38
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 50TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineAn updated version of the more gritty original, given an inappropriately lush look by director Zeffirelli.
- 50Washington PostGary ArnoldWashington PostGary ArnoldUnfortunately, The Champ does not let well enough alone. It slogs on for about two reels too many, concluding on a note of utterly contrived tragedy that should make just about everyone feel wretchedly deceived. [04 Apr 1979, p.B1]
- 40Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrThe tear-jerking is so determined and persistent that your ducts feel as if they'd been worked over with a catheter. But despite its great length, the film never makes sense of its central relationship, between Jon Voight's washed-up prizefighter and Faye Dunaway's chichi fashion designer.
- 40The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyThe most offputting thing about such canny, tear-stained movies as The Champ is not their naïveté but their unholy sophistication. These movies don't mean to deal with the world as it really is, but as it should be, a place where there's no pile-up of emotional garbage too big that it can't be washed clean by a good cry.
- 40Time OutTime OutSyrupy schlock from perhaps the most sentimental of all Italian directors, a pointless update of King Vidor's '30s weepie about a former champion boxer's attempts to hang on to his doting son when his estranged wife reappears on the scene.
- 40NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenThe Champ is overcalculated to a fault. Like suspense, sentimentality should sneak up on you unexpectedly; when it's poured out like slop in a trough, it kills the appetite. This movie is so busy spilling its own tears that my own seemed quite superfluous. [09 Apr 1979, p.87]
- 38The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottFat and sassless Champ a loser on all counts. [09 Apr 1979]