Southpaw: Good Boxing Movie. Not Great Boxing Movie.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Olympus Has Fallen) Southpaw, the latest foray into possible Academy Award contention for Jake Gyllenhaal, is a good film that never quite achieves great. A solid story, strong performances and redemption in spades, the film somehow rings hollow with characterization that feels incomplete.

Premise: On the brink of personal ruin, Billy Hope must overcome his troubles and get his daughter back. Result: A fair time but doesn’t live up to the hype.

Billy Hope – yes, Billy HOPE!- (Jake Gyllenhaal) is on top of the world. He is a dominant light weight boxer with s wonderful wife Maureen (Rachel McAdams), beautiful daughter Leila (Oona Laurence) and all the creature comforts imaginable. His manager Jordan Maines (50 Cent) and entourage believes he can continue his greatness. And all this despite an orphan- off the streets childhood that channeled Oliver Twist.

Olympus Has Fallen: Questionable Plot Saved by a Genuine Bad@$$!

Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Brooklyn’s Finest) has taken a flimsy script based on a frightening premise and transformed it into an action powerhouse.  While there is much that could be improved in this film, it is extremely entertaining action event complete with its own memorable Bad@$$!

Premise: White House is taken over by terrorists. Result: Two parts awesome action, two parts flimsy plot, and three parts total Bad@$$ protagonist and you got yourself a delicious film with only a slightly bitter aftertaste.

The film begins by establishing relationships, most importantly that of Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) to President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and his son Connor (Finley Jacobsen).  And it is during this sequence that a tragedy strikes crushing that relationship and sending Banning into obscurity: to watch the White House from afar as he sits in the Treasury Department. Even his pleas to Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs (Angela Bassett) go nowhere.