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MOVIES / ON DVD / STRENGTH AND HONOR
Strength and Honor

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Strength and Honor (2007)

7%
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96%
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7 %
Reviews Counted: 14 Fresh: 1  Rotten:13 Average Rating: 3.6/10
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 min 44 secs
Theatrical Release: Dec 7, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $51,933
Synopsis:
Set in Cork, Ireland, STRENGTH AND HONOR is a boxing drama with heart. The film stars Michael Madsen as Sean, a young boxer who accidentally causes the death of his friend with a punch that proves fatal. Seven years later, Sean's wife dies of a hereditary heart condition, and he promises his... [More]
Set in Cork, Ireland, STRENGTH AND HONOR is a boxing drama with heart. The film stars Michael Madsen as Sean, a young boxer who accidentally causes the death of his friend with a punch that proves fatal. Seven years later, Sean's wife dies of a hereditary heart condition, and he promises his dying wife that he will not box again. But when their young son (Luke Whelton) starts showing sings of the same illness, a widowed Sean finds himself in a moral dilemma as well as in debt. With hospital bills piling up and insurance companies screwing him over, Sean must give up his home and move with his son to a trailer park. It's there that Sean is faced once more with the appeals of boxing. Forced to choose between staying true to his word and boxing to pay for the costly operation that could save his son's life, Sean puts all his anxiety into the ring, risking his own life in a fierce underground bare-knuckles boxing battle against the Smasher (Vinnie Jones). Mike Mahon's directorial debut offers a glimpse of Irish culture and some beautifully photographed landscapes. Overall, the film moves slowly, its solemn pace only broken up in parts by intense action and violence. Madsen skillfully pulls off his role as an unlikely boxer forced to risk it all. [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones, Patrick Bergin, Richard Chamberlain

Director: Mark Mahon
Screenwriter: Mark Mahon
Producer: Mark Mahon
Composer: Ilan Eshkeri

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Director-screenwriter Mark Mahon is unable to inject any freshness whatsoever into this highly formulaic genre piece, though he has elicited several good performances.

Full Review | Comment
12/13/07 03:15 AM
Frank Scheck
Hollywood Reporter
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The script delivers a series of low blows to the intelligence from which auds will never recover.

Full Review | Comment
12/11/07 01:08 PM
Ronnie Scheib
Variety
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Not even a contender for the DVD bins, to which it'll be banished before the eight count.

Full Review | Comment
12/08/07 04:49 PM
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals
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For the most part the film moves along at a nice clip and provides an interesting glimpse inside the endlessly fascinating world of the Travellers.

Full Review | Comment
12/07/07 05:06 PM
Cathy Suhocki
TV Guide's Movie Guide
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Under Mark Mahon's by-the-numbers direction, Strength and Honour is a standard soaper that might be helpful to watch when you're suffering from insomnia some night.

Full Review | Comment
12/07/07 02:15 PM
V.A. Musetto
New York Post
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There is not a real character to be found, nor a single convincing punch thrown. But I do like the name 'Smasher'.

Full Review | Comment
12/07/07 02:13 PM
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News
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With a lowered chin, squinted eyes and gravelly voice, Madsen emotes in convulsions, his awkwardly expressed scenes of grief and interactions with his adolescent co-star lingering onscreen uncomfortably too long, as if more time would exhume feeling.

Full Review | Comment
12/07/07 02:12 PM
Annlee Ellingson
Boxoffice Magazine
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Mr. Madsen fails to elevate this earnest morality tale, written, produced and directed by Mark Mahon, above excessive banality.

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12/07/07 01:20 PM
Laura Kern
New York Times
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Relentlessly dismal and dismally predictable.

Full Review | Comment
12/07/07 12:44 PM
Sid Smith
Los Angeles Times
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The movie follows so resolutely in the footsteps so many many other sporting movies that we're way ahead of the story arc.

Full Review | Comment
12/07/07 11:36 AM
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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The dialogue and production values are both cheap.

Full Review | Comment
12/06/07 10:38 PM
Josh Bell
Las Vegas Weekly
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In addition to having a lame script, Strength and Honor is saddled with characters that are not to be believed.

Full Review | Comment
12/06/07 06:19 PM
Meg Jones
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Madsen's iffy Irish accent is no more believable than the fights, which look even more staged than the polar bear brawls in The Golden Compass.

Full Review | Comment
12/06/07 11:58 AM
Matt Pais
Metromix.com
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Schlocky.

Full Review | Comment
12/06/07 10:43 AM
Allison Benedikt
L.A. Weekly
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