Sick Product of a Sick System

It is a performances centric movie

Expected more

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Oh how the Mighty have Fallen. Not Sonny Liston but Director Robert Townsend. The Once Promising Director who Helmed this Biopic of Heavyweight Champion Liston is Either Out of His Depth or couldn't Pull this Off and it seems like there wasn't much Effort and the Whole Thing Looks Cheap, Undeveloped, and Haphazard.The Low-Budget is No Excuse. Much can be Made for Very Little with some Creativity and Depth of Concern. The Movie is so Muddled and Amateurish at Times that it is Knocked Down In the Opening and Never gets up. The Highlights and Lowlights of the Life of Sonny Liston are Never Explored with Compelling Cinema. It is Flat and Uninteresting and Considering the Enigmatic Liston's Private Life and His Powerful Presence in the Ring it is Mysteriously Boring.The Phantom Punch that Cassius Clay (Ali) Threw in Their Second Fight, one of the most Controversial Knockouts in Boxing History and Ironically the Title of the Film is Hardly Examined, Explored, or for that Matter it is Glossed Over for some Unknown Reason. The Ending of Liston's Life is also Mysterious and the Mystery here is that, again it is so Rushed that it seems a Featherweight is at the Controls.The Film isn't Awful, it is just a Mess. Considering the Material Available it is the Greatest of Concern as to why this Thing Turned Out so Ineffective. it should have been a No Brainer and it turns out to be a Non-Contender.

I kinda enjoyed this film. I didn't know anything about Sonny Listen so after watching this film, it shinned a little light on him for me. I know the Clay/Ali fight was a major event in his life but the film played it as just another fight. I would of liked to see the build up to that fight, and the aftermath. The movie never mentioned how Clay was harassing him and how he felt about it. Nothing about him shooting blanks at Clay in a Casino. I also didn't understand why he would cheat against Clay when there was no history of cheating before that fight. The film was titled Phantom Punch but he doesn't admit to taking a dive. (Hummm) I did enjoy Stacy Dash in her role. I loved the period piece. Costumes etc.. I liked the possible motive for his death. I enjoyed it but I think I just wanted more on the rise and fall of SL.

Boxing is a sport almost impossible to fake believably; the subtleties of in-fighting, for instance, or a short, solid shot to the jaw (like the one that felled Sonny Liston in real life) are lost on the big screen- despite the size of the "canvas." In RAGING BULL, director Martin Scorsese (applauded by critics upon the film's release) has Robert DeNiro as Jake Lamotta literally roaring like a dinosaur at one point- and, in some of the most amateurish filmmaking I've ever seen outside of a ROCKY movie, clinging to a strand of rope while being cinematically slain by "Sugar Ray Robinson," taunting him with: "You never knocked me down, Ray." A mere technicality, that: in Real Life, Lamotta was out on his feet when the referee rescued him, and, barely able to stand, was led back to his corner by his corner men. Which kinda sorta brings me to PHANTOM PUNCH. The book by Nick Tosches that may or may not have inspired this movie is so one-sided in its presentation of "the facts" that several facts are overlooked (or glossed over in passing): Muhammad Ali (who was NOT A SOUTHPAW, as depicted in this alleged Motion Picture) DID, in fact, drop Liston with a short, jolting right to the jaw in their second fight. In fact, the very first punch he landed in the rematch was just such a short, jolting right to the jaw- a punch the crouching Liston proved susceptible to in both fights. Boxing writer Jimmy Cannon is said to have made this observation: "I saw the punch land, and it couldn't have squashed a grape." Oh, yeah? Tell that to Cleveland Williams, who ran into that selfsame right in the second round of his fight with Ali: the punch dropped him in his tracks. Many of Ali's many fans refer to the Williams fight as his finest performance- and yet NO ONE has ever suggested that the same short, jolting right that dropped Williams for the first of four knockdowns was a "phantom punch." That this movie would even perpetuate such a myth speaks volumes. Against former middleweight Floyd Patterson, Liston looked awesome; against bigger and better opponents, not so much. Eddie Machen, who was stopped by Joe Frazier, went the distance with Liston. And, like Cleveland Williams, he complained of ointment of some kind getting in his eyes during the fight. In his first fight with Ali, Liston can actually be seen extending his arm to place his glove against Ali's cheek and then WIPING it across Ali's face. One need only go back and look at the fight: the proof of something unsavory going on is THERE. Ving Rhames, so good as "Mike Tyson" in UNDISPUTED, is wasted here: PHANTOM PUNCH is so badly written and directed that it wouldn't pass muster as a TV movie (which is saying a lot: I remember cringing when, as a kid, I saw a TV movie with Erik Estrada playing-acting as a boxer: at one point, he tells someone that there are "five punches in boxing"). I've been on the receiving end of a beating at least once in my life (to a three-time Golden Gloves champion), so I find the kind of misinformation in movies like this nigh intolerable. Muhammad Ali was NOT a southpaw.

Robert Townsend said in reports that he wanted to show the true Sonny Liston and he said, "History hasn't been kind to Sonny Liston." He goes and he makes Liston's death look like a suicide instead of a murder? He shows Liston just plain quitting on the stool in his first fight with Ali? He shows Liston trying to blind Ali in the first fight? He shows Liston throwing the Ali rematch for no apparent reason? Townsend is an idiot. This movie is so bad it makes Meteor Man look like a masterpiece.I was unfortunate enough to see this movie and now I know why it was never released. It is a piece of garbage. This is one of the worst movies I've ever scene. Not only is it a terrible boxing movie, but it's an awful biopic. I was really shocked at how bad this movie was. I couldn't wait for a movie about Sonny Liston and this is what I got? This movie hasn't been released to theaters and it never will be. If Townsend is lucky, maybe the movie will get released straight to DVD or maybe they will put it on TV. But I don't see this doing well wherever it goes.Meteor Man failed to mention in his movie that Liston was the favorite in his fights with Ali. In the first fight, Liston was a 7-1 favorite. It would make all the sense in the world for him to take a dive for the mob. I read accounts that Liston said he was "only following orders" when he quit on the stool. Another stupid part of the scene that had me shaking my head was the part when Townsend shows them putting a foreign substance on his glove to blind Ali. First of all, Liston did not need to cheat. Liston was a great fighter. He was one of the toughest fighters in history and he wasn't afraid of anyone. This is a man that knocked out the great Floyd Patterson in 2 minutes. Then it only took him 5 seconds more in the rematch. He slugged it out in 2 wars with Cleveland Williams. He fought a whole fight with a broken jaw and only lost a split decision to Marty Marshall. Second of all, why would Liston try to cheat in a fight that he was going to throw? There's no doubt something got in Ali's eyes during the fight, but to say Liston put it there is ridiculous and there is no proof. In the end of the fight Townsend tries to make you believe Liston just quit like a spineless bum. I know some people would love to believe Ali was this mighty man that overcame Sonny Liston, but let's get real. That's not the way it was. The movie gets to the big moment, the infamous "phantom punch." The scene is so uneventfully done in the movie it's pathetic. Townsend never even tells you why Liston took a dive in the rematch. He just goes down for no apparent reason. Townsend had the nerve to keep the mob out of that fight too. That fight was fixed. It looked like even more of a sham than the first fight.This movie failed to show Sonny Liston's hard upbringing. It also failed to show that he really wasn't a bad guy and that he loved children and even tried to help people that were less fortunate. One of the biggest slaps in the face to Liston is how they handle his death in the movie. Instead of showing Liston getting murdered they make it look like a suicide. I was completely outraged. I didn't think Townsend could be that dumb. In the movie they make it look like Liston was depressed over his girlfriend on the side leaving him, so he does heroine one night. The guy was deathly afraid of needles. He never did drugs in his life. Sonny Liston was M-U-R-D-E-R-E-D.You want the real scoop on Liston, get the book The Devil and Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches. Nick Tosches did what Townsend lied about saying he was going to do. Townsend made Liston look like a no good bum, but that wasn't the real Liston. Townsend should be ashamed of himself. Check out the Tosches book. Avoid this horribly written and directed movie at all costs. I do not recommend buying it or renting it. It's not even worth watching on TV. I don't think Townsend was taking his job seriously when he made this movie. By the looks of it, it's like he was just fooling around. If you were wondering why this movie was never released, you have your answer. The mystery has been solved.