| OH, DANNY BOY... : Joe Eckardt's 'Champion' [6/10] |
|
|
![Bradford 2006 : Danny Trejo at the UK premiere of CHAMPION (with Neil Young, right) ["I think you out-glared him here. I mean, he's more naturally imposing than you, but your expression is pretty cold. Well done." - Adam Nayman, top Canadian critic]](http://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/images/stories/trejostaressmall.jpg "Bradford 2006 : Danny Trejo at the UK premiere of CHAMPION (with Neil Young, right) [\"I think you out-glared him here. I mean, he's more naturally imposing than you, but your expression is pretty cold. Well done.\" - Adam Nayman, top Canadian critic]") "engaging" ... "a gold-mine of material" ... "rock-the-house entertaining" ... "dynamite - truly inspirational" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Uneven but engaging bio-doc on Danny Trejo, officially the meanest-looking bloke in Hollywood, featured player in Heat, Con Air, xXx, From Dusk Till Dawn (and the two sequels), Sin City, Spy Kids (and the two sequels), and many, many, many others. Too many to name: Trejo routinely makes 10-15 films every year, a Stakhanovite workrate that's all the more astonishing considering he also continues to admirably put in numerous hours every week as a drug counsellor, steering troubled American youth off through difficult times. Trejo himself has walked the walk and talked the talk, spending several years in San Quentin and carving out a lucrative career as an armed robber and general ass-kicking tough-guy before he 'saw the light' and became Eric Roberts' boxing coach on 1985's Runaway Train. Trejo's life-story constitutes a gold-mine of material for any documentarian: unfortunately Eckardt "gimmicks" it up with all manner of editorial and visual bells & whistles, including switcheroo camera-angles; shifts from monochrome to colour and back; superfluous superimposed chapter-headings. And he devotes rather too much time to Trejo's super-energised prison memories (stirred by a return-visit to the "pen"): these quickly become repetitive, and we could perhaps have instead heard a bit more about Danny's adventures in Hollywood, especially as his on-set anecdotes (including his Amazon trip with Jennifer Lopez, Jon Voight, Owen Wilson, Eric Stoltz and Ice Cube on Anaconda) are rock-the-house entertaining. It must be pointed out, however, that Champion is still something of a work-in-progress: the version shown at Bradford was effectively a World Premiere, as it was significantly re-edited from the cut released in the USA on DVD. Another re-do is apparently in the works: hopefully Eckardt will be able to marshal his footage into a whole which does a little more justice to his dynamite, one-of-a-kind, truly inspirational subject. Neil Young 30th March, 2006 CHAMPION : [6/10] : USA 2005 : Joe ECKARDT : 90 mins approx seen at Pictureville cinema, NMPFT, Bradford, (UK), 18th March 2006 - public show - Bradford Film Festival ('world premiere' of re-edited version) click HERE for other films reviewed at Bradford 2006 |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
