ShangLuda Admirable film.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Jack Hawkins (Hawkensian) Tyson is a well-rounded insight into a very complicated man. It captures the excitement of Mike's 20 year career, stylishly and energetically showcasing many of Tyson's devastating fights while also sensitively exploring Mike's life before, during and after his career. The film charts both his successes and failures, including his dominance of 1985 - 1990, his disastrous marriage to Robin Givens, his rape charge (which he vehemently denies), and his controversial losses to Evander Holyfield.The majority of the film's 86 minutes comprises a series of interviews with Tyson. He speaks of how his rough childhood affected him, most notably his discovery that violence was the only form of defence for a scared young boy in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Tyson elaborates on his ghetto adolescence of theft and drugs before his placement in a borstal, where he was eventually taken under the wing of legendary trainer Cus D'Amato.Tyson had been conditioned by the poverty, drugs and general brutality of New York, this pugnacious young man wasn't going to allow anyone to tame him. This changed when he met D'Amato, he was the first person in his life who believed in him, the first person to inspire him and invest in his future. Mike is still brought to tears when speaking of his beloved mentor.After years of discipline and intense training, the genetically gifted Tyson had been moulded into an 218lb monster, a superb heavyweight contender at just 18 years of age. Sadly, Cus died before he won his first title in 1986.I can imagine some will criticise the film's depiction of its leading man. Indeed, the film portrays Mike sympathetically, his story is told from only his perspective. However, this bias is balanced, or perhaps even tipped in the opposite direction, by Tyson's remarkable honesty. Despite his past behaviour, Mike being the first to acknowledge it, there's part of you that can't help but pity him, he has led a life of confusion and anger, with interference from his numerous demons, one of which being Don King.It is his honesty that makes me, like many others, doubtful of his rape conviction in 1992. Considering how Tyson talks so freely and candidly about his chequered past of hedonism and violence, I doubt that he would repeatedly lie about Washington (who had several years prior allegedly made a false accusation of rape against fellow student Wayne Walker.) He has no interest in concealing his past or improving his reputation, he seems to only want to tell the truth, which I suppose could be a method of reputation management. In reference to the Washington case, the wise Frank Bruno once said: 'You don't go to someone's hotel room at 1am to play chess.' Tyson's narration is at times embarrassing, particularly when he talks about sex, detailing how he likes to 'dominate' his women as if they're prey (corroboration for Washington's defence, perhaps.) He also tells an anecdote of how he 'performed fellatio' on a woman, I'm sure he has since realised he meant 'cunnilingus'. This malapropism is largely an isolated incident however, as Mike is a lover of words with a far greater articulacy than many would think. Tyson brilliantly combines high-register English with African- American vernacular, on multiple occasions he describes things in the most emphatic of ways, such as his verdict on the infamous boxing promoter Don King - 'He's just a wretched, slimy, reptilian motherf*cker... he's ruthless, he's deplorable... he doesn't know how to love anybody.' No matter what one thinks of him, there is no denying that he has more sensitivity and intelligence than he is generally given credit for. This is why I advise anyone, particularly those who disregard Tyson, to watch this eye-opener, it won't necessarily change your opinion of the man, but I think you will appreciate his origins and admire his honesty.80%www.hawkensian.com

jotix100 It is hard to believe that Mike Tyson was bullied as a young boy. We had known about him since he came into the spotlight as one of the best boxers of his generation. In this amazing documentary by James Toback, we get to know more of the man himself, rather than the persona in the media.Early on, Mike Tyson experienced fear as older guys taunted him in his own neighborhood. His passion at that early stage of his life was to raise pigeons. One day, a boy got hold of one of them and killed the bird senselessly. That incident served as a sort of transformation for Mike Tyson to avenge the slaying of the creature he loved.As he grew up, he joined the gang, beginning a career of robbery and getting into trouble. He came from a broken home. Son of a prostitute that decamped the home as Mike was a young boy, he grew up with a lot of anger. It was not until Tyson found boxing that made his attitude change. Finding a role model and a champion in Cus D'Amato, marked a turn for the boxer as he life took a different direction.We are shown moments of triumphs in his amazing career beating opponent after opponent until his incredible defeat. The glamorous life now was accessible to him. Robin Givens and the boxer had a short, but tempestuous marriage that only lasted for a short time. Right after that Tyson was involved in an infamous incident involving Desiree Washington, which caused him to be jailed for a while.The jail experience probably what decelerated his magnificent career. He went from being on top of the world to being the laughing stock and the butt of all kinds of jokes. Fortunately, Mike Tyson finally understood that if he wanted to succeed even more, he had to toe the line. It is amazing he has been able to keep some of the money he made, something that most of his peers have not done.James Toback assembled the material as an intimate conversation of Mike Tyson with the viewer. We feel as though we finally got to know what made the man what he is. Mr. Toback is a wonderful man who we met once casually, but we were impressed by his no nonsense attitude and his approachability. "Tyson" is made better by Mr. Toback's intelligent account on a larger than life personality.

jccwu This film reminds all of us on how dominant Mike Tyson really was in the ring during his prime! (Tyson) is a unique documentary that doesn't have a narrator. Every single line of words are spoken only through Mike Tyson; which makes it original & intriguing, but also disorientated at times.Without using a narrator, allows the audience to personally experience what Mike Tyson was going through. You become extremely shock & mesmerized at how open he is and the details he is publicly sharing with the film's audience.With the unique style of having the only spoken line of dialogs through Mike Tyson does create the problem by lacking a consistent flow to the time-line and his biography. Since everything we hear is what Tyson is delivering to us, I felt as though the filmmakers was throwing his line of interesting dialogs into the documentary, even though it seemed out of place or irrelevant within the film.Do we truly believe everything Tyson says? Not really, but we do believe that Tyson himself believes in everything he says; which allows us to better understand him as an individual and the reasons behind his mind & actions. This film won't make you change the way you felt about him, but it will make you feel differently for who he is now; which is probably the attempt that the filmmakers wanted us to feel. At the end of all things, Mike Tyson is still human.

sol1218 In depth and eye opening documentary of former World Heavyweight Champion Iron Mike Tyson who tells it like it is, or was, about his wild and violent life in and out of the boxing ring.In a soft and almost angelic-like voice Tyson describes his turbulent life that brought him to heights that he never dreamed of ever attaining and depths which most men would have never been able to recovered from. Growing up on the mean streets of Brownsville Brooklyn Mike a shy and quiet kid had to learn to use his fists at a very young age in order to survive. For a while Mike was headed for the state penitentiary and a life behind bars or, like most young men like himself in the Brooklyn Ghetto, an early grave before he reached his 30th birthday.As things turned out fate had different plans in store for young Mike and that came in the person of wise old old Cus D'Amato who took Mike under his wing and instilled both respect and discipline into him. This was to later help overcame Mike's deep inferiority complex in him feeling that he'll never amount to anything positive in life. Cus a boxing trainer who had guided Floyd Patterson to became the youngest Heavyweight Champion in the history of professional boxing was going to do the same for Mike. But in the end it was Mike who was going to have to take as well as throw all the punches to archive that lofty goal!On the evening of November 22, 1986 Mike Tyson made history by becoming the youngest Heavyweight Champ, at age 20, in history by knocking out Trevor Berbick in the 2nd round of their title fight in Las Vegas Navada. The only thing missing for Mike was that the person most responsible for making all that possible Cus D'Amato wasn't there to see it happen ; Gus died at age 77 the previous year. Tyson turned out to be a fighting champ ducking no one and defended his title 10 times over the next 3 1/2 years. In what was to be the fight of the century, in Las Vegas on June 28, 1988, Tyson annihilated the former and undefeated world Heavyweight Champ Michael Spinks-to reunite the title-in less then two minutes of the first round! Not only did a fired up Tyson knock Spinks, who's never been knocked off his feet before, out cold but did it with a combination of bone crunching body, not head, shots!It was after the Spinx fight that Tyson's invincibility in the ring started to came apart at the seams. Dropping those who, trainer and adviser Rooney & Jacobs, guided him to the Heavyweight title Mike got in with blood-sucking manipulators like boxing promoter Don King who not only ended bleeding Mike dry of almost all his, estimated to be over 300 million dollars, purse money but drastically cut back on his rigorous training schedule substituting it with all night parties and non stop sexual escapades! It didn't take long for Mike to lose his boxing ability and that all came to the surface on February 11, 1990 at the Tokyo Dome when he was knocked out, in the 10th round, by journeyman boxer Buster Douglas losing the Heavyweight title at the ripe old age of 23.Being very philosophical about himself, during the hour and a half interview, and what he went through in life Tyson only lost his cool twice when discussing his relationship with promoter Don King whom he decked, in front of a number of eye witnesses, in public and beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington. It was Desiree who claimed, which Tyson strongly denies, that Tyson raped her in his hotel room which ended his quest to regain the Heavyweght title. Being convicted of rape in early 1992 put Tyson's boxing career on hold with him serving three years behind bars for it. Out of prison in 1995 and more then ready to rumble Tyson ran up a string of knock-out victories that landed him a shot at his former Heavyweight Title against the reining Champ Evander Holyfield in Las Vegas on November 9, 1996. Tyson taking command early in the fight soon became frustrated when a plucky Holyfield refused to be intimidated by him and stood toe to toe with Tyson for the first five rounds of the champion fight. Holyfield not backing away but mixing it up with Tyson held his ground until he found an opening in the sixth round catching Tyson with a left-hook to the body dropping him flat on his back! Unable to defend himself against Holyfield's brutal non-stop barrage the fight was stopped early in the 11th round with Tyson barley conscious in the fact that he lost the fight! The rematch with Holyfield next June 28, 1997 had a desperate Tyson try to cannibalize his way to the title by almost biting off, a shocked and outraged, Holyfield's right ear! Disqualified by the referee for un-sportsmen like conduct Tyson who seemed not to give a sh*t about what people think of him was never able to came close to being the same destructive and unbeatable boxer, that he once used to be, again!Tyson now retired and happily married with six children has finally found peace in his very troubled and violent life with his converting to Islam being the main reason for it. Recovering from a serious drug addiction, while the movie was being filmed, Tyson has now become both older and wiser in his seeing what a mess he made of himself and is now doing everything to help correct it! With him putting the same dedication and determination into straighting himself out like he did in getting to the top in the boxing world that unattainable goal, for most people, should be nothing but a piece of cake for Iron Mike Tyson.