Name : Chris Vognar / Alias : Dallas Morning News
The Perfect Shot might not be the perfect movie, but it's still a worthy profile of the defining Dallas sports star of this generation.

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
The melodrama is uncomfortably high; the checked-box plot is manipulative.

Name : Richard Brody / Alias : New Yorker
The modicum of pleasure delivered by "Southpaw" arrives thanks to its cast, who struggle bravely and energetically with the hopelessly bland text and the invisible, impersonal direction.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
It's a win for Mr. Gyllenhaal, while the movie loses out to its cliches.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
Despite its supposedly hard-hitting veneer, the film never goes out on a limb when it counts.

Name : Kenneth Turan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
"Southpaw" is proof of contrivance's clout, but there is a limit to what it can do.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
In the end "Southpaw" knocks itself to the mat.

Name : Cary Darling / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
Southpaw doesn't try to reinvent the boxing-movie game - in fact, it pretty much indulges every cliche - but it's the intense central performance from a beefed up, ripped-to-the-core Jake Gyllenhaal that gives it distinction and heart.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
It brings back every stale genre convention you can think of, then hopes you won't recognize predictability pumped up with swearing and steroids and an Eminem song during the training montage.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
If you come to terms with the fact that Southpaw doesn't bring any ideas to the canvas that are any newer than Wallace Beery, this is an energetic enough fight picture to capture the imagination.

Name : Stephanie Zacharek / Alias : Village Voice
Southpaw is an exhausting brutalist melodrama, but if nothing else, Fuqua always works with fine actors, and he's got a passel of them here.

Name : Tony Hicks / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
The intense, raw acting skills of Gyllenhaal, and strong performances from Forest Whitaker and young actress Oona Laurence, save "Southpaw" from getting lost in its cliches.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
This is a genre with especially sturdy bones, and when "Southpaw" connects, which is more often than you might expect, you feel it down to your toes.

Name : A.A. Dowd / Alias : AV Club
All of Gyllenhaal's discipline and drive is misdirected; it's wasted energy, a cinematic rope-a-dope.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
The script may have hamburger for brains, but Fuqua slams it home with the help of actors who give their all - even when giving a little less might have made things more interesting.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
As a troubled slugger, Gyllenhaal is impressively muscle-bound, but gives no knockout performance. His work drags on like 12 rounds of fistfight fatigue.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
The undeniable intensity of Gyllenhaal's bulked-up, Method-mumbling performance may leave you feeling more pummeled than convinced in this heavy-handed tale of redemption .

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
"Southpaw" may be rote, predictable and mawkish, but none of those faults lie in its star. Even when he looks like an unholy mess, he transcends the movie he's in.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
What keeps this cornball business from getting out of hand is the commitment of Gyllenhaal, whose performance is fierce and muscular, in and out of the ring.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
a retro, in-your-face fight drama that dribbles into sappiness. Much, though far from all, is redeemed by Gyllenhaal's virtuoso performance.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
I wish I could say "Southpaw" was a knockout, or even a contender, that it went the distance or scored on points. But it's strictly an undercard bout, displaying enough heart and skill to keep the paying customers from getting too restless.

Name : Jake Coyle / Alias : Associated Press
In bloody close-ups and bruising sounds, Fuqua captures the blinding brutality inside the ring. But his faith is never in question: This is a parable that believes strongest in boxing, itself.

Name : Mary F. Pols / Alias : TIME Magazine
Southpaw is well made, but too conventional to skip the victorious ending or leave that kind of indelible impression. Gyllenhaal though? He's no lightweight.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
"Southpaw" is a tremendous accomplishment of mainstream cinematic craft, a near-perfect match of director, material and star.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
It's Gyllenhaal - physically ferocious yet tenderly forlorn - who sells the movie, putting both the beast and the heartbeat within on full display.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
Moving effortlessly between big Hollywood movies and modest New York stage vehicles, [Gyllenhaal has] turned into quite an actor. Few stars make such concentrated efforts to improve their craft while rising through the ranks of stardom.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
This isn't great cinema, but it's satisfying movie-making, with nothing more on its mind than telling a heart-tugging story.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
The trouble with how hard Gyllenhaal goes in Southpaw is that he's in the service of weak material, so you notice the effort.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
Southpaw isn't content with presenting a gallery of cliched characters. It takes the time to put flesh on the bones.

Name : Elaine Teng / Alias : The New Republic
The film is set up like a straightforward redemption story, but what makes Southpaw interesting is the complexity of Hope's character - thanks to Gyllenhaal's exceptional performance.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
I veered between being awed and appalled, though mostly the latter.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Just as director Antoine Fuqua starts to close in on something interesting and unexpected, he retreats to the safety of his corner and gives us what we've seen too many times before: a predictable flurry of melodramatic jabs.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
Call him "Joltin' Jake" Gyllenhaal, because the actor adds needed presence and punch to the melodrama of Southpaw.

Name : Lisa Kennedy / Alias : Denver Post
As for the in-the-ring bob, weave, clash, clutch? Well, those disappointed by May's impossibly hyped Mayweather-Pacquiao bout should enjoy the care director Fuqua takes in delivering the sweet science to the big screen.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
You have to admire a fight picture in which the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat both arrive outside the ring.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Even when we're aware our emotions are being manipulated, we're rooting hard for Billy Hope to beat the odds and climb the mountain, because have you seen how movie-adorable his daughter is? Don't they deserve some happiness?

Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out
Compared to Gyllenhaal's fast, flinty turn in last year's Nightcrawler, this is simple stuff for him, suppressing the actor's natural craftiness into lugubrious Stallone-isms.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Although "Southpaw" has some punch, it's not exactly coming from left field.

Name : Barbara VanDenburgh / Alias : Arizona Republic
"Southpaw" is all about the fist. There's no delicate footwork here, no lingering grace notes. It's a film played entirely in power chords.

Name : Deborah Young / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Southpaw sticks to tried-and-tested genre rules, yet an edgy cast - led by formidable leading man Jake Gyllenhaal - keeps the story in sharp focus.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
"Southpaw" goes beyond the specifics of boxing and becomes a universal story about tragedy and grief.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
What this movie really is at heart is just a good-natured, perfectly decent, meat-and-potatoes palooka.

Name : Chris Klimek / Alias : NPR
Every plot turn is as telegraphed as a tomato can's jab. I didn't care: Enough of it felt earned to me that Southpaw wins on points.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
"Southpaw," a boxing movie with a theme of redemption, is redeemed by the performances of its two main actors, Jake Gyllenhaal and Forest Whitaker.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
When boxing cliches work, they can deliver a knockout. When they don't, as in "Southpaw," we get just punch-drunk.