Over-rated ..........and misjudged

Rating: 6/10 (25 April 2012)

I cant understand why "movie critics" and "movie buffs" find this so perfect. The movie is made realistically (and very well) outside the boxing ring, but inside the ring ? Oh come on !! The fight scenes are the "theater of the absurd". Real boxing is NOTHING like this. Its a science --a craft--not a street fight. This is typical Scorsese....over-cooking the violent scenes once again. Its really quite sad----because the film is pretty good. However, people tend to over rate Robert De Niros performance. I think its because he gallantly gained 60lbs. (27 kg) in weight to play the horrible Jake Lamotta (a guy with LOADS of personality defects) in his post boxing career. Putting that weight on was heroic----but forget that and judge his acting. Its nowhere near the heights he reached in Taxi Driver. (Still his finest hour). Martin Scorsese showed great promise in the 1970s--but he has since been disappointing. (Apart from Goodfellas). Scorsese has never made a 10 / 10 movie. He is a flawed movie director......good.......but certainly not very good , and nowhere near great. Its a great shame really-----"he could have been a contender" !!