Could of been a contender!

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2009)

This movie came out almost 30 years after Rocky(1976) and yet THIS movie was almost like watching Rocky all over again! The Max Baer character was Mr. T and even did the Mr. T "why don't you come over to my apartment and I'll show you a real man" bit when they were in that fancy restaurant and he insulted Braddocks wife! C'mon! You know that did not happen back then! That was inserted by Ron Howard! And the turtles that Rocky had..Cuff and Link..remember those? And CM also had turtles! The down on his luck fighter who caught a big break and ended up winning a fight he had no business winning? I was really into this movie until the last 30 minutes when they made Max Baer look like a Mr. T clone! I wanted to really like the movie and it really painted a great picture of a man trying to keep his family together in really tough times. But the last 30 minutes ruined it. Too many similarities too Rocky even though this movie was supposed to be about a fighter from the 1930's! Another case of Hollywood recreating history as it DID NOT happen! It could of been a real winner if they had just kept it real. Go rent Champion(1949) starring Kirk Douglas. Thanks Ron Howard!