Erik Kernan (Josh Hartnett) is a sports writer (on the boxing beat) working for the Denver Times.  His writing doesn't impress his editor (Alan Alda).  He's desperate for a story and a shot at the magazine that comes in the Sunday edition of the paper.  He believes his shot is with the story of a homeless guy called The Champ (Samuel L. Jackson).  Champ claims to be boxer Battlin' Bob Satterfield, one of the best boxers of decades ago.  Erik befriends and interviews Champ.  He writes the piece which becomes the magazine's cover story.  Then his troubles begins as he discovers who Champ really is.

RESURRECTING THE CHAMP (inspired by a true story) is from director Rod Lurie, the creator of the TV shows LINE OF FIRE and COMMANDER IN CHIEF.   The acting is razor sharp.  You believe and care about these characters.  They sell the story of each character.  Erik has problems from living up to a father he never knew (The Wow Guy on the raido), an estranged wife, and a son he lies to (telling that he is friends with famous sports guys).  Erik's problems catch up with him and he has to face his screw-ups as a writer (moral ethics and sloppy fact-checking).  Josh Hartnett has come a long way and his acting is some of his best here.  Samuel L. Jackson makes Champ a very sympathetic guy who has many problems that Eric can relate to.  The big fault of the film is that it suffers from too much character melodrama.  It does sometimes border on cliche and see that before territory.  Even Rod Lurie thinks the domestic problems for Eric were too much.  Still I liked the film.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Writer/Director Rod Lurie talks about the making of the film from his screw-ups to the long development process before he got to make it (Morgan Freeman was once attached) to the things he like about the film on the very informative audio commentary.

Besides the original trailer and trailers for other films (in the special features and before the main menu) such as THE DARJEELING LIMITED, THE FINAL INQUIRY, POSSESSION, and IN THE NAME OF THE KING, the 4 1/2 minute promo fluff featurette and the 12 minutes of interviews with cast and crew (Rod Lurie, Josh Hartnett, Sameuel L. Jackson, Kathryn Morris, Alan Alda, the film's boxing/stunt coordinator) don't add very much- listen to the audio commentary instead.  I wish they included the scenes that Rod Lurie cut from the film.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  RESURRECTING THE CHAMP, like it's characters, is a flawed film that you can care for.

this DVD Review is (c)4-4-2008 David blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com and check for additional content at http://enterline2.tripod.com and http://enterline-media.tripod.com