One thing can be said about Sharknado 3, is that it lived up to its subtitle: Oh Hell No! This movie is just full of cheap gore, horrible gags, and a legendary list of c-level celebrities. Even the movie’s star agrees with me.
Steve Sanders and I are basically best friends.
The end result is a movie that is so bad that it reaches legendary status.
Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! is a horror movie, but the only thing that is horrific about the plot is that Ann Coulter is the Vice President of the United States and Mark Cuban is the President. And the Iwo Jima style impaling that they do to destroy an attacking shark. But, the thing about this movie is that it knows what it is and is not ashamed to be it. One of my biggest pet peeves is when a movie tries to do much more than it should. Sharknado 3 sticks to what it does best: cheesy gore. It is a cinematic guilty pleasure. You know it’s terrible for you but you just can’t get enough of the falling sharks.
Yes, this actually happens in the movie.
Once again we find that Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering) is defending humanity with his wits and a golden chainsaw. April Wexler (Tara Reid) lives in Orlando and apparently has an Evil Dead like weapon to use against any oncoming sharks. While she is at Universal Studios with her daughter and her mother, who’s played by a very weathered Bo Derek, a Sharknado hits. The storms this time are so bad that they are turning the East Coast into the “Feast Coast.”
This movie can’t truly be judged like a typical theater release. It has: sharks in space, staircase surfing in the White House (on presidential portraits, no less), animation that is supposed to be flood waters, a shark slayer who emerges from a crash in Universal Orlando’s lagoon wearing Victoria Secret underwear, guns that were wobbling, and a scene where the only thing left on Frankie Muniz was Malcolm’s middle. This sort of thing has to be measured by how much you are into campy horror films.
Yep, they shot this in slow motion.
This movie plays to the absurd and had me giggling the whole time. Sharknado 3 is never going to be in the realm of high art because quite frankly it’s barely watchable and even then I couldn’t take my eyes of the screen. This movie is stupid to its core and I loved every minute of it. Am I suggesting you watch a movie on the SYFY Channel? Oh Hell Yes! It’s weird but that’s what I loved most.
Welcome back to the Summer 2015 Anime Roundup! This installment will give you a quick run-down of some of the darker, more adult shows of the season. This is an arbitrary label decided upon by me, so feel free to disagree on which shows are “dark” and “adult”. I’m going by general feel of the series as well as overall content.
I’m going to go ahead and just point you to Logan Peterson’s episode reviews for Monster Musume, because I am not going to watch that show. You can’t make me.
Due to feedback received for the first installment, I will be adding information on where to legally watch each show as well as a bit of background on director and animation studio. Please let me know what else might be helpful in the roundups!
School-Live!
This series airs on Crunchyroll and updates on Thursdays at 10:00am.
Director: Masaomi Ando (Hasn’t fully directed anything hugely popular. Has done episode directing for Fairy Tail and Gintama.) Animation Production: (Assassination Classroom, Persona 4: The Animation, Fate/Prototype) AKA:Gakkou Gurashi!
School-Live! is about a group of girls who live at their school 24/7. Their club is called the “School Living” club, and their purpose is to learn about and become closer to all of the other clubs. If you have read any other descriptions of the show, you will have seen something about zombies.
Let me tell you that you will want to gouge out your eyes for the first 19 minutes of episode one. “Nothing could possibly make me watch more of this utter bullcrap,” you will think. “Not even if there ARE zombies, because if there are they can’t possibly matter….oh. OH. Okay. I think I will be watching more of this now.” Just hang in there. Something is wrong. Make it through episode one and you will be hooked. There are some darker themes in this show to be explored, and more twists to be revealed.
I really thought I was going to hate School Live! because I am automatically suspicious of shows that follow a cast containing mostly girls that just do club things. Such shows either end up boring or turn out to be a harem. In this case, it is something completely different. Give it a shot.
God Eater
This series airs on Daisuki and updates on Sundays.
Director: Takayuki Hirao (Hasn’t fully directed much of anything yet, but GYO: Tokyo Fish Attack sounds amazing, am I right?) Animation Production: ufotable (Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works)
This series is set in post-apocalyptic earth. Humanity has been largely wiped out by monsters called the Aragami. An organization has risen up to fight the monsters with weapons known as God Arcs, which are made with Aragami cells and fused with humans. The protagonist of the show is Renka Utsugi, who of course signs up to fight the Aragami. He has managed to survive “outside” up until now and is able to control a new type of God Arc that can switch between the gun and sword forms rather than remaining stagnant in one form.
The animation style of this show is pretty neat. It falls somewhere between a painted graphic novel and video game animation. Many have compared the plot to Attack on Titan. I think that’s probably true, but Attack on Titan was hardly the first story about earth being attacked by monsters and fighting the monsters with things or people made out of monsters *cough*Blue Gender*cough*. Just saying. These stories have popped up over and over again because they work and are entertaining. There’s nothing hugely special here so far other than the animation, but sometimes you just need to watch a show where people kill monsters to survive.
Logan Peterson has been giving episode reviews of God Eater, so you can read those for a more in-depth look at the show.
Gangsta.
This series airs on Funimation and updates on Sundays at 10:30pm.
Director: Koichi Hatsumi (Looks to be a key animator who moved into directing more recently.) Animation Production: Manglobe (Samurai Champloo, Samurai Flamenco, The World God Only Knows)
Worick and Nicolas are two “handymen” that take jobs for both the cops and the mob. Worick seems to have perfect recall, and the cops value his memory and information. Nicolas is a “Twilight” and can gain superhuman abilities from certain drugs. The pair decide to spare a prostitute named Alex after wiping out her boss on a job and take her on as a sort of secretary. She is often told to not stay long in the city of Ergastulum or she will never escape. It might be too late for that, though, because other Twilights have been turning up in the city.
To be honest, I keep dragging my feet when it comes to watching this show and I have no idea why. Gangsta doesn’t deserve to be ignored. It has the best opener hands down this season. The animation has an awesome style, and there’s a decent amount of balance between backstory or information drops and action or intrigue. Plus it has a decent portrayal of a deaf person, which came as a surprise because generally anime just ignores that people can have disabilities and still function. It even has characters signing to each other.
I suppose my problem is that I’m not really in the mood for something as gritty as this show right now, but you would be doing yourself a disservice to not try it for yourself.
Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace
This series airs on Funimation and updates on Thursdays at 1:30pm.
Directed by: Seiji Kishi (Angel Beats, Assassination Classroom, Persona 4: The Animation) Animation Production: (Assassination Classroom, Persona 4: The Animation, Fate/Prototype)
Kobayashi is a middle school student who is so bored with life he sees things in shades of gray. People aren’t really distinguishable to him unless he focuses on paying attention. His life changes completely when he wakes up in his classroom and sees the mangled corpse of his teacher. A genius detective high schooler named Akechi is assigned to the case and together they prove that Kobayashi was innocent of the crime. Kobayashi decides he wants to keep investigating murders because it is fun for him.
This show is disturbing on a few levels. Some people say it gets boring, but if you have done any sort of reading on serial killers it becomes clear that the insane stuff the killers are doing in this show are absolutely things some nutjob would try in real life. Also, Kobayashi himself is the creepiest character in the show. He thinks being accused of murders and getting himself into danger is awesome fun. The way they portray him makes you wonder if he would have become a serial killer himself someday if he hadn’t been framed for the murder of his teacher and found out that he liked detective work instead. Out of all the “dark” shows this season, this is the one I wouldn’t want to watch by myself at night, because then I would just keep thinking about how creepy it is and how these people could exist in real life.
Prison School
This series airs on Funimation and updates on Fridays at 1:05pm.
Director: Tsutomu Mizushima (Genshiken, Shirobako, Witch Craft Works, Bludgeoning Angel Dokoro-chan) Animation Production: J.C. Staff (Bakuman, Food Wars, Golden Time, Orphen, R.O.D. The TV, the list goes on and on.)
Five boys are admitted into Hatchimitsu Academy, previously an all-girls boarding school. The school is very strict and breaking any of the rules results in a stay at the school’s prison system. Of course, the five boys are caught peeping on the girl’s locker room (while naked) and they are sentenced to a month in prison. They are beaten, humiliated, molested, and dominated by various girls on the “underground student council”. The protagonist, Kiyoshi Fujino, begins planning a breakout to keep a date with sumo-enthusiast Chiyo Kurihara despite the fact that a breakout results in another month in prison.
I was trying hard to not watch Prison School at all, but I needed another series for this roundup and there was no way I was gonna watch a silly monster harem, so here I am, watching the most ecchi thing I’ve ever watched. It really isn’t that bad. The animation is rough, but the style is fitting of the content of the show. The jokes are fetish-y and perverted, and the show is censored so much that it irritated me even though I don’t really have any desire to see lady-parts. I can definitely understand why it’s been popular, and I will admit it made me laugh. However, all five boys are completely unlikable to me, and I don’t think Kiyoshi deserves his date with Chiyo because he’s a lying liar who lies to her, so I probably won’t keep simulcasting this show. Maybe I will borrow it from someone once it is out on Blu-Ray and uncensored.
We need something a bit more light-hearted for the third roundup, don’t you agree? We will therefore be covering some currently airing comedy and slice of life anime.
Charlotte
Miss Monochrome
My Love Story
Sore ga Seiyuu
Shimoneta: a Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist
I don’t cosplay, but I may have to start. What you are about to see is possibly one of the coolest replica guns soon to be available to the public…
A new “smart” anime replica gun created by technology company Cerevo, Inc. was developed and could soon be the king of anime replica guns on the market. The replica is based on hit Sci-fi anime Psycho-Pass.
The Psycho-Pass anime takes place in a dystopia where officers carry “Dominators” to enforce order. Dominators serve as the main weapon for officers in the series. Psycho-Pass fans will soon be looking at the opportunity to own one this winter. This new replica gun has been attracting plenty of attention online recently. A video featuring a demonstration of its functionality has been circulating Facebook.
Fans of the Psycho-Pass anime will soon have the opportunity to enhance their cosplay attire by getting their very own Dominator Maxi. Based on what I have seen so far, this may be the coolest looking anime replica gun, ever. It’s hard for accessories to get much cooler than this…
I mean seriously look at that thing. It looks like a laser beam could literally shoot out any second and decimate anything in it’s path.
Packed with interactive features Dominator Maxi connects to any smart phone via wi-fi, and can be used with a special camera viewer. Plus a custom Public Safety Bureau Criminal Investigation Division app. Series fans will also notice that Dominator Maxi has a fully mechanized “Eliminator Mode” feature.
The Psycho-Pass Dominator Maxi is scheduled for release winter 2015. With a plethora of interactive features this anime replica gun is likely to be a hit. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Will you be picking one up for yourself?
Ant-Man director Peyton Reed revealed to CinemaBlend in an interview that the film was originally supposed to open with a very different sequence than we got in the final cut. Describing the sequence, Reed said
“It was basically a standalone sequence where you really did not see it was Hank Pym. He was retrieving some microfilm from this, originally Cuban general and then it because a Panamanian general… It really was designed in those early drafts to be almost like a Bond movie standalone scene in the beginning. It was going to show the powers. You never saw Ant-Man, it almost felt like an Invisible Man sequence, and it’s really, really cool.”
He also revealed that the scene is a remnant of the Edgar Wright/ Joe Cornish script and was scrapped only because it started to feel out of place.
“It started to feel tonally disconnected from the movie we were making and story-wise, and it also kind of like, it set a standalone adventure, but it didn’t just connect to the rest of our story.” -Peyton Reed
There is hope though! As the director says he has suggested that it be used as a One-Shot for the Blu-Ray release of Ant-Man. He was quoted saying
“We actually ended up shooting that sequence and cut it together and it’s fantastic, but the more we got into editing, it just felt too disconnected to the rest of the movie. It felt like vestige of those earlier drafts, which as a standalone thing was really cool. We actually talked at one point about releasing like a standalone, Hank Pym as Ant-Man. Who knows if that will still happen.”
This sounds exciting and I can’t wait to see the sequence if it makes it into the Blu-Ray release. Have you seen Ant-Man? What did you think?
There’s still a lot of bite left in this Dinosaur! The Chris Pratt led ‘Jurassic World’ has usurped Marlvel’s ‘The Avengers’ 2011, as the third highest grossing movie of all time. Jurassic World has thus far earned 1.522 billion at the box office, surpassing ‘The Avengers’ by 2 million (the movie earned 1.50 billion). This now has James Cameron still holding the number 1 and 2 spot with Avatar ($2.788 billion) and Titanic ($2.186 billion) respectively.
It is unlikely that ‘Jurassic World’ will surpass either of these films during it’s theatrical run but never say never. The film which many had estimated to earn a modest but not record shattering profit has continued to surprise since its release. Although there has been no word yet from Universal Studios, it isn’t a stretch to assume news of a sequel will reach us very soon.
Actor Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring, Watchmen) stopped by to discuss his new film “Jack Strong” an espionage thriller coming out this Friday.
Wilson who is currently filming “The Conjuring 2,” also talked about his character Lou Solverson on season two of FX’x “Fargo.” He gave no details on Bruce Campbell’s performance as Ronald Reagan, but did give us a hearty laugh during the interview.
“It’s Lou right out of Navy and how much the war has taken a toll on him and to come home and find out that this country is not what he wanted, it’s not what he left. He’s concerned about the morality of this country. He’s got a little more fight,” said Wilson.
Shooting it was one of the most fun. When I read it I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s how I get to meet Ronald Reagan was pretty great” I’ll leave it at that. But Bruce, the guy is fantastic, to have him come play with us for a bit was pretty great. It was pretty special,” said Wilson.
In conversation Wilson only had praise for Michael Keaton’s portrayal of Ray Kroc in “The Founder.” The duo just wrapped up filming on the project due out on November 25, 2016.
Bonus track: “Southpaw” review
About “Jack Strong”
Level 33 Entertainment is proud to announce the release of the gripping international spy thriller JACK STRONG in select theaters across North America and on all Video On Demand platforms beginning July 24, 2015. The film stars Patrick Wilson (THE CONJURING, INSIDIOUS, TV’s “Fargo”), Dagmara Dominczyk (THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, KINSEY), Marcin Dorocinski (SPIES OF WARSAW), and Maja Ostaszewska (IN THE NAME OF) in the true story of one man who dared to challenge the Soviet empire. While planning the maneuvers of the Warsaw Pact forces, Polish army colonel Ryszard Kuklinski (Dorocinski) has access to the top secrets of the Communist Bloc. Upon learning that the American nuclear counterattack against the Soviet forces will be executed on Polish territory, Kuklinski starts a long and psychologically exhausting cooperation with a CIA Agent (Wilson) — putting his own life and the life of his wife and family in constant danger!
JACK STRONG was written and directed by Wladyslaw Pasikowski (AFTERMATH, Nominee – Best Director, Polish Film Awards) and received multiple Film Festival and Polish Film Award Nominations. Shot on location in Poland, Russia and the U.S., the film was produced by Klaudiusz Frydrych, Roman Gutek, and Sylwia Wilkos.
Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that ‘The X-Files’ will be adding three more fan favorite alums to the revival. The world’s most famous conspiracy theorists, who were believed to have died in the original series will be reprising their roles as Langley, Melvin and Byers who collectively make up ‘The Lone Gunmen’.
This follows suit with the team bringing back William B. Davis to reprise his role of ‘Cigarette Smoking Man’ . The Lone Gunmen were so popular that they received their own spin-off (albeit short lived) series and all three were presumed to have been killed in season nine episode “Jump The Shark”. Their return in the revival systematically nullifies that notion and how they are brought back will be really interesting. Although it is fair to mention that they were revealed to have faked their death in the X-Files comics that followed the end of the original series.
Are you excited to see your favorite conspiracy theorists return to the series?
It may be Adam Sandler’s character saving the world from video game-inspired aliens in Pixels, but make no mistake: it’s the video game aliens themselves, and all the 80’s flavored nostalgia that comes with them, that save this movie from being yet another dreck of a Sandler vehicle. It’s fun in spots thanks to director Chris Columbus’s sure hand at crafting energetic set pieces, but when all those fan-favorite pixelated baddies aren’t on screen being blasted, chased, and otherwise blown up, the film powers down as though someone pulled the plug on the game console.
Thirty-three years after he lost in the final round of the 1st Annual Arcade Video Game Competition in his hometown, Sam Brenner (Sandler) is not exactly the portrait of an overachiever. The failure on that grand stage came to dictate the course of his life afterward, to the point where the best application in the adult world he can find for his tremendous talent for the video games of old — PAC-MAN™, Galaga™, Centipede®, Space Invaders™, and the like — is working as a home theater installer.
But his knowledge and skill with all-but-forgotten video games is suddenly called for by his childhood best friend Coop (Kevin James), who now as President of the United States has to figure out how to defend the planet against attacks by aliens that look and sound uncannily like the very same games he and Sam played at the neighborhood arcade as kids. Recruiting their old friend and conspiracy-nut Ludlow (Josh Gad) and Sam’s nemesis from that fateful day at the game competition, Eddie “The Fire Blaster” Plank (Peter Dinklage), Sam and Coop attempt to lead a defense against the aliens, who after grossly misinterpreting the contents of a NASA space capsule they encountered believe the footage of 80’s era games included in the capsule represented terms of an interstellar winner-take-all challenge. But even with the help of his friends and tech provided by Army researchers led by Lt. Col. Violet Van Patten (Michelle Monaghan), can Sam overcome the self-doubt that still plagues him after that devastating defeat all those years ago in order to save the world and everyone on it?
Of course he can! This is an Adam Sandler movie, where the likable loser who’s always quick with a one-liner always wins AND gets the hot girl at the end! (Cue Joe Esposito’s “You’re the Best” from 1984’s The Karate Kid)
Based on a short film of the same name created by French film maker Patrick Jean in 2010 that became a viral hit, Pixels is certainly a cut above other recent film offerings from Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions thanks to director Chris Columbus’s light-hearted take on the apocalyptic alien invasion genre and innovative staging of real-life video game battles. The film is at its best when in the midst of those frenetic sequences, as Sandler and Gad single-handedly fend off death from above courtesy of Centipede®, or the whole company of “Arcaders” chase Pac-Man™ through the streets of New York in brightly-colored Mini Coopers doubling as the game’s “ghosts.” The beautifully CG-animated battles are full of sight gags, clever one-liners, and genuine tension — they grab your attention with all that bright color and motion, and just as if you’d fed your own quarter into the console to play, you want to make those scenes last for as long as possible to get the most bang for your buck. In particular if you were a child of that era and you played those games, it’s all great fun to watch.
But during the breaks in the action, when it comes down to advancing the token, oh-so-predictable storylines of the human characters — Sam’s love/hate flirtation with Violet, Lloyd’s painful social awkwardness and long-enduring unhealthy fixation on video game character Lady Lisa (Ashley Benson), Coop’s floundering presidency and the lift it gets from leading the efforts against the aliens — things grind to a halt as though a bug in the game caused a reset. As he’s done for quite a few films now, Sandler underplays his role to the point where he’s not even acting — he’s just being himself with a different name, and the lazy effort saps even the delivery of his zingers (which are often pretty funny lines, in fairness) of real bite and makes the possibility of any real chemistry with Monaghan practically impossible. James has to work a little harder in his role — he seems to know that his Paul Blart/King of Queens schtick isn’t enough for him to come off as remotely presidential — but for the most part what he delivers isn’t all that different from what we’ve seen from him before. If anyone in the human cast really stands out and is enjoyable to watch, it’s Dinklage, who never fails to steal the show no matter what he’s doing in TV or film, and does so here as the obnoxious, mullet-sporting, stuck-in-the-80s Plank. In fact, the payoff to a running gag involving Plank’s conditions for cooperating with Brenner and the Arcaders results in one of the film’s funniest scenes, one that surprisingly has almost nothing to do with video games.
So bottom line: when the film’s real stars — Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Q-Bert, Frogger, and company — are on screen, Pixels is a pretty fun ride, one that will especially appeal to kids who will love the bright and colorful 8-bit characters and grown-ups who remember controlling those characters via joystick and trac-ball controllers back in the day. It’s only when the pesky live humans feel the need to banter amongst themselves that things get dull, to the point where you might wish that the film would end the way Patrick Jean’s film did back in 2010, with the video game characters actually winning and turning the entire Earth into one giant voxel (3D version of a pixel).
Unlike just about everything else in Pixels story-wise, that ending would have been someone nobody could see coming.
Pixels
Starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad, and Brian Cox. Directed by Chris Columbus.
Running Time: 105 minutes
Rated PG-13 for some language and suggestive comments.
In a recent interview reported by The Wrap, Israeli actress Gal Gadot spoke about her upcoming portrayal of ‘Wonder Woman’ in Zack Snyder’s superhero epic ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice’ come March 2016. The casing of Gadot, who at the time was only know for a role in three movies from the “Fast & Furious” franchise caused a massive backlash among certain fans but has seemingly won over most of her critics after a few snippets of her character in action in the much lauded trailer released during San Diego Comic Con 2015. Of how she got the role, the stunning actress said
“I told them that I wanted to be able to show the stronger side of women. I didn’t want to do the obvious role that you see in Hollywood most of the time, which is the heartbroken girl who’s waiting to be rescued by the guy, blah, blah, blah,” she said. “I wanted to do something different. Little did I know that I would land Wonder Woman not long after.”
She went on to express her excitement, as well as acknowledge the responsibility of taking on the role.
“I’m so excited about this role. I feel like I’ve been given a huge opportunity to inspire people, not only women. And not because of me but because of who Wonder Woman is and what she stands for,” Gadot added. “There’s a lot of responsibility. But I have the best team and the best people to work with. It’s going to be an amazing ride, knock on wood.”
If you were one of the people who did not like the casting initially, has those fears been quelled by the new trailer? How about Gal Gadot’s comments on the character? do these give you a glimmer of hope? Be sure to leave your comments below!
‘Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice’ will be released March 25, 2016.
Powered by a raw, riveting performance by Jake Gyllenhaal that’s almost a sure-fire bet to nab him a Best Actor Oscar nom, director Antoine Fuqua (The Equalizer, Training Day) puts a stellar spin on the classic boxing film with his work in Southpaw, setting a new standard for how a boxing film should look, sound, and feel. Working from a strong script by “The Shield” and “Sons of Anarchy” creator Kurt Sutter, Fuqua’s film grabs your attention from the outset with its unflinching, visceral depiction of the sport and of a fighter who’s found success using anger and ferocity alone, then holds that attention and pulls you further in when that fighter suddenly and brutally finds himself against setbacks and losses that anger will not help him combat. That fighter’s slow and painful journey back, his education in terms of learning a new way to fight, mirrors his learning a new way to live, and seeing the culmination of those efforts in the ring as Fuqua directs it delivers a sense of satisfaction that has few rivals in theaters this year so far.
Gyllenhaal plays Billy “The Great” Hope, who sits atop the boxing world with an undefeated record and holding all four major international light heavyweight boxing titles thanks to his bruising, all-aggressive offense style of fighting. Since his childhood days raised in a Hell’s Kitchen orphanage and his escape from that life thanks to boxing, Billy’s always believed that the harder he gets hit, the angrier and stronger he gets, and with all his success and all the wealth and comfort he’s been able to obtain for his family and friends, he sees no reason to change.
But his wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams), who came from that same orphanage and thus understands Billy and boxing thanks to many years spent around both, knows different. She knows at the rate Billy’s going and the number of hits to the head he allows himself to take in his fights there won’t be much left of him mentally in just a few short years, certainly not enough to help her raise their young daughter, Leila (Oona Laurence). She wants Billy to take a long break, but there’s pressure from Billy’s promoter Jordan (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) to keep fighting and keep all that money coming in to support their lavish lifestyle.
But whatever direction Billy’s life and career might have taken from that point is abruptly derailed by a tragic accident due in part to his own inability to control his emotions, and suddenly the fighter who’s never lost finds himself facing the prospect of losing everything he’s worked for. He responds to that prospect the only way he knows how — with blind rage — which does nothing but make things worse until he literally has nothing left to lose.
Without a home, without his family due to his own actions, Billy looks once again to boxing, as that Hell’s Kitchen orphan once did, to do the one thing he knows how to do in order to somehow fight his way out of the hole he’s dug. He seeks out the help of Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker), a one-time trainer of pro fighters who now owns a gym and works exclusively with kids as a boxing instructor while dealing with his own personal demons. Tick sees clear as day that Billy has no real plan, no real sense of how to turn things around, and initially wants no part of the broken fighter’s troubles. He does take him on as an employee, though, and in seeing the one-time prideful champion quietly and devotedly working with street kids in that rundown neighborhood gym, he at last sees a man he can work with, someone who can be trained to fight smart while fighting hard.
When the chance for a miraculous return to the top falls in Billy’s lap, it’s Tick that he turns to for the guidance he’ll need to in order to win. Knowing that the stakes are much more than just championship belts and money, they continue the task of reinventing Billy as a fighter, all the while knowing that at the moment of reckoning he’ll have to climb into the ring alone and put his commitment to everything he’s learned and all that he loves to the ultimate test.
From the very first moments of Southpaw, what will most likely stand out glaringly to audiences is the physical transformation of Gyllenhaal, who has truly done nothing even remotely like this thus far in his film career. But what’s even more incredible is the transformation is not static — the actor didn’t get his body ripped and cut simply to look good moving around the ring in trunks on screen. In the course of the film audiences witness Billy’s transformation as a fighter from bruiser to boxer and tactician; that change is not only a mental one, but a profound physical one, and Gyllenhaal committed performance makes the change believable and inspiring. The change of tactics in the ring, of course, mirrors his change of tactics in his approach to getting his family life in order, and the actor excels in these scenes as well, though tremendous credit is also due to 12-year-old Oona Laurence, whose portrayal of Leila is so thoroughly engrossing that its easy to forget you’re watching an actress playing a role. She matches Gyllenhaal’s intensity in their scenes together without a single false note in her expression or delivery, which is no mean feat considering the range of emotion she’s called upon to deliver, and her efforts help make Gyllenhaal’s work all the more compelling and at times heartbreaking.
https://youtu.be/QBBi02IXlbw
Of course, they, as well as the rest of the members of the ensemble, are all working off of a script by Kurt Sutter, who has built a reputation for storytelling characterized by charismatic yet deeply flawed characters and the raw, emotionally brutal situations their flaws invariably lead them to. As he’s done in his previous television work, Sutter creates nuanced, complicated characters for Southpaw and puts those characters through the ringer in every possible meaningful way, letting those characters, particularly Billy, drive the direction of the film’s story and determine its tone. Billy is the product of a hard upbringing and a hard sport, thus the tone of the film, even in its brightest moments, is always grounded and governed by harsh realities. “Shield” and “SoA” fans take note: this is a film you simply must see — it may not have Michael Chiklis or Charlie Hunnam in it, but it’s a Sutter story through and through.
Finally, Fuqua deserves tremendous credit as well for once again envisioning and bringing to fruition on screen a boxing film that looks and feels as authentic as Southpaw does. The Rocky films of the past forty years have for the most part created within our cultural imagination a certain cartoonish expectation of what boxing films are, an expectation that in recent years even Sylvester Stallone has worked hard to overcome when he’s brought to the screen latter day Rocky Balboa stories. If anything, Southpaw has much more in common with Stallone’s original 1976 Rocky film and his much more recent Rocky Balboa in terms of the choice of grounded grit and devotion to character drama over theatrics in the ring to entertain audiences.
But Fuqua’s work surpasses even that classic film in terms of its intensity and attention to the authentic experience of training for and being in the center of that ring — when his visuals are paired with a musical score composed by the late, great James Horner (Titanic, Braveheart) that deftly navigates the film’s emotional roller coaster and in the end uplifts and crescendos without over-the-top bombast, it creates a film experience whose audience appeal should easily transcend just those who enjoy boxing movies. Southpaw is a powerhouse film in every sense of the word, and it must be seen on the big screen to be fully appreciated.
Southpaw
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Naomie Harris, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Oona Laurence, and Rachel McAdams. Directed by Antoine Fuqua.
Running Time: 123 minutes
Rated R for language throughout, and some violence.
