Personally, I don't see why all the hype

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2005)

When I see a movie, I guess I am always secretly hoping for my expectations to be exceeded, so some movies are in a little bit of trouble to begin with by it's own campaign telling you a movie is "best of the year", "the perfect movie", and whatnot. With the reviews and the notes, I was expecting a really wonderful movie. And, truth be told, it was a very good movie, but I guess I was expecting something a little EXTRA special. I had an idea what the movie would be like, and I guess I was figuring there would be something in this movie that I wouldn't see coming, or done so extraordinarily well, that this would make this movie special. Everything was done very well, nothing extraordinary. The story was EXACTLY what I expected. I know that this is a true story, so they can't really invent something, but I was maybe hoping for an angle on the story that I wasn't expecting.
I'm not going to go into details about the movie. Everyone did a fine job. I think the movie makers did exactly what they wanted to do, and they did it well. I guess my only complaint is that this was pretty much the movie in my head BEFORE I actually saw it, and while some of the fight scenes were exhilarating, I see no need to see the movie again, and I don't see myself seeing a friend and beginning a conversation about this movie.
This may be a semi-spoiler, but you probably know the Braddock story if you are interested in seeing the movie. If you haven't seen "Rocky", you could just as easily watch that and you will have seen all the underdog boxer movie you need in your lifetime. Or you could see this one, and pass on "Rocky". If you want to see a really good SPECIAL boxing movie, go ahead and see Million Dollar Baby.