two movies are true stories). It's a tried and tested formula.As a boxing fan, and admirer of those brave enough and selfless enough to get in the ring to risk their lives for fame, money, glory and/or the betterment of their own or their loved one's lives, these tropes hold an echo/reflection of truth to many a famous (and not so famous) boxer's life story.Southpaw's plot is by no means breaking any new ground in the world of boxing movies, however it is well done. The acting is extremely solid, cinematography is great, and the fight choreography is absolutely superb. Character development is pretty decent, and I definitely found myself caring about Jake Gyllenhaal's Billy Hope, however what I felt was particularly strong was the development of his relationship with his daughter (the young actress was especially good). I will say no more to avoid spoilers.The Blu-ray transfer was lovely, details are sharp and precise with crisp and vibrant colours, although some scenes looked cold I feel this was a deliberate choice when you take the circumstances of those scenes into consideration. The sound quality was robust and impressive through my Yamaha YAS-105 sound bar, I suspect it would be even more impressive if I had a sound system that took full advantage of the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack.Extras were sparse which is a shame, but that's par for the course nowadays with physical formats.I paid just over £4 for this Blu-ray, I was going to rent it digitally but at that price I decided to impulse buy it and with Amazon Prime providing next day delivery it was an absolute steal. Well worth a punt if you enjoy boxing movies and/or Jake Gyllenhaal.

Always meant to pick up this movie as I loved it when I saw it. Ordered it to let my teenage nephew see it after we watched Creed. I would say Southpaw is one of the best fighting movies ever made. Arrived within a few days, in brand new condition as advertised.