I’m a sucker for a good boxing movie. Or any fighting movie, really. But especially the Sweet Science. There’s something to be said for the poetry of brutal movement, triumph of the spirit, grand metaphors for the human condition, and all that jazz. And I loved Creed, so of course I’m excited for Creed 2 (or Creed II if you will), which now has a brand spanking new trailer.
I am and always will be a complete and total sucker for any
Rocky movie. It’s not a franchise many expected to continue
after the fifth installment, and there was a collective groan in 2006 for
Rocky Balboa, which turned out to be great. Still, in 2015,
we were left asking ourselves if we really needed another
movie, and after watching Creed, I’m going to come out and
say yes, yes we did.
If you know anything at all about the movie going into
Southpaw, you know precisely what you’re going to see. This
is a paint-by-numbers redemptive sports saga from the opening scene, and though
star Jake Gyllenhaal gives yet another fantastic performance as boxer Billy
Hope (yes, the protagonist’s name is Billy Hope in case you were expecting any
subtlety at all), a pugilist bruised both physically and emotionally, he can’t
elevate the rote story.
So far, early reviews on Jake Gyllenhaal’s boxing drama
Southpaw have been mixed, but I tend to like both movies
where the on-a-roll actor goes through an intense physical transformation
(Nightcrawler) and the rather workmanlike films of director
Antoine Fuqua (The Equalizer), so I’m totally game. Check
out this featurette of just how far both men went to make sure the in-the-ring
action looks legit.
The last time star Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan
Coogler got together we got Fruitvale Station, and now we’re
getting Creed, which appears to be a little bit spinoff, a
little bit sequel to Rocky Balboa, which is something I’ll
always watch and be excited about. Dropping later this fall, the film just
released its first trailer, and it looks fantastic.
