Rocky clichés abound in this yawnsome tale of a Puerto Rican prizefighter whose rise to the top alienates him from his family and friends. Yes, this film really is that predictable, and it's all the more disappointing for being the directorial debut of actor John Leguizamo.
The star of Carlito's Way and Romeo + Juliet trained for six months to play the lead role and shot his fight scenes with real sluggers who were specifically told not to pull their punches. Strange, then, he should be so timid both in front of and behind the camera, only breaking from tradition with an unsatisfying, open-ended climax.
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Leguizamo's commentary is a self-congratulatory affair, his name-dropping (Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Spike Lee) only flagging up how far he trails behind them. "I wanted to reinvent the boxing movie," he says later in a Spanish-language interview. How - by making a film virtually identical to every boxing picture ever made?
