Russell Crowe

Renée Zellweger

Paul Giamatti

Craig Bierko

Paddy Considine

Bruce McGill

David Huband

Connor Price

Ariel Waller

Patrick Louis

Rosemarie DeWitt

Linda Kash

Nicholas Campbell

Gene Pyrz

Chuck Shamata

Ron Canada

Alicia Johnston

Troy Amos-Ross

Mark Simmons

Art Binkowski

David Litzinger

Matthew G. Taylor

Rance Howard

James Ritz

Fulvio Cecere

Clint Howard

Gerry Ellison

Bill Mackie

Ray Marsh

Fernand Chretien

Dave Dunbar

Ken James

Rufus Crawford

Angelo Dundee

Lou Eisen

Wayne Gordon

Wayne Flemming

Nick Alachiotis

Christopher D. Amos

Nick Carusi

Keith Murphy

Everton McEwan

John Kalbhenn

David Georgieff

Wayne Bourque

Paul Ryan

Sean Gilroy

Michael McNamara

Billy Wine

Richard Bachynsky Hoover

Michael Chin

Stewart Lunn

Richard Lewis

Peter Wylie

Thomasz Kurzydlowski

Stuart Clark

Julian Lewis

Eric Fink

Sergio Di Zio

Gavin Grazer

Boyd Banks

Daniel Kash

Judah Katz

Angelo Tsarouchas

Rob Smith

Craig Warnock

Aaron Abrams

Duff MacDonald

Andrew Stelmack

Christopher Crumb

Gerry Quigley

Peter MacNeill

Darrin Brown

John Healy

Peter Didiano

James Kirchner

Michael Langlois

Magdalena Alexander

Nola Augustson

Gino Marrocco

Mark Taylor

Sharron Matthews

Alec Stockwell

Chick Roberts

Isabella Fink

Beau Starr

Philip Craig

Roman Podhora

R.D. Reid

Michael Dyson

Sam Malkin

Tony Munch

Conrad Bergschneider

Richard Binsley

Ramona Pringle

Katrina Matthews Swain

Cooper Bracken

Jacob Bracken

Alon Nashman

Dominic Cuzzocrea

Brian Grazer

Salvatore Totino

Daniel Orlandi

Dan Yarhi

Ron Howard

Cliff Hollingsworth

Kathleen McGill

Mark Owen Forker

Thomas Newman

Penny Marshall

Daniel P. Hanley

Wynn Thomas

Gordon Sim

Peter Grundy

Mike Hill

Jane Jenkins

Bill Bernstein

Steve Lucescu

Diane Kerbel

Hazel Gordon

Burton J. LeBlanc

Anthony J. Ciccolini III

Rob Bell

Janet Hirshenson

Laird McMurray

Ann Brodie

Robert Racki

Stephannie Hawkins

Shawn C. Orr

Nick Powell

Dean Copkov

Robert McRae

Edward A. Queffelec

Dave Van Zeyl

Christopher McGuire

Tebor Brosch

Billy Oliver

Ron Van Hart

Duncan McLeod

Joel Harris

Egerton Marcus

Patrick Mark

John Stead

Marco Bianco

Kevin Rushton

John Stoneham Jr.

Jim Lyttle

Paul Rutledge

Donovan Boucher

Cotton Mather

James Binkley

Bryan Renfro

George A. Lara

Deborah Wallach

Richard Friedlander

Glenn Allen

Nancy Bernstein

Louisa Velis

Jim Whitaker

Akiva Goldsman

Todd Hallowell

Crystal Kramer

Natasha Ladek

William M. Connor

Michelle Lewitt

Steve Wakefield

George Kraychyk

Paul Shikata

Emanuel Millar

Anna Rane

Tony Volante

Lance Anderson

David LeRoy Anderson

Jonnie Katz

Romance

Drama

History

Cinderella Man

Universal Pictures

Miramax

Imagine Entertainment

Parkway Productions

Brian Grazer Productions

United States of America

Andres Gomez

The stereotypical sports movie about a character which goes from glory to hell and back to the glory again.

The story is OK, but nothing new. Crowe performs well, but it is not one of his best movies. Giamatti is great, as always but Zellwegger is too cheesy in her role.

Just an entertaining movie without any more intentions.

Peter McGinn

This is a fine boxing movie, one that relies more on the fighter’s personal story than endless scenes of boxing brutality. James Braddock’s final rise to the championship was an inspirational example during the lull in between the headline-grabbing reigns of Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis, when the heavyweight title changed hands several times.

My only complaint with Ron Howard’s film was its portrayal of Max Baer, the champion Braddock defeated to win the title. For dramatic purposes, they changed his personality and made him into a bullying, vicious person, to the point of making a crude comment about Braddock’s wife. They needed a bad guy so they made one. 

I became interested in Max Baer when I was a teen and read a lot about him over the decades. He was fierce when he meant business in the ring, but mostly he was happy go liucky and didn’t love the fight game. As a side note, Max Baer’s son was also upset at seeing this man he didn’t recognize as his father (this was Max Baer Jr., Jethro Bodean from the Beverly Hillbillies). But what can you do — making changes is standard procedure for movies based on real events.  They are often still worth watching. Just don’t use them for research for a school project, right?

CinemaSerf

Once Jim Braddock (Russell Crowe) breaks his hand in a fight, he discovers that his previously reasonably successful life in the ring has come to an end - and that puts him, wife “Mae” (Renée Zellweger) and their kids on skid row. He’s gone from making $8,000 from a fight to ferreting around the docks looking for work and taking state welfare funds so they can keep their children in their now electricity-free apartment. Then serendipity takes an hand as his former manager Joe Gould (Paul Giamatti) arranges a last-minute fight for him that might garner a meagre $250. It’s not a fight he’s expected to fare well in, but against the odds he triumphs and that enables Gould to engage with his former backer Jimmy Johnston (Bruce McGill) and that could, ultimately, lead to a world title tight fight against Max Baer (Craig Bierko). It’s a pretty savage indictment of urban American life in the 1930s and it also serves well at illustrating just how boxing so often proved the most appealing and available conduit for many an uneducated man to escape the poverty trap that would embrace not just him but his family, too. As to Braddock, his story also involves his close friend “Mike” (Paddy Considine) who embarks on a similar career path, only he has neither the skill nor the sense to make it work. For that, Braddock is especially fortunate to have Gould in his corner, a man who is less venal than many who would hire and fire at the drop of an hat. It’s the boxing action that really works well here, though, with Crowe putting heart and soul into a character that is designed to demonstrate fortitude and determination, sure, but also humanity and humility too. Giamatti steals the scenes, but Zellweger also contributes well as Ron Howard presents us with a poignant, violent and plausible story of a man motivated by family and friends who epitomised his own version of the pioneering spirit.

English

Cinderella Man - Official® Trailer [HD]