PRIZEFIGHTER
★★
Cert 15
On Amazon Prime Video now
Regency-era bare-knuckle fighter Jim Belcher gets the Rocky treatment in an underpowered biopic that fails to land a killer blow.
Writer-producer-star Matt Hookings, son of boxing champion David Pearce, looks the part in the ring as the Somerset lad who gatecrashed high society after becoming the fighter champion of England. Sadly, the thin, formulaic script fails to make the most of a starstudded supporting cast.
Russell Crowe invents yet another new accent to play
Belcher’s booze-addled pugilist grandad, Martin Csokas is his aristocratic patron, and Ray Winstone his gruff cockney corner man.
Any sense of the period is left on the ropes after a barrage of cheesy training montages, naff speeches and historical gaffes including a final bout in modern-day boxing gloves.