A simple self-destructive drifter and tough small-time boxer with a brain injury that could kill him meets and falls for a cute beach carnival owner, Ruby, but also befriends a sleazy friend... Read allA simple self-destructive drifter and tough small-time boxer with a brain injury that could kill him meets and falls for a cute beach carnival owner, Ruby, but also befriends a sleazy friendly criminal, Wesley, who's planning a big score.A simple self-destructive drifter and tough small-time boxer with a brain injury that could kill him meets and falls for a cute beach carnival owner, Ruby, but also befriends a sleazy friendly criminal, Wesley, who's planning a big score.
- Cannonball
- (as David Taylor)
- Billy Harrison
- (as Dondre Whitfield)
- Street Tough
- (as Teddy Abner)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaHomeboy is the first film written by Mickey Rourke. He credited as "Sir" Eddie Cook. Other films which are written by Mickey Rourke are also credited like that.
- Quotes
Wesley Pendergass: Hey, John, you know, this whole place used to be covered by big fucking dinosaurs that were all over the place. They all disappeared, thousands of them. You know where they went? As time went by, they started to shrink. They got smaller. Smaller, and they started to grow wings. And they flew away, and now nobody knows where they are. That's a true story.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Rewind This! (2013)
- SoundtracksCall Me If You Need Me
Performed by Magic Sam
I believe that sometimes we the audience will see an actor portray a character that just does not seem believable on the big screen simply because the actors' previous body of work influences the audience to expect to see the actor play a similar type character as in his previous roles on camera. In the case of Mickey Rourke, we are used to seeing him play leading tough guy roles as he did earlier on his career as in his 1980's films where he was usually portrayed as the handsome leading man as in The Pope of Greenwich Village, 9 ½ Weeks, Rumble Fish or in Diner. And then Mickey chooses to write a screenplay where he portrays a dim witted over the hill booze laden boxer who falls for a carnival girl of his dreams.
Mickey just shows us time and time again that he is not afraid to explore new characters (as in his Academy Award Best Actor nomination in the 2008 film, The Wrestler) and he refuses to be stereotyped in his acting roles. What I liked about the film Homeboy most was the character Johnny Walker portrayed with a quirky distorted smile that enjoyed the most simple things in life, such as hot walking the carnival ponies along the sandy beach, or just being held by his carnival girlfriend Ruby played by Debra Feuer.
There are also good performances played by the seasoned actor Christopher Walken and Kevin Conway. Walken plays Wesley Pendergrass a thief with grand illusions of wealth and expensive clothes. Wesley's grifter character plays opposite Johnny Walkers poor cowboy boxer character and in some ways a comparison can be drawn towards the earlier Academy Award winning 1969 film Midnight Cowboy starring Jon Voight (Joe Buck) and Dustin Hoffman's (Ratso) characters.
Kevin Conway plays a grimy cop named Grazziano who is closing in on Wesley's grifter activities and he has a soft spot for Johnny Walker's character and tells Johnny while chomping on an apple that Johnny needs to know his various types of apples and to live his own life. The audience can interpret this exchange of dialogue between Grazziano the cop and Johnny the downtrodden cowboy boxer that he should stay away from that bad apple Wesley because he is up to no good.
The actual boxing scenes in the ring were not the greatest, but I understand that spending a ton of money on the movies production is better spent on building the characters (Rourke, Feuer, Walken and Conway) then it would be on spending on a few minutes of boxing choreography. The last fifteen minutes are very appealing as we see what will happen to the struggling boxer Johnny Walker, his new found grifter friend Wesley looking for that one big score, and Johnny's girlfriend Ruby who is struggling financially to hold on to her deceased fathers carnival business. Who will win and who will lose in the life battles we all face in one way or another? All in all, I liked the film and I give it a 7 out of 10 rating. If you like Mickey Rourke, and you like a gritty under achiever, then Homeboy will not disappoint you.
- Ed-Shullivan
- Dec 7, 2014
- Permalink
- How long is Homeboy?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 56 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1