every twist from the Rocky saga re-hashed for Southpaw.

Rating: 5/10 (30 August 2015)

First off, great Job Jake Gyllenhaal, without him I would have reviewed this move much lower. Great performance from his physical transformation to his bad boy comes good performance. kudos.
now... if you're reading this review I assume you have watched Rocky saga if not - go watch it now! (comparisons will be made below, beware!)
Southpaw borrows every plot points from those movies. It's not even subtle.
1. Hope is a fighter known for taking punishment = every Rocky movie
2. Looses the love of his life - his life falls apart = Rocky 3 plot
3. needs a trainer that he wouldn't normally use - Rocky 3 plot
4. becomes a better dad - Rocky 5 plot
I'm sure there are more to mention, but, you get the idea. Southpaw looked like Kurt Sutter read Sly Stallone's Rocky screenplays and decided to cram all of the above into his script for Southpaw.
15 minutes into this movie, you knew what the ending would be, and that's a real shame because Jake Gyllenhaal deserved better.
One of my biggest criticisms of Kurt Sutter's series' Sons of Anarchy and The Shield was the often shabby writing. Unfortunately, his first attempt at writing for the big screen is no different.