The best performance I've ever seen about Jake Gyllenhaal ! I enjoyed all the movie.

Top Movie! Really enjoyed every minute!

Meh...it's been done before, and far better. Basically, this is _Rocky II_ and _Rocky III_ thrown into a blender for 2 hours. It bypasses the original _Rocky_ movie because it starts with Billy Hope (Gyllenhall's character) already on top of the boxing world, and not having to come from nothing. Aside from that aspect, though, it's very similar to _Rocky II_ and _Rocky III_ in that he loses everything, has to "find himself", and "fight" his way back. Yeah, there's a couple of different spins on it, but like I said, it's been done before. I like Gyllenhall as an actor, but I didn't really find him a good match for this particular role. In fact, there wasn't really ANYONE in the entire cast who really impressed me in their performance. I usually like Forrest Whitaker, but - just like Jake Gyllenhall - he didn't seem to fit the part real well here. If there was any outstanding performance, it would have to go to Miguel Gomez who seemed in his element as the antagonist, "Magic" Escobar. I wouldn't call it a "bad" movie, but it **did** seem to be an awful lot like the aforementioned _Rocky_ movies. If you're a fan of boxing movies, you might enjoy this one…but be warned: it's very predictable.

For some reason all I could think about while watching this was how much I wanted a prequel that showed his rise from a kid in the system to a world class boxing champion, because honestly there was so much to unpack there and the way Jake and Rachel worked their characters and their chemistry it was almost like you were following their stories for a long time. You couldn't help but root for Billy and his family from pretty much the first scene, and that's all down to Jake, he really made me go through every emotion with this and I cried a few good tears. Loved it. Love him. 9/10

1.) Alternate name - The great White Dope 2.) Best Performance by Jake 3.) Different Plot from Regular Sports Movie