Southpaw, directed & produced by Antoine Fuqua, was thrilling and emotional, but couldn't help but being another cliché and predictable boxing tale. The one massive plus I give to Antoine Fuqua, is that he didn't make a regular boxing film with a choppy narrative, and sloppy script - He balanced out the boxing, and the narrative well enough, to keep the narrative afloat, with some decent pieces of dialogue.

Jake Gyllenhaal went from Prisoner, to Nightcrawler, to now Southpaw, and he transformed into each role very professionally! Gyllenhaal puts on such a great performance, as a down & out boxer, portraying his emotional scenes at such a deep, sentimental level. In almost every boxing film, usually the main antagonist is who our protagonist is fighting, but here, Jake Gyllenhaal is his own antagonist. I thought that was very creative, and brought out some deep character development in his character. Our other antagonist is Miguel Gomez. He was nothing but a plot device, and a pretty weak one at that, other than his sly remarks. Oona Laurence, at such a young age, put on a very good performance as Laila Hope. She really makes you feel for her character, while Gyllenhaal & Laurence' chemistry is nearly flawless, for their first production together. Rachel McAdams also puts on a great performance, while her character having the most impact on the film, with probably the least amount of screen time. I'm a big time fan of Forest Whitaker, and it was awesome to see him in this film. Forest Whitaker portrays a boxing coach so well, I was thinking about signing up for Will Tik's gym myself. For all the artists that think they can act now, like T.I. & Vanilla Ice, 50 cent is one of the best artist out there, in film. He does a decent job in this film, with his character having a decent twist.

The screenplay by Kurt Sutter, being Sutter's only film, was pretty good; Kurt Sutter gave this film a personality. He created a lot of great emotional dialogue, that helped you bond, and feel for the characters.

The score by the iconic James Horner added this deep, sorrowful score, that enhanced the feeling during the emotional, and break down scenes. The music soundtrack by Marshall Mathers (Eminem) was awesome!

Overall, this film is a decent time, but doesn't really set itself apart from the other boxing films.