Bad

Rating: 3/10 (14 September 2008)

The problem is in the details. Every cliché from ever boxing film before it is used, from the two versions of The Champ, to John Garfield films, to Jimmy Cagney's City For Conquest, to Kirk Douglas's Champion, to the Rocky films, Raging Bull, and the earlier girl fight film, Girlfight. Name a scene in this film and it's a cliché. Eastwood's trainer, Franky Dunn, speaks in a hoarse, gruff manner like Burgess Meredith's Mickey from the Rocky films. Whenever his fighter, Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), is losing a fight, Franky spouts a cliché like, 'She's younger, stronger, and a better fighter than you. What're you gonna do about it?' Wham-bam- she knocks out her opponent. Dunn's lone employee at the gym he owns, the Hit Pit, where Maggie shows up in, is an old washed up, one-eyed boxer-cum-janitor (cliché) played by Morgan Freeman (as Scrap Dupris), in another of his trite Wise, Old Negro roles. Freeman's character also narrates the film, punctuating the clichéd scenes, cardboard acting, and all the rest with the most obvious of restatements of what we have just witnessed. Let's see- what other clichés? There is a retarded boxer named Danger (Jay Baruchel), whom Scrap takes under his wing. There is a cocky fighter named Shawrelle Berry (Anthony Mackie), who thinks he's hot. Of course, he beats the crap out of Danger, only to have blind old Scrap kick his ass with only a single punch. This pabulum that has nothing to do with the actual film's narrative, and serves only to give Freeman his Oscar moment, is almost as bad as the whole premise of the film- that anyone gives a damn about female boxing. To take the film's version of reality, one would think that female boxing is at the height of where male boxing was last century. Even male boxing is in the dumps. Female boxing is a joke sport- right there with obstacles course running with kitchen appliances strapped to your back. Perhaps the most obvious cliché comes when an up and coming boxer of Franky's stabs him in the back to go with another manager, then wins a title.
Those are merely the boxing movie clichés. As for the technical aspects, Eastwood's palette is always limited, his 'key' moments always muddily filmed. Too often, characters wander in and out of frame, which suggests a poorly constructed scene. And, to come full circle, the DVD is a ripoff, with nothing of any real value. Many single DVD films have far more than this bloated 2 DVD set. Pass on this film and find a good version of Champion or City For Conquest, instead.