Joe and Max

2002

Action / Biography / Drama / Sport / War

3
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 56%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 56% · 250 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.6/10 10 1088 1.1K

sports boxer boxing

Plot summary

True story of boxers Joe Louis and Max Schmeling and their enduring friendship.

Director

Steve James Photo
Steve James

Top cast

Dirk Schoedon Photo
Dirk Schoedon as Kurt Tucholsky
Til Schweiger Photo
Til Schweiger as Max Schmeling
Leonard Roberts Photo
Leonard Roberts as Joe Louis
Wilfried Hochholdinger Photo
Wilfried Hochholdinger as Joseph Goebbels
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
1.02 GB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 53 min
Seeds ...
1.89 GB
1920*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 53 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by ma-cortes 7 / 10

The movie narrates the historical boxing confrontation between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling

Reviewed by classicsoncall 7 / 10

"I'm no champ until I beat Max Schmeling." - Joe Louis

I went into this film with some wariness knowing that it was a made for TV movie, and as such, it's good but not great. The story itself seems to be told fairly accurately, but when doing sports movies, film makers ought to be more attentive to supplying dates and historical perspective to what's going on. The picture opens with a 1936 Madison Square Garden match, but when it comes time for the anticipated first meeting between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, well when exactly was it? The same holds true for the Braddock - Louis title fight (6/22/37) and the Louis defense against Schmeling exactly a year later (6/22/38). I know the dates because I just looked it up, but some mention in the picture would have been welcome.Probably the best aspect of the movie, at least for me, was the way it handled the issues of race and in Schmeling's case, the propaganda value of a German upholding the concept of the Master Race. To his credit, Schmeling defied the Nazi regime as ably as he could, and had he been a mediocre athlete, probably would have suffered a meteoric fall from the public eye. The German champ defied Hitler and Goebels by remaining loyal to his Jewish manager, and on the flip side, Joe Jacobs (David Paymer) had to endure accusations of being a traitor to the American cause during the run up to World War II.As for Louis, the film barely scratched the surface of his life and career, but then again, the focus was on the rivalry between two accomplished athletes. Even so, the real life Joe Louis was a notorious womanizer, something that was barely hinted at when his wife Marva (Siena Goines) confronted one of her husband's girlfriends. Often in these sports biopics, sensationalism runs just the opposite, as in 1992's "The Babe" on the career of Babe Ruth starring John Goodman.In my review of the 1953 film "The Joe Louis Story", I voiced the opinion that a modern day treatment of the former champion, if done right, could be a sensational film. Unfortunately this one misses the mark with some eclectic casting and a look that's just a bit too flashy and modern looking in it's representation of the 1930's. Nevertheless it's a watchable story and a fairly good springboard to the careers of Louis and Schmeling for anyone interested in digging deeper.
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