BLEED FOR THIS (6 out of 10) Directed by Ben Younger; Written by Ben Younger; Starring Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart, and Katey Sagal; Running time 116 min; Rated R for language, sexuality/nudity and some accident images; In wide release November 18, 2016

If there’s one thing we love, it’s the story of an underdog or someone overcoming adversity to reach new heights of glory. And how else to tell such a tale than in an uplifting sports movie? It’s been done countless times – Rudy, Rocky, Southpaw – and most of these are engaging and can easily get the audience cheering for the little guy or gal in the hopes of seeing them succeed. Bleed for This tries to follow in their footsteps and nearly comes close but is hampered by a story that is too long and drawn out as well as a lackluster performance by the lead.

Based on a true story, Bleed for This chronicles the fall and rise of Vinny Paz (Miles Teller) a lightweight boxer whose star career was cut short by a tragic car accident that left him with a broken neck. Worried that his injury could sever his spinal cord, his doctors recommend surgery that would fuse bones in his spinal column which would give him a normal life but permanently retire him from boxing. Not willing to give up on his life’s work, Paz insists on being fitted with a metal brace that would allow him to heal normally and hopefully get back in the ring. His trainer Kevin Rooney (Aaron Eckhart) at first refuses to help him with his crazy idea of rehabilitation but eventually gives in and helps Paz both recover and eventually train to re-enter the boxing world.

This is a simple enough story and one we’ve seen before, but that doesn’t mean it’s not without its merits. Specifically speaking, Eckhart’s performance is worth the price of admission alone. His portrayal of Kevin Rooney is nearly perfect as the actor completely disappears into his character. It might have helped that Rooney is half bald and has a strong accent, but I didn’t even realize it was Aaron Eckhart until about halfway through. Not since seeing Kate Winslet in last year’s Steve Jobs have I been so absorbed by a performance that I didn’t notice the actor behind it.

If only the same could be said for Miles Teller.

Teller isn’t bad here. In fact, he does a good job. It’s just unfortunate that he still comes across as himself playing a role on screen. No matter what he does, there’s still this dude-bro aura around him that never lets up even if he is playing a completely different kind of character. It’s very reminiscent of the Van Wilder curse that Ryan Reynolds suffered from for years after that movie. Even in a wildly different role, elements of that persona forced its way through and reminded everyone this was just a person playing a character and not what he was trying to do on screen. Maybe this is a problem with the roles Teller is taking or maybe he’s just not that good an actor. Only time will tell as his career advances.

It also doesn’t help that the movie is burdensome and plodding as it plays out. Clocking in at nearly two hours, it feels much longer and will have everyone looking at their watches and annoyed that there is still that much more movie to go before it lets out. It’s not so much that it’s edited poorly as scenes drag on and there is too much exposition to get in the way of the plot.

So in the end, we’re left with an interesting story that unfortunately just isn’t told all that well. The boxing scenes are exciting, and Aaron Eckhart is absolutely fantastic, but there are much better movies out right now, and there are much better boxing movies to enjoy too (Southpaw, anyone?), so there’s just not too much here to recommend. It’s not bad by any means, but it’s definitely more of a lightweight than the strong contender it set out to be.

6 out of 10

FANTASTIC FOUR (0 out of 10) Directed by Josh Trank; Written by Josh Trank, Jeremy Slater and Simon Kinberg; Starring Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell and Reg E. Cathey; Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action, and some suggestive content; Running time 106 minutes, In wide release August 7, 2015.

Superhero movies have evolved and matured into a legitimate genre that has transcended their original, niche market. While the original “Fantastic Four” films never hit home, the addition of Josh Trank fresh from his success with the excellent “Chronicle”, gave hope that someone might finally get this Marvel property right. Nothing could be further from the truth. Inexplicably, he has managed to create one of the most soul crushingly joyless movies ever made and has set an astoundingly new low for film in general.

Wunderkind Reed Richards (Miles Teller) has been working on a transportation device his whole life. He and best friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) have been tinkering around with it ever since the fifth grade and now, high school seniors, they have finally figured out how to not only transport matter but also make it come back. This catches the eye of Dr. Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey doing his best Morgan Freeman impression) who recruits Reed to work with the government and finalize his inter-dimensional transportation device. Joined by Storm’s brilliant children, Sue (Kate Mara) and Johnny (Michael B. Jordan), as well as the originator of the project, Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell), Reed and team soon perfect it. Realizing that they won’t be allowed to travel to this new dimension, Reed convinces Ben to join him, Johnny and Victor to be the first explorers of this strange new world. The trip goes horribly wrong and leads to the presumed death of Victor as well as imbuing the rest of the crew – and Sue Storm, inexplicably – with strange powers and physical transformations. Sensing the potential to create an army of super beings, the government searches for an escaped Reed who holds the key to reopening the dimensional door and either finding a cure for his friends or unleashing the doom of earth.

Think what you will of the first movies, but at least they understood the humor, camaraderie and sense of family of the Fantastic Four. This iteration is a desiccated husk that refuses to allow anyone to derive any sense of enjoyment or fun out of it.

Since this is a reboot, we get a severe dose of origin-itis, which I’m not opposed to considering that Trank has completely rewritten the origins of the characters. I’m fine with that as well; by all means, take a new approach to keep things fresh. What doesn’t work is when said origin takes more than half the movie to explain and wastes most of its time on characters staring into computer monitors. What’s worse is it actually takes a downward spiral once they have their superpowers. I have no idea how they did it, but as my husband pointed out, they managed to make superheroes more boring than regular people.

And speaking of people, no one is remotely invested in their roles. Trank’s script is so horribly written that they probably would have had better lines if they had sat down and dictated the phone book. This isn’t to say the actors couldn’t have done better, but when the lion’s share of the film rests on the “talents” of Miles Teller it leaves little room for anyone else to have a chance to connect with the audience. It’s a shame too because Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell who portrayed the only interesting characters could have had some kind of impact had they had more than 15 minutes of actual screen time.

The only fathomable reason “Fantastic Four” exists is to extend the film rights for Fox. Everything reeks of desperation and no one involved should be remotely proud of the result.

“Pixels” is a masterpiece in comparison.

The only good thing to come out of this would be if it bombs spectacularly and Fox remits the rights to Marvel, but since they already have a date for a sequel, even that’s uncertain.

Rarely have I seen a movie stoop so low in an attempt to do so little, and Fox and Trank should be ashamed at the sorry excuse for a movie they are trying to pawn off on us. If not for the successes of the MCU, “Fantastic Four” could easily have singlehandedly killed the genre for years to come. This is not only the worst superhero movie ever made, it’s easily the worst in recent memory. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to ever subject themselves to it.