Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 1:22 - Released 3/2/01
CARMAN: THE CHAMPION
Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 1:22 - Released 3/2/01
I have to admit that Lee Stanley's Carman: The Champion,
the film project of the popular contemporary Christian singer/TV
evangelist known as "Carman," is not as terrible as
I expected. That's not to say that it's terrifically good. But
when I read of the man's desire to incorporate his film into what
he calls "the largest evangelism effort of the new millennium,"
I thought, oh no — the film would be little more than a feature-length
religious pitch with no technique or production value. I was pleasantly
surprised to see that it is merely a lower-quality, spiritually
charged version of Rocky about a former champion boxer
who returns to the ring in order to secure the ownership of a
ministry formerly run by his deceased father. The script (penned
by Carman with help from director Stanley and others) is a heavy-handed,
overwrought affair, featuring things like surly mafia men who
control the fights and murder people but are never prosecuted,
cars that burst into huge fireballs when they have a collision
just like on The Simpsons, and (get this) a fighter with
a brain injury called "Radical Parkinsonism," the effect
of which is that if he gets hit in the head, he'll die. Talk about
a bad career choice. There is, however, very little preaching
going on in this movie at all, unless you count the suggestion
of such by the fact that its writer and star is an evangelist
trying to spread the Word — a factor that by itself has a
tendency to color the whole experience.
Carman, whose name is apparently only in the title for marketing
purposes, plays former cruiserweight champion Orlando Leone, who
left the fighting game in disgrace after a losing season followed
by his father's mysterious death. Having taken over the old man's
L.A. ministry 10 years ago (in addition to his day job as a hotel
security guard), he finds that dwindling membership and the threat
of foreclosure are forcing him to consider abandoning his dream
of a beautiful new youth center. Meanwhile we are introduced to
Keshon Banks (Jeremy Williams), the spoiled current champ who
lives a decadent life of women, drink, and parties. When one of
Banks's indiscretions happens in the hotel guarded by Orlando,
he is called to the scene where a fistfight makes headlines. Soon
Orlando's sinister brother Freddie (Michael Nouri), who works
ostensibly as Banks's manager but really has ties to the mob,
offers to pay off the mortgage on the ministry if Orlando meets
up with Banks for one fight.
Alongside the boxing scenario we have a sub plot about a young
boy named Cesar (Romeo Fabian), pestered by a gang of drug-running
teens. Orlando befriends him and puts him to work at the ministry,
thereby meeting the boy's sultry, sexy señorita of a mother
Allia (Mexican actress Patricia Manterola, making her first appearance
in an American film), who is at first dubious because she had
a bad experience with a church man in the past, but soon accepts
her role as Orlando's version of Rocky's Adrian.
Those who are followers of Carman will probably enjoy this film, and those who are not will probably never see it. While its star has charm and good looks, as an actor he is little more than adequate. Moreover, his screenplay, with its maudlin, oversimplified character interaction and after-school-special tone, has little to recommend it to anyone other than his fans (even die-hard boxing devotees would have to be pretty hard up to seek this out at the video store). So in effect, one could say that Carman is literally preaching to the choir. But if his movie has the ability to sucker-punch a couple more souls into salvation, then more power to him. **½