As Good As It Gets

A Brilliant Conflict

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Firmin, a retired boxing champ, becomes a mentor for young boxer Mohammed. Soon enough Mohammed rises to the top but is drained of motivation before an important fight after a dispute with Firmin.Watchable underdog boxing dramady based on a fictional comedy sketch character named Firmin. Plenty of sympathetic characters and decent choreographed bouts including real life MMA fighters Jurgen Goemans, Makusu Kimfuta and Ben "Mr. Perfect" Dandois as Mohammed's boxing opponents.

I just don't get this. They've spend two years writing this movie and putting the production together. They hired actors that rank from decent, inoffensive B-listers to full-blown acting powerhouses like the amazing Jan Decleir. They have an experienced director who has made downright excellent stuff like "Crazy Love" and "Hombres Complicados". They have all the money and needs required because apparently this was worth a grant from the Belgian government's audiovisual fund (which is downright insulting when you think of some movies that apparently weren't). Why isn't this movie the slightest bit entertaining or funny? It's definitely not in the main character Firmin, because that's actually one of the few things they got right. Firmin is a comedy character known from two minute sketches, but here they give him plenty of depth in an almost natural way (almost). It's just well, it just doesn't matter. The story of this movie is so boring, it's a predictable underdog tale with predictable story developments (you can just make a list and tick them off) that just drags itself to an ending you can see coming from miles away. That would be okay if it distracted with jokes, but even that's a letdown. Firmin says dumb things once in a while: that's all there is to it. No funny situations, no quotable lines, not even competent delivery sometimes: just no laughs whatsoever. Jesus what a mess of a movie this is.