A small-town boy hustling his way through the big city forms an uneasy alliance with a scam artist who inducts him into the violent world of bare-knuckle brawling in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints writer/director Dito Montiel's unforgiving urban action film. Arriving in New York City with little more than the shirt on his back, Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum) makes ends meet by selling counterfeit goods on the street. But times are tough and money is short, and just as things are starting
to look grim, Shawn crosses paths with crafty con artist Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard). Harvey instantly recognizes Shawn's natural talent for street fighting, and offers to help the uneasy newcomer make some quick cash on the bare-knuckle circuit. But making a living by brawling isn't easy because the system is hopelessly corrupt, and the only people who really come out on top are the rich businessmen who place wagers on the disposable fighters. Still, Harvey's instincts were right, and Shawn quickly makes a name for himself by taking down every opponent who crosses his path, including mixed martial arts champs, veteran pugilists, and ultimate fighters. As each bout becomes more intense, Shawn realizes that his only hope for escaping this dark world is to face his fiercest opponent to date. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
The fights may not be very convincing, but the story's underdog structure is satisfying in a happy-cliché sort of way. Fighting is Rocky without the bombast, Fight Club without the daft metaphysical pretensions.
Yes, both Channing Tatum and Zulay Henao... have careers for their looks alone, and they'd have better careers delivering pizza than delivering dialogue.
There's something interesting in this film and that's the reality it brings to its subject matter. Scenes seem real. And that's a lot to do with the performances. They're all terrific. But there's the reality of New York too, there's grit here.
Despite the formulaic script and cringe worthy moments, the performances from the leads and creation of the subculture are well executed by director Montiel.
Montiel and his collaborators can pat themselves on the back for elevating empty material just a bit, but this is disposable cinema, designed to hit and run after an opening weekend. [Blu-ray]
All of this, however, is plainly just a veneer on a solidly generic punch-up movie, and it thus becomes a drag. A more cartoonish approach would probably have been more fun.
The tell-it-as-it-is title hardly indicates anything out of the ordinary, but this bare-knuckle boxing flick is put together with more love than you'd expect.
Two gorgeous men with their tops off. What more could you ask for? There is also a really nice story and a genuinely great film. A must see!
June 23, 2011
Bethany Murphy
Super Reviewer
This movie was okay, I kinda liked it. The acting was just okay, and Channing Tatum is one of the great new rising stars. The concept was good, but the way they do it wasnt bad, but strange. Their were moments in the movie where Tatum would randomly run into aquantinces in the biggest city in America, WTF? In the
end I enjoyed the movie, but it still was far from great.
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