Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher

2022

Biography

6
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 20%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 45%
IMDb Rating 5.5 10 2244

Plot summary



December 30, 2022 at 05:52 AM

Director

Daniel Graham

Top cast

Russell Crowe as Jack Slack
Marton Csokas as Lord Rushworth
Ray Winstone as Bill Warr
Jodhi May as Mary Belcher
720p.BLU 720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
986 MB
1280*536
English 2.0
NR
24 fps
1 hr 47 min
P/S ...
982.37 MB
1280*536
English 2.0
NR
24 fps
1 hr 46 min
P/S 0 / 12
1.97 GB
1920*804
English 5.1
NR
24 fps
1 hr 46 min
P/S 1 / 11

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by aronofskydavid 4 / 10

A Lousy Movie Despite Despite The Great Story And Fine Acting

I generously give this film 4 stars because the story is terrific even though the movie messes far too much with its much more interesting actual history. I am a fan of early 19th Century English boxing and looked forward to seeing this, especially with Russell Crowe in the cast. The acting is fine, as is the casting, and unlike some critics I like the cinematography. The film also does sort of okay capturing the time's fight game corruption and brutality. However, the script is atrocious, the directing almost as bad, and whoever edited the movie should find some other line of work because scene transitions are so poorly done. All the main film characters existed and had interesting lives. Jem Belcher, England's boxing champion in the very early 19th Century, came from a long line of good family prize fighters including his grandfather Jack Slack, ably played by Russell Crowe, and his father, who is inexplicably nowhere to be seen in the movie. Jem's classic fight with Henry Pearce may have been Europe's best one ever, but its depiction here does little justice to what really happened. I often like shorter movies but this one could have used about 15 more minutes to flesh out the true main character lives. Matt Hookings plays Belcher well and Jodhi May plays his mother, who hated fighting because she grew up with it, even better. Ray Winstone, always amazingly good, gives a performance as Belcher's trainer even better than Crowe's, so those who appreciate quality acting can see this one without feeling like they wasted their time despite the film's serious flaws. With some harder production work this might have been good enough for some award nominations. Instead, I hope the Razzies bypass it for the hard-working cast's sake.

Reviewed by vmvvfwq 1 / 10

Did Stallone steal this story?

You know that age old question " what came first? The chicken or the egg?", well this is a real conundrum on how Stallone may have got his inspiration for Rocky! Unlike Rocky however, this is a terrible film. I am not sure how they managed to rope in Winstone and Crowe but things must be very desperate in their schedules to take on the roles they did. The story is poorly told, the acting is awful and the overall look is just terrible. I'm sure the historical significance is an important part of boxing history in England BUT this was a movie that the makers should have thrown in the towel after the first round!

Reviewed by benwilliams1999 6 / 10

An okay film but...

The film is okay, entertaining biographical film about the rise (and fall) of a young prizefighting boxer.

However, a few things don't line up with the real timeline. Jem never met his grandfather, he died before he was born. And the rules of boxing seem to be about 60 years younger than they were at this time. Also, whoever decided to put the saturation of the picture on this film to 10000% needs sacking.

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1 Comment

filmcritic101 profile
0
filmcritic101 July 23, 2022 at 07:08 pm

Great looking film. Thanks.