Split Decision on "Southpaw", a moderate winner but not the undisputed boxing movie of the year

Rating: 7/10 (15 May 2016)

I am about to give you a round & round pun review of Director Antoine Fuqua's boxing movie "Southpaw". So if you are a lightweight when it comes to pun corniness, I suggest you to throw in the towel and stop reading now. Aaaanywways, "Southpaw" stars Jake Gyllenhaal as light heavyweight boxing champion Billy Hope. At the film's onset, he is pretty much past being the great white hope; he is the champion of the world, he has a gorgeous wife, has a kind & loving daughter, and is filthy rich. But Fuqua then turns the movie into a "riches to rags" story when tragedy strikes; and I am not going to hit you now with a spoiler because it was in all the film's trailers, his wife is killed. Hope then loses all hope of both the boxing world and the living world and spirals into darkness. The rest of the film focuses on Hope trying to get hope again to return to glory. The movie did have its inspiring moments but I was not left hooked or even right hooked with the movie's mundane & rather predictable narrative & screenplay. Now I am not going to say that Fuqua "fuquaed up" because he did an admirable job in directing the boxing scenes, but his Screenwriter Kurt Fuller did not fill the movie with any enticing dialogue. Gyllenhaal does go "punch to punch" with a knockout performance as Hope. Rachel McAdams gets a minor spotlight as his wife Maureen, but does it admirably. However, I could not say the same for Forest Whitaker's stale performance as boxing gym owner and trainer Tick Willis; his performance did tick me off at times. Listen, I am not saying that "Southpaw" should be left out of your "movies to see" list, but temper your expectations below the "Creed". *** Average