This is John Leguizamo's directorial debut (he also stars), and it's only a little bit better than decent.
*SPOILERS*
Leguizamo stars as Lex Vargas, an amateur boxer from Jackson Heights, NY, who is looking to make it big. After seeing his brother get shot by a young kid trying to rob his brother's store, Lex takes his brother's words to heart - "I want you to be the best. Never lose," (something like that), and rises to the top of the Welterweight division going undefeated along the way. His friends are along for the ride, but they grow distant as Vargas climbs the ladder, and moves away from the neighborhood they all grew up in. He soon falls in love with his local promoter's girlfriend. After reaching the top, he's presented with a conflicting proposition - throw the fight to the up-and-coming hotshot boxer to generate interest and more money for the rematches. What does he do?
The problems I saw with the movie is that the pacing seems off - it goes from regular time to fast forward to slow motion, back to regular to fast forward again, etc... This causes some parts of the story to be rushed, and some parts to be a little more drawn out than they should be. Some of the story doesn't quite click as well, probably because of the pacing. It's not quite as cliched as some make it out to be, but there is a little bit. Most of the characters are rushed and not properly developed. Some of the acting isn't great, and parts of the dialogue could have used work, but overall it's not bad. Leguizamo is good in his role, and shows that he does have talent for directing, but shows that he needs to work on pacing and storytelling. It's kind of liked Leguizamo focused mainly on his character, and then spent only a little bit of time on the others.
*SPOILERS*
Leguizamo stars as Lex Vargas, an amateur boxer from Jackson Heights, NY, who is looking to make it big. After seeing his brother get shot by a young kid trying to rob his brother's store, Lex takes his brother's words to heart - "I want you to be the best. Never lose," (something like that), and rises to the top of the Welterweight division going undefeated along the way. His friends are along for the ride, but they grow distant as Vargas climbs the ladder, and moves away from the neighborhood they all grew up in. He soon falls in love with his local promoter's girlfriend. After reaching the top, he's presented with a conflicting proposition - throw the fight to the up-and-coming hotshot boxer to generate interest and more money for the rematches. What does he do?
The problems I saw with the movie is that the pacing seems off - it goes from regular time to fast forward to slow motion, back to regular to fast forward again, etc... This causes some parts of the story to be rushed, and some parts to be a little more drawn out than they should be. Some of the story doesn't quite click as well, probably because of the pacing. It's not quite as cliched as some make it out to be, but there is a little bit. Most of the characters are rushed and not properly developed. Some of the acting isn't great, and parts of the dialogue could have used work, but overall it's not bad. Leguizamo is good in his role, and shows that he does have talent for directing, but shows that he needs to work on pacing and storytelling. It's kind of liked Leguizamo focused mainly on his character, and then spent only a little bit of time on the others.