Entertainment, Movies - Army Times

A standing 8-count

The career of the inimitable Samuel L. Jackson has been nothing if not eclectic.

Take just last year, for example. Jackson made no less than four films, including the racial drama “Freedomland,” the Southern Gothic “Black Snake Moan,” the Iraq war drama “Home of the Brave,” and the inspired silliness that was “Snakes on a Plane.”

Jackson is nearing the rare air where Christopher Walken resides; neither is the world’s best actor, but they’re invariably so interesting in whatever roles they take that you’ll watch a mediocre flick just to see them do their respective things.

In “Resurrecting the Champ,” Jackson adds yet another unique role to his dossier — that of Champ, a.k.a. “Battling” Bob Satterfield, a former top boxing contender who hit the skids and didn’t stop until he landed on the streets — broke, homeless and half-crazy.

The street is where Erik Kernan (Josh Hartnett), a neophyte sports reporter for a Denver newspaper, first meets Champ, who has just been beaten by a gang of local hoods and is none too pleased to have been interrupted while dumpster-diving for stray booze bottles that still might contain a swig or two.

But each soon finds his own co-dependent rationale for latching onto the other. Erik, a mediocre reporter who’s having a hard time filling the large shoes of his late sportswriter father, sees a potential story that could propel him out of the dingy sports section and into magazine feature writing — maybe even (gasp!) broadcasting. Champ sees an easy mark who will provide, at least in the short run, a steady supply of food and booze.

The film is actually three stories; the first is the tale of the bobbing, weaving, fast-talking Champ (lots of flashbacks to his glory years). The second unfolds in the newsroom, in the form of a behind-the-scenes battle between Erik and his editor (Alan Alda) about ethical journalism. That plotline leads to the film’s big hook, a surprise uppercut that arrives once Erik’s story on Champ hits the streets.

Unfortunately, the third thread shifts the focus and things turn maudlin as we meander through Erik’s home life, which features both an estranged wife (Kathryn Morris) who works at the same newspaper — and is more highly regarded — and a resentful young son (Dakota Goyo) to whom Erik cannot resist exaggerating, if not outright lying, about the famous people he supposedly meets in his job.

At one time, and not all that long ago, Hartnett was seemingly poised to become the Next Big Thing — until suddenly he wasn’t anymore, when the realization bloomed that he is spectacularly bland and his acting range is spectacularly minimal. (See also: James Franco.)

Clearly, the search for spiritual redemption and renewal by both central characters is what director Rod Lurie and writers Michael Bortman and Allison Burnett, adapting a true story by L.A. Times reporter J.R. Moehringer, are aiming for here. But in the end, Lurie can make only one of the two tales of redemption here grab hold and hit home; the other just annoys.

And I think you can guess which is which.

2½ stars Rated PG-13. Opens Aug. 24.