It's a documentary that embodies the life story of heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. The film reflects the life of a former heavyweight boxing champ who lived his troubled life in and out of the ring and more archive shots.
The most remarkable revelation of the movie is its subject's thoughtful, reflective eloquence and unflinching self-perception...Tyson may or may not be entirely who he says he is, but he's probably not who we thought he was, either.
Boxing fans will be thrilled by Toback's film, filled as it is with multi-camera angles and behind-the-scenes footage of some of the greatest fights in the sports history.
It all adds up to a fascinating psychological study, a film that goes beyond both the public persona and the fighter's own spin to get at the frightened, angry, explosive, yet utterly understandable boy who became a very troubled and very public man.
Turns out Mike Tyson, lo and behold, isn't that interesting after all. He's an unreliable narrator, sure, but mostly he's just a grotesque cartoon of every athlete who never had to answer for anything as long as they were making other people money.
Listening to Tyson tell his side of the story, you come to understand him with new depth and complexity.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
June 11, 2009
Some documentaries grow in the shadows; others demand to be made. The story of boxer Mike Tyson, powerfully recounted in a new film, is as rich as a Dickens novel.
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
February 21, 2010
Whether or not the troubled Mike deserves our sympathy, is left up to the viewer.
