Unbelievable movie - I was stunned!
The Myth | A Better Place | 09/26/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This movie floored me. It's not often that a movie affects me like this one did. As a matter of fact, the last movie that had this kind of affect on me, even though it is very different, was The Crow.
At the end of that one, I just layed my head down on my girlfriend's lap and cried - and couldn't stop. I think maybe it was because of what happened to Brandon Lee, but it was actually kind of embarassing, I just couldn't stop.
With this movie, it was just the absolute pain that the protagonist was in, all from not being able to get over the traumatization of what happened to him when he was a child. He starts trying to keep the same thing that happened to him from happening to other kids, but with disastrous results.
I was just rapt the entire movie, watching it unfold, wondering where it would go. And where it did end up going was tragic, but it was also compelling and beautiful. And while I didn't lay in my (now wife's) lap and cry the way I did with The Crow, I did just sit on my couch with goose bumps all over me until well after the credits were done.
It's been several days now since I saw it and, literally, every day since I saw it, I have stopped at some point in the day and gone back over certain scenes and moments from "Straight Right". Congratulations to everyone involved w/ that movie. You should hold your heads high."
The Definition of a Man
Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 09/06/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
""Straight Right"
The Definition of a Man
Amos Lassen
"Straight Right" (Ariztical) is one of those sensitive, beautiful movies that manages to bring tears to the eyes. When the screener arrived today, I thought to myself before I began to watch it that this was a movie that held no interest for me. Dealing with professional fighting and dealing with child abuse, I was sure that I was in for a bring two hours but shortly after it began, I was hooked. I have read some really negative reviews of this film and all I can say is that some people did not really see what this film is all about.
The movie has exciting action and moving drama with classic boxing sequences. Filmed in color, it has the look of classic film noir and it deals with the sensitive issue beautifully.
Caleb is a boxing champion with a beautiful wife and is preparing for the fight of his life. He is the everyman of the world--one who sits at home and reads the paper and watches the news and sees all the terrible things that are happening in the world but unlike the majority of people, he aims to do something about the world's troubles in his own special way. Although he knows that he must get ready for his major fight, he realizes that the real fight that is going on is happening on the streets where children are bring abused and where the strong overtake the weak. He can't stand by and let this happen and takes action by becoming a vigilante and with human effort tries to change the world with his fists.
Although the pace of the film is slow, even tedious at times, the acting is good and the direction and production are excellent. I am a bit sorry that the movie was not a bit more professional; the seeds are there for it to have been a great movie and instead it is just a good movie, not a waste of celluloid as some other reviewers have written.
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