Life of a Champion Part 2
Genre: Crime / Drama
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writer: Alex Conn
Prequel to Life of a Champion
LIFE OF A CHAMPION SERIES
Cast:
Dane DeHaan …. Charlie
Will Poulter …. Chris
Lucas Hedges …. Jonathan
Aaron Paul …. Trip
Clark Gregg …. Clark Simpson
Plot: The film begins in 2005 with Charlie (Dane DeHaan) and his brother Jonathan (Lucas Hedges) in the hospital with their mom on her deathbed. Before the mom dies she gives Charlie a satchel with a note in it. The note has a few paragraphs about how much she loves Charlie and even a picture of Charlie as a little boy.
The mom dies and Charlie acts more stoic and Jonathan is all out bawling. Charlie hugs Jonathan.
He is skateboarding and doing drugs one day when a friend named Chris (Will Poulter) offers him a chance to get in his business.
Charlie brings his brother Jonathan and his friend Trip (Aaron Paul) into the operation. They are making a ton of money just out of the gate. Trip one day is selling drugs in an alley at night and gets a customer who turns out to be an undercover cop this cop arrests him and he is booked into jail.
Chris suggests that they invest in a legitimate business. They decide to buy Wrestling Global and start a channel. The owner named Clark Simpson (Clark Gregg) agrees even though he knows they are drug dealers. They are making more money and one day at a party it is revealed that Jonathan has gone to prison.
Chris and Charlie immediately investigate Clark Simpson and they chain him into their basement and they waterboard him for info. He denies giving any information to the police. Chris tells Charlie that they should kill Clark Simpson and Charlie refuses to kill Clark Simpson after he reaches into his satchel and sees the note his mom left for him. Charlie decides not to kill Clark but Chris gets his bone saw and proceeds to slice and stab Clark violently as Charlie watches. He is wrong and a few months later he calls Charlie to go back into the business.
We cut to Jonathan in prison going to church events and starting charity programs. He goes to multiple groups and he talks about how he wants to join the military. Trip moves into the same prison as Jonathan and Jonathan convinces Trip to change his life and find Jesus. Jonathan watches TV and views the troop surge on television and tells Trip that he intends to join the military. Trip cautions him against it telling him that war is against the teachings of Jesus and Jonathan responds by saying that Jesus would not have liked Islam and where it’s going and he quotes The Bible.
After he does this Charlie visits Jonathan in prison and Charlie is trying to connect with Jonathan but Jonathan says he found Jesus and thinks that the drug dealing business is a blood money business and he says that he is going to start a chiropractic business.
Charlie is having sex with hookers every night and is partying and doing drugs. Jonathan and Trip are released from prison and Charlie goes to Trip's release party and Charlie has a talk with Trip where Trip asks about Charlie’s mom and Charlie explains how his mother was deeply anti violence and participated in the hippie movement and that was part of this note. Trip then reveals that he and Jonathan have enlisted in the United States Army and they have both found morals and they offer to help Charlie get out of the drug dealing business and Charlie stabs Trip in the back and Trip tries to scream but Charlie closes his mouth. Jonathan witnesses and Charlie says that if he ever says anything Charlie will kill him. Jonathan runs away.
Charlie burns Trip's body and the note while smiling while cutting away to Jonathan in the military receiving awards and saving people.
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writer: Alex Conn
Prequel to Life of a Champion
LIFE OF A CHAMPION SERIES
Cast:
Dane DeHaan …. Charlie
Will Poulter …. Chris
Lucas Hedges …. Jonathan
Aaron Paul …. Trip
Clark Gregg …. Clark Simpson
Plot: The film begins in 2005 with Charlie (Dane DeHaan) and his brother Jonathan (Lucas Hedges) in the hospital with their mom on her deathbed. Before the mom dies she gives Charlie a satchel with a note in it. The note has a few paragraphs about how much she loves Charlie and even a picture of Charlie as a little boy.
The mom dies and Charlie acts more stoic and Jonathan is all out bawling. Charlie hugs Jonathan.
He is skateboarding and doing drugs one day when a friend named Chris (Will Poulter) offers him a chance to get in his business.
Charlie brings his brother Jonathan and his friend Trip (Aaron Paul) into the operation. They are making a ton of money just out of the gate. Trip one day is selling drugs in an alley at night and gets a customer who turns out to be an undercover cop this cop arrests him and he is booked into jail.
Chris suggests that they invest in a legitimate business. They decide to buy Wrestling Global and start a channel. The owner named Clark Simpson (Clark Gregg) agrees even though he knows they are drug dealers. They are making more money and one day at a party it is revealed that Jonathan has gone to prison.
Chris and Charlie immediately investigate Clark Simpson and they chain him into their basement and they waterboard him for info. He denies giving any information to the police. Chris tells Charlie that they should kill Clark Simpson and Charlie refuses to kill Clark Simpson after he reaches into his satchel and sees the note his mom left for him. Charlie decides not to kill Clark but Chris gets his bone saw and proceeds to slice and stab Clark violently as Charlie watches. He is wrong and a few months later he calls Charlie to go back into the business.
We cut to Jonathan in prison going to church events and starting charity programs. He goes to multiple groups and he talks about how he wants to join the military. Trip moves into the same prison as Jonathan and Jonathan convinces Trip to change his life and find Jesus. Jonathan watches TV and views the troop surge on television and tells Trip that he intends to join the military. Trip cautions him against it telling him that war is against the teachings of Jesus and Jonathan responds by saying that Jesus would not have liked Islam and where it’s going and he quotes The Bible.
After he does this Charlie visits Jonathan in prison and Charlie is trying to connect with Jonathan but Jonathan says he found Jesus and thinks that the drug dealing business is a blood money business and he says that he is going to start a chiropractic business.
Charlie is having sex with hookers every night and is partying and doing drugs. Jonathan and Trip are released from prison and Charlie goes to Trip's release party and Charlie has a talk with Trip where Trip asks about Charlie’s mom and Charlie explains how his mother was deeply anti violence and participated in the hippie movement and that was part of this note. Trip then reveals that he and Jonathan have enlisted in the United States Army and they have both found morals and they offer to help Charlie get out of the drug dealing business and Charlie stabs Trip in the back and Trip tries to scream but Charlie closes his mouth. Jonathan witnesses and Charlie says that if he ever says anything Charlie will kill him. Jonathan runs away.
Charlie burns Trip's body and the note while smiling while cutting away to Jonathan in the military receiving awards and saving people.
BOX OFFICE
Budget: $25,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $28,306,120
Foreign Box Office: $17,155,567
Total Profit: -$16,003,119
Domestic Box Office: $28,306,120
Foreign Box Office: $17,155,567
Total Profit: -$16,003,119
REVIEWS
"The previous film from Cianfrance and Conn had some interesting twists and turns in the plot as well as some memorable characters. This prequel is a far less interesting affair led by a character nobody seemed to care for - and guess what, DeHaan's really not any more likable as a character in this one." - Charles Yost, Oregonian
"When you break the film down, Life of a Champion Part 2 is a decent little crime film. Lucas Hedges gives a strong supporting performance as the film's most interesting character." - James Tubbs Jr., Vice Magazine
"This film almost exclusively focuses on aspects of the first film that didn't work. Dane DeHaan gave a Razzie worthy performance as the villain in the first film and now we get him as the main character. The wrestling aspects of part one were also pretty monotonous, so of course this time we get to see how DeHaan got into the wrestling promotion business. Director Derek Cianfrance and writer Alex Conn have both delivered better work than this misfire." - Bruce Vickers, Baltimore Sun
Rated R for strong violence, language, drug content and sexual content/nudity.
Filming Locations:
Frankfort, Kentucky, USA
Frankfort, Kentucky, USA