"Director: Carlos Ávila"

• Price Of Glory | DVD | (16/04/2001) from £6.55   |  Saving you £13.44 (67.20%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In Price of Glory a promising young boxer is knocked out of contention thanks to a sleazy manager who cashed out on his potential by pushing him into a big-money fight before he was ready. Thirteen years later that very same boxer, Arturo Ortega (Jimmy Smits), has three sons whom he's training to be boxers too. His schoolteacher wife wants to make sure they get good grades, but Arturo is sure that boxing is their best chance to get out of the barrio. Flash-forward another 10 years, and the training is paying off. The three boys, Jimmy (Clifton Collins Jr.), Sonny (Jon Seda), and especially Johnny (Ernesto Hernández) have grown into smart and talented boxers. Obviously, Arturo is a good and a tough trainer, but the question of whether he's got his own or his sons' best interests at heart arises when a slick promoter (Ron Perlman) offers him big money first for his sons' contracts and then for a series of title fights. Price of Glory does an admirable job of riding that conundrum throughout, offering no easy answers. There is solid acting throughout and it's nice to see such a Latino-heavy cast, but at just over two hours the pace lags and the central themes are repeated one or two too many times. Aside from a late subplot about corruption and violence that comes across as a bit contrived, this is a good family film about boxing. --Andy Spletzer, Amazon.com

• Ali/Million Dollar Baby/Price Of Glory | DVD | (13/11/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Ali: In a performance that Joel Siegel of ABC News called ""a transformation "" Will Smith plays boxing legend Muhammad Ali in a visually stunning epic from Academy Award-nominated director Michael Mann (The Insider). Beginning with Ali's ground-breaking boxing victories in the 1960s and 1970s Ali explores the physical and psychological battles experienced by the athlete who would come to be known as ""The Greatest."" Facing a tumultuous romantic life deeply held religious beliefs and the pressures of ever-increasing fame Muhammad Ali's quick-witted personality and strong friendships helped him ""float like a butterfly and sting like a bee."" In addition to Smith's acclaimed performance Ali features a revealing portrait of the boxer's close friend sportscaster Howard Cosell played by Oscar nominee Jon Voight. Million Dollar Baby: Frankie's previous career was blighted by an injury to one of his prize fighters Scrap (Morgan Freeman) who lost the sight in his right eye during a particularly brutal bout; Scrap now wiles away the hours working as a cleaner in Frankie's gym. Wary of similar occurrences being inflicted on the prestigious young talent that passes before him Frankie lets a succession of great boxers slip through his fingers. But when the brash confident young boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) strides into the gym Frankie's life is irretrievably altered. Initially refusing to train Maggie due to her gender and age Frankie relents when faced with her tenacity spirit and burning ambition. The combination of Maggie's talent and Frankie's tutelage paves the way for the adroit fighter to rise steadily through the ranks of women's boxing with the unlikely coupling forming a genuinely touching bond in the process. Price of Glory: Jimmy Smits plays an ex-boxer living with the knowledge that a crooked manager cut his fight career short. His bitterness turns into a single-minded quest - for his three sons to win boxing championships. The boys are pushed relentlessly by their dad who enters them into any small-time competition. Ten years later they have become young men with their father as manager. A professional promoter wants to sign them but dad rejects the offer. One by one each son makes his own decision and with each decision the family becomes fractured. Now they're not only fighting in the ring - they're fighting to save their family.