I should have been a contender

Rating: Null/10 (12 January 2011)

People have compared this movie to Rocky in its reviews. Its only like Rocky during its uplifting end when Ward wins the title. Before that, this is a movie you can practically smell from your seat. Its a smell of sweat, stale cigarette smoke, cheap booze and utter despair. Except for Wahlberg and his girlfriend, I really didn't like a single character in this movie. I was angry at Wahlbergs character a little for the way he let his stupid, trashy family rule him and the way the enabled and covered up for that loser brother of his. This is a man who knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard and then let his personal demons bring him down about as low as possible. I think the most pathetic scene in the film was where his brother thought HBO was doing a documentary on his "comeback" when they were really doing a documentary on how he had messed up his life. I can tell that Wahlberg really worked out for the fight scenes but they are not as good as Rocky, basically he just gets the stuffing beat out of him before landing one lucky punch. Maybe they should have had Sylvester Stallone handle that part of the film.