btm1 The true story of the relationship between world heavyweight champion Joe Louis and European heavyweight champion Max Schmelling is one of the "truth is stranger than fiction" variety. In their first meeting in 1936, a young Joe Lewis was the leading contender for a title shot while the 10 years older German Schmelling was the European champion. When underdog Schmelling defeated Lewis he reluctantly became a propaganda icon for Hitlers regime. Lewis at that time was the pride and hope of the "Negro race" (as people of African lineage were then called by decent people), but "white" America apparently was wary of him. After he beat Schmelling in the second fight Lewis became an idol of all America, while the embarrassed Nazis made Schmelling a non-entity in Nazi Germany. During the war Schmelling was made an ordinary soldier in the German Army, while Lewis' tour in the US Army was as a celebrity used for troop morale. Later, after Lewis retired undefeated, he learned that he owed a huge amount of money to the IRS and had to go back into boxing to try to rid himself of the debt. (The film does not get into the details, but supposedly Lewis, who was not well educated, had relied on his manager and promoter to handle his finances, including preparing tax returns.) But Lewis was too old now and was humiliated in the ring. He then took a variety of demeaning jobs in an attempt to pay off the debt, which he never was able to accomplish. The movie does not address the disgraceful issue of why no U.S. President gave him some sort of a pardon forgiving this American hero of the debt. In the meantime, Schmelling has a phoenix-like reversal of fortune when Coca Cola sought him out to use him in a campaign to capture the German market for its product.So the basis for an interesting movie was there. The problem was in the implementation.The film seemed badly paced and choppy. Many of the scenes seemed to me needlessly drawn out, with the camera sometimes lingering on objects, such as a railroad train for no reason that I can think of. The parts of the film I liked best are the scenes in with Schmelling (Til Schweiger) and his actress wife (Peta Wilson) in Germany.As was noted in another comment, the actors looked nothing like the well known people they were portraying. Although not stated in the IMDb cast listing, it looked to me that different actors were used for the younger and older Joe Lewis, with neither resembling the real Joe Lewis nor even each other. Rocky Marciano, a short fireplug of a fighter with a battered face he got wading into his taller, longer armed opponents that often made him look more like the loser than the winner of his fights, was played by a tall unmarked fighter. The musical score does nothing to aid the movie.

nablaquadro Always loved sports movie about boxing, from the masterpieces to B-movies about kick-boxing.Joe & Max apparently is a made-for-TV movie, with a low budget and then unpretentious. Perhaps it's so, but does money really matter so much ? I think no. Boxers Joe Louis and Max Schmeling were friends beyond the politics, the obtuse ideologies and war; but rivals just on the ring. The fighting scenes were shot with a look to the old footages, in black and white, gifting a credible appearance to the whole action parts. Interesting the relation between Max and his wife, their spirit of sacrifice against government, racism and the dirty propaganda elevating Joe as Nazism's pride.The stage designing is a little too simple, so the city looks a bit fake, but it's not a damage. An enjoyable mix of sport drama and history inside an "impossible" friendship.

fugu_286 This could have been a great movie. All the elements where there. But this just ended up being too rushed with mediocre acting and uninspiring scenes. And there were a few things that just never happened. Like Schmeling going off on those MP's, oh please. Yes, the Allied occupation authorities did get on Max's case about building without a permit but anybody who's read Max's bio (highly recommended!) would know the issue was resolved peacefully. Max's wife somehow becomes an ego-centric Nazi b*** and the relationship between the movie's namesakes seems cold. Max appears to pity Louis more than he respects him. The extras in the film are notoriously bad, especially the 6'2" (!) Marciano who appears to be TALLER than Louis! And what about Max's experience as a paratrooper in Crete? They spend all of one minute on that. Scenes just flash by. Err, read "Max Schmeling: An Autobigraphy".

Allan FINEBERG Joe and Max is an okay, upbeat movie that seeks to put across a message: Brotherhood is Nice; or perhaps Why Can't We All Just Get Along? It's a film in which it is clear who are the good guys and who are the bad. Hitler, Goebbels and all those folks strutting around Heil-Hitlering, doing the goose step and wearing the swastika armband are bad. Hiss. The good guys are Joe Louis and Max Schmelling and pretty much everyone who doesn't do the things mentioned in the previous sentence. Yay.The problem with message films like this is that they need a little more than that to retain the viewer's interest. Things like character development, sex or good scenery. Joe and Max has none of these things, so it's a matter of preaching the message of brotherhood to those who already believe in that, else they wouldn't be watching the picture in the first place.Everybody in the film seems to be earnestly acting their hearts out, and I must say the guy who plays Hitler is great: his Hitler is really creepy and scary-looking.All in all, it's not a bad film, but maybe you could spend your time doing something more worthwhile than watching Joe and Max bonding with one another.