Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

lawkansas Had heard some things about both men, but this movie brought it all into focus. From beginning to end, this movie made me feel good about both fighters by showing their personal lives and their relationship with each other. They both had plenty of ups and downs, and here it is all put into perspective. This is a film for sports fans and it will also appeal to a much broader audience as well.The music helps the story portrayed here, and the actors realize their place in history. Both men are solid citizens above and beyond their occupations and nationalities. I particularly liked the scene in which Max comes to the south side of Chicago when searching for Joe. They find each other, and the dialog is excellent.

btm1 The true story of the relationship between world heavyweight champion Joe Louis and European heavyweight champion Max Schmelling is one of the "truth is stranger than fiction" variety. In their first meeting in 1936, a young Joe Lewis was the leading contender for a title shot while the 10 years older German Schmelling was the European champion. When underdog Schmelling defeated Lewis he reluctantly became a propaganda icon for Hitlers regime. Lewis at that time was the pride and hope of the "Negro race" (as people of African lineage were then called by decent people), but "white" America apparently was wary of him. After he beat Schmelling in the second fight Lewis became an idol of all America, while the embarrassed Nazis made Schmelling a non-entity in Nazi Germany. During the war Schmelling was made an ordinary soldier in the German Army, while Lewis' tour in the US Army was as a celebrity used for troop morale. Later, after Lewis retired undefeated, he learned that he owed a huge amount of money to the IRS and had to go back into boxing to try to rid himself of the debt. (The film does not get into the details, but supposedly Lewis, who was not well educated, had relied on his manager and promoter to handle his finances, including preparing tax returns.) But Lewis was too old now and was humiliated in the ring. He then took a variety of demeaning jobs in an attempt to pay off the debt, which he never was able to accomplish. The movie does not address the disgraceful issue of why no U.S. President gave him some sort of a pardon forgiving this American hero of the debt. In the meantime, Schmelling has a phoenix-like reversal of fortune when Coca Cola sought him out to use him in a campaign to capture the German market for its product.So the basis for an interesting movie was there. The problem was in the implementation.The film seemed badly paced and choppy. Many of the scenes seemed to me needlessly drawn out, with the camera sometimes lingering on objects, such as a railroad train for no reason that I can think of. The parts of the film I liked best are the scenes in with Schmelling (Til Schweiger) and his actress wife (Peta Wilson) in Germany.As was noted in another comment, the actors looked nothing like the well known people they were portraying. Although not stated in the IMDb cast listing, it looked to me that different actors were used for the younger and older Joe Lewis, with neither resembling the real Joe Lewis nor even each other. Rocky Marciano, a short fireplug of a fighter with a battered face he got wading into his taller, longer armed opponents that often made him look more like the loser than the winner of his fights, was played by a tall unmarked fighter. The musical score does nothing to aid the movie.

wolfiamadeus I live in Austria and saw the film until a few minutes ago for the first time via satellite broad casted on German television. I think the film shows how sport can be used and abused in a political way and when you stop winning people tend to forget you. I found the film very moving because parts of it reminded me of what my grandmother told me about the war and about the rebuilding of our city and often a lot of unright things happened to people because they were accused of being Nazis after the war like max schmeling was in the movie. it also shows how heroes are sometimes treated because Joe louis did a lot for his motherland in ww2 and later nobody helped him when he needed help. its sad that such things can happen to people who have served their home country so well. Its nice that he was honored after his life but he hasn't had it easier during his life though. This film brought up a lot of emotion in me although i didn't even plan to watch it, i just zapped in. I would recommend it to everybody and i'll give it a clear 10

George Parker "Joe and Max" tells the true story of two champion boxers who fight each other in the ring while forming a bond of friendship and mutual respect outside the ring. Full of unrealized ironic potential with men of different color finding common ground in a world driven to war in part by racial division, "Joe and Max" has the usual short-comings of made-for-tv docudramas; low budgetness, melodrama, stiff portrayals, poor character development, historical inaccuracies, etc. "Joe and Max" probably has minimal value beyond edification for boxing fans. (C+)