Southpaw [2015]

Language - English
Director - Antoine Fuqua
Run Time - 2 hours, 4 minutes
Genre - Drama/Sport
Starring - Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker and Rachel McAdams

Southpaw was expected to be another thrilling boxing movie, but it came out as a disappointment for me. Even after having some of Hollywood's finest (underrated as well) actors, this movie fails as it is not able to overcome the generic and cliched storyline thats done and dusted. In fact, I would say that the trailer itself showed us how insipid the plot is.

I went to see this movie just because of Gyllenhaal, but sadly, he couldn't churn up brilliant cinema this time. Taking no credit away from Gyllenhaal, he was tremendous as Billy Hope, our protagonist, the lonely father with the never giving up attitude. Also, Rachel McAdams was wasted in the movie as she lasted all of 15 minutes as Whitaker fails to lift the latter half of the movie.
Note - 50 Cent can't act for shit.

The plot is so banal with Hope as the World Heavyweight Champion, losing his wife, kid, title and everything else because of his rage and ego. Fast forward to 'whatamidoing' 'letmegetmylifebacktogether' phases and yes, you can guess the end. If someone calls this the best boxing movie since Raging Bull, that person hasn't seen 'Warrior' which is a gem of a movie.

The thing is, the director Antoine Fuqua, of the Training Day fame, has tried to fuse the a sports movie with drama, but it becomes too overberaing to handle. In Boxing Terms, I would say it has become a match which has lasted all of 12 Rounds without any contender throwing a good punch.

But, Jake Gylenhall is brilliant, as he's been in the past couple of years, be it with Nightcrawler, Prisioners, Source Code, Zodiac, Brokeback Mountain or even further down the line when he did Donnie Darko as a kid. This guy, I feel is one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood currently, and deserves to be called along the best.
Adding to it, I'd say Gylenhaal and McAdams share sizzling chemistry, and I would love to see them together in the future.

One could skip it, unless they are hardcore fans of Gylenhaal or boxing movies, although it is more about the drama than boxing.

My Rating - 6.5/10