To be cynical, this might seem to be a Jimmy Smits vehicle. It is quite a decent film although it tends to come off as a bit of a telemovie or HBO special at best.
Smits is a blue collar Mexican-American with a strong Latin background. He works hard in the Latin quarter on the Arizona/Mexican with his wife and three sons. He used to be a gifted boxer but was involved in a incident that threatened his fight ability both physically and mentally. Inevitably his three sons also end up in the ring however they're of vastly different abilities. Smits is smart enough to realise that you have to make enough money while you can fight to last when your career is over. In that endeavour he meticulously plans the careers of his three sons so that they don't end up physically hurt however his sons don't follow his advice readily.
One of his sons is a true champion however and catches the eye of a fight promoter (Perlman). In between Smits battles his wife, his three sons and his own fight career cut short. His sons also fight each other and their own wants and desires which are at odds with what Smits wants.
Smits has to carry this film and he does with a multifaceted performance that digs deep into Smits' own Latin backgroup. However it's not enough to save a screenplay that juggles some fairly well worn themes and some cartoon cutout supporting players. The three sons tend to form the mould of any set of rival siblings - the eldest sensitive son with relatively poor skills who wants his father's attention over his more obviously skilled younger brothers; the middle son who is a lover not a fighter and the youngest who is a troublesome street thug who can fight but has none of the social graces or sensitivity of his elders (qv. Mike Tyson). Is his wife any different from the other hard suffering wives in these types of films where the patriarch is what drives these family dichotomies?
Does redemption come in the final few frames? Take a guess.
This is a rental movie and the disc production will tend to reinforce that.
The video and audio is what you'd expect - Roadshow quality. A very bright colourful transfer with the only expections being some isolated oversaturation in some scenes especially with large sections of colour filling the screen and some isolated edge enhancement due to the bright setting (sunny Arizona). Excellent use of darkness with good shadow detail and blacks in night scenes.
The audio is a single Dolby 5.1 track of good fidelty. This is a very 'front-centric' track with most of the action being vocals with good stereo soundstaging. The rap/Latin style music is used to beef up the fight scenes. There is decent use of mid-bass to increase the 'weight' of the punches and blows. The only strong surround use is at the actual boxing matches and in isolated incidents that were not over dubbed post production.
No extras besides the trailer. I don't know what this is about. This is a single sided disc as well. I really hope this isn't indicative of future Roadshow titles. Perhaps this is a rental only title in disguise?
