New Southpaw Movie Delivered Great Drama,Storyline & More
The Weinstein Company released their new drama flick, “Southpaw,” into theaters this weekend. I just checked it out and thought it was excellent, delivering lots of great drama and a very good storyline, capped off with some great feel good moments. It stars: 50 Cent, Forest Whitaker, Jake Gyllenhaal, Oona Laurence and Rachel McAdams.
In the new flick, New York boxer, Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhall), has won the World Light Heavyweight championships, but sustained a pretty heavy eye injury during the fight, prompting his wife ,Maureen, to convince him to go ahead and retire while he’s at the top.
Unfortunately, at a ceremony to announce his decision, Billy is taunted by an up-and-coming boxer, Miguel “Magic” Escobar, which led to a huge brawl in which Maureen accidentally got shot and killed by Miguel’s brother ,Hector, who fled the scene.
This whole incident didn’t sit well with Billy at all, who was already quite volatile. He starts abusing drugs and alcohol, which led him to go down some very bad paths, which ultimately caused him to lose his house, all of his possessions and custody of his daughter.
After Billy’s daughter finally became disgusted with him, he finally got his wake up call to straighten up by starting all over from the bottom with seasoned boxer, Titus “Tick” Wills (Forest Whitaker), and eventually convinces Tick to become his trainer while holding down a cleaning job at the gym.
After making a lot of progress and winning an exhibition fight, Billy’s old manager, Jordan Mains (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson), showed back up to offer Billy a fight between Billy and Miguel, that could put Billy back in the spotlight and the big money.
Tick doesn’t agree to train Billy for this fight at first, but eventually came around, setting the stage for the big conclusion that entailed a very entertaining showdown fight between Billy and Miguel, who was the new World Light Heavyweight champion.
Again, I really enjoyed watching every part of this movie. I loved the story of Billy being on top. Then falling to the bottom and working on his issues to rise back up again. It was a very feel good movie at the end, and I think Jake Gyllenhaal did a great job with the Billy Hope character, delivering a lot of intensity to it. He really is a very versatile actor. I gave the movie an excellent A grade. Stay tuned.
