The Bronx Bull

I'm not quite as enthralled with Raging Bull as I was years ago. Mostly because it is a pretty stark depiction of a violent man. However, Raging Bull still holds up as a great movie.

Anyway, I threw The Bronx Bull into my Netflix as queue filler, not expecting much. And not much is exactly what I got.

I will say The Bronx Bull did make a smart choice in avoiding the years of LaMotta's that Raging Bull covered. To try and remake Raging Bull would have been foolish. Thus, The Bronx Bull storyline concentrates partly on LaMotta's pre-professional boxing years and largely on LaMotta's life from the 1960's through the 1980's.

With Raging Bull, the production spent a visible amount of time and money recreating New York City circa late 1940's through the early 1950's, with plenty of location shooting. The Bronx Bull fails to capture any of the flavor of NYC because many of the exterior shots look like they were filmed on non-descript studio backlots.

Raging Bull also kept the scope small in terms of the characters. The story concentrated the focus on Jake LaMotta, his second wife Vikki and his brother Joey. As a result, the viewer became invested in these three characters and what happened to them. The Bronx Bull has LaMotta interacting with a dozen plus secondary characters, each for 5 minutes here or 10 minutes there. The focus is so spread out you barely have time get acquainted with any of these people as they flow through LaMotta's life, much less care about them. In addition, while The Bronx Bull is populated with a lot of cast members I have enjoyed in many other things, virtually all of them are way past their prime, few of them are even trying in terms of the acting and all are clearly coasting here for a paycheck.

Beyond all this is the story The Bronx Bull has chosen to tell. Granted, Jake LaMotta as portrayed in Raging Bull was a very violent, bleak persona. Perhaps that's how LaMotta really was in real life. However, with Raging Bull, you had the characters of Vikki and Joey (along with the great performances of Cathy Moriarty and Joe Pesci, not forgetting DeNiro as LaMotta back before DeNiro stopped trying and began coasting for a paycheck) along with the wonderfully filmed fight scenes in addition to the location shots. The Bronx Bull largely tells the story of LaMotta post-boxing, depicting him as a still-violent, charmless drunken has-been. Perhaps that's also how LaMotta was in real life after his boxing career ended, but not compelling as the subject of a movie. Particularly since the after the fall period of LaMotta's life had already been touched upon at the end of Raging Bull.

William Forsythe gives a one-note performance as LaMotta, a performance which adds nothing to how LaMotta was portrayed by DeNiro in Raging Bull. I'm assuming The Bronx Bull was made for RedBox or direct-to-streaming. It certainly doesn't come across as a movie with a decent budget. Even within those parameters, the flick just plods along to no particular effect. Forgettable and unnecessary.

The Bronx Bull (2016)

*** (out of 4)

When this film was originally announced the producers decided to call it RAGING BULL II so that it would stir up a media storm, which it did. This also gave the film a lot of negative press from people screaming that Martin Scorsese's masterpiece didn't need a sequel. Well, THE BRONX BULL eventually got made and released and there's no doubt that one could consider it a direct sequel. The film takes place as Jake LaMotta (William Forsythe) has retired from boxing and we see his many lows that would haunt him.

THE BRONX BULL very well could have been called RAGING BULL II. Is this a masterpiece like the Scorsese film? Not even close. If you go into this expecting the same type of picture then you're bound to be disappointed. I really wasn't sure what to expect from the film and at first I was a little nervous but I must admit that I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. Yes, there are many flaws throughout the picture but at the same time we've got a terrific cast of characters and the film also catches us up on what happened to LaMotta after the ring (a subject just briefly touched upon in RAGING BULL).

What I was most impressed with were the performances. I thought Forsythe was extremely good in the role of LaMotta and you can't help but be impressed because you really do feel as if you're watching a man who has lost his soul. I really thought the actor did a very good job at showing how hot-headed this guy was and how he could just snap in an instant. We've got a lot of famous faces in nice supporting roles including Paul Sorvino who plays LaMotta's father, Joe Mantegna as the best friend and we get the likes of Tom Sizemore, Natasha Henstridge, Penelope Ann Miller, James Russo, Bruce Davidson, Cloris Leachman, Robert Davi and Mike Starr.

As I said, there are quite a few flaws including the story. The film jumps around through several decades and captures different moments in LaMotta's life after the ring but on the whole it's a bit uneven. I'd argue that the direction wasn't the greatest either but it was at least good enough to make sure everything held your attention. The film was obviously shot on a low-budget, which is clearly seen when they try to re-create some of the older times. Still, with all of that said, if you're interested in the LaMotta character then this film should keep you entertained. Just don't go in expecting something that it isn't.

When you click on this movie you expect more then 10 mins of boxing. It's not a good movie whatsoever. It is the worst movie I can remember watching since Batman and robin.

I watched this movie that had some fairly well known actors in it and you would think it was their first role, the acting was so awful and wooden it beggars belief, the directing and producing was also equally awful, this had the potential to be so much better and it fails on every front, the story is all over the place, it jumps from one gap in Lamotta's life to another without bringing any of the parts to a meaningful conclusion, in the end you just give up with trying to follow it and feel like one of Lamotta's opponents, thoroughly demoralized and beaten.

2 out of 10, don't bother watching, Go and re-watch De niro's raging bull

How do you sum up a boxing legend in 94 minutes of film when the man actually survived all odds and lived to the age of 95? Simply put, you don't. This biography film shows Jake LaMotta, who won the World Middleweight Championship on June 16, 1949 in Detroit, Michigan, as a man with many regrets who felt used by so many people for his physical boxing ring prowess.

William Forsythe who played Jake LaMotta mostly after he retired from the ring did more than an admirable job in his portrayal as the brawler, professional boxer, stand up comedian, and womanizer who was married seven (7) times and fathered four (4) children. What was noticeably absent from this biographical portrayal was any of Jake LaMotta's ring fights, or his pension for assaulting the women in his life. Yes, the film did reflect somewhat how jealous Jake could get, but overall this portrayal of Jake LaMotta which mainly focused on his latter years showed a man with no true friends, only people interested in capitalizing on his former fame. This biography reflected a softer side of the ring brawler Jake LaMotta.

There is a great supporting cast in this film all adding value to the Jake LaMotta biography. It is well worth the watch and as such I have rated it 7 out of 10 which is slightly higher than the existing IMDB rating average