The Calcium Kid (2004)

Director:

Alex De Rakoff

Writers:

Derek Boyle (screenplay)
Alex De Rakoff (screenplay)

Release Date:

30 April 2004 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

It takes a lotta bottle to be the champ

Plot:

The film is a mockumentary comedy, in which Bloom plays young milkman Jimmy. He is an amateur boxer who by a bizarre twist of events ends up fighting the world champion in his home town. |

Plot Keywords:

Boxer | Milkman | Champion | Mockumentary | Irish

Cast

Mark Heap	...	Sebastian Gore-Brown
Michael Lerner	...	Artie Cohen
Ronni Ancona	...	Pat Connelly
Michael Peña	...	Jose Mendez
Julian Zapata	...	Jose's Entourage
Alejandro Ramirez	...	Jose's Entourage
Milton Hernandez	...	Jose's Entourage
Alberto Ramon	...	Jose's Entourage
Hector Trujillo	...	Jose's Entourage
John Correa	...	Jose's Entourage
Janier Morales Drado	...	Jose's Entourage
Wilson Cretaro da Luz Jr.	...	Jose's Entourage
Tamer Hassan	...	Pete Wright
Omid Djalili	...	Herbie Bush
John Joyce	...	Jon Wright

MPAA:

Rated R for language and brief nudity.

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Malaysia:U | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:T | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Express Dairies, Wakefield St, London, England, UK

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Cameo: [Jamie Gambell]when Stan is fighting with various people in the bar, the guy that he is wrestling with on the pool table is the second boom operator.

Quotes:

Jimmy: I'm a bit confused about everything that's going on at the moment.
Clive Connelly: Does it feel like everyone's trying to pull your pants down, son?
Jimmy: Yeah. Yeah, that's it exactly.
Clive Connelly: My advice to you is... start wearing a belt.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Rocky II (1979)

Soundtrack:

Wack Wack

A simple story is still the very best writing

My sister managed to track down a Region 1 copy of "The Calcium Kid" for me on DVD.

I thought it was a good little movie. It turned out to be MUCH better than I thought it would be; I figured it'd be a comedy and some good laughs, but it had some serious quality to it too, which was deftly executed by the writers, director, and the actors. Anyone who says Bloom isn't a good or even competent actor needs to watch this film, honestly; he lands on the scale talent-wise down below Johnny Depp, admittedly, but he's still as good or better than a lot of "stars" I see on the big screen. (Give me an actor any day of the week over a star, has always been my motto.

I've always in the past liked actors hardly anyone knew.) The story is pretty simple (proving yet again, as I beat my head on my keyboard trying to come up with a good book idea, the best stories have the least bullshit to them). Jimmy Connelly is a milk deliveryman with a dairy. This guy loves milk not just in his job, but in his real life, and has imbibed so much over the course of his life that his bones are hard as granite.

For exercise, Jimmy likes to spar in the boxing ring and answers an ad at a neighborhood gym to help English middleweight hopeful Pete Wright train for his upcoming match with Mexican-American middleweight world champ Jose Mendez in London. Wright breaks the bones in his hand on Jimmy's head and Pete's manager, Herbie Bush, is forced to find someone to step into the ring in only 7 days for the heavily-televised match. He picks Jimmy, who has no sports career, and the press quickly picks up on the new kid in the "David and Goliath" vein of storytelling.

Without giving too much away, I'll just say Jimmy encounters obstacles along the way, both humorous and poignantly sad. He starts the movie as a wide-eyed, cheerfully simple fellow and ends it pretty much the same way, but does grow as a character. There are several points where Bloom's expressive facial features - eyes, mouth, eyebrows - tell a lot more than even what Jimmy is saying, and it seems he takes direction very well from whomever is behind the camera. Jimmy's no brain trust, but when push comes to shove, he's smarter than he looks, at least in common sense.

The movie is filmed "mockumentary" style - the "director" is setting out to document Pete Wright's training a week before the match, as well as his daily life and background, but switches to Jimmy's story once he steps into Pete's place. The use of cutaway shots and still frames is a bit odd at first, but you get used to them, and it works; ditto with the soundtrack choices.

There were several supporting characters I liked a lot, in addition to Jimmy. His manager, Herbie Bush (forgive me, I don't have all the actors' names in front of me as I write, so I'm going to refer to the character names), is a guy looking to make a buck any way he can, and usually comes off as strictly an opportunist lout. He's not really a bad guy, though - he thinks fast on his feet and talks too much, but his schemes just don't usually work out the way he envisions.

Probably the characters I'll remember the most, though, are the crazy neighbor girl, Margaret, and Jimmy's pal Stan. Margaret reminds me of those celebrity stalkers you read about, who just adores Jimmy. She is not, however, the woman you want to see him with at the end of the day. Stan is a comfortably slovenly overweight fellow who sticks by Jimmy when things go bad, and ends up helping him train in odd ways. Another character I liked was Paddy, Jimmy's trainer, who keeps calling him the wrong name, LOL. ("You mad old Irish bastard! My name's NOT Johnny! It's Jimmy!")

All in all, I will definitely watch it again. I get excited by good storytelling, as a writer, because it inspires me in small ways.