This is way better than his first movie. Not anything special story wise but the action scenes were engaging. The way the boxing scene was shot really was fantastic and made it look real. It can be hard to make boxing look real in movies but they do a good job with what they had at the time. The fight at the end was also great. The acting was alright, Frank Silvera was the best.

I've always loved Stanley Kubrick, so going back and watching one of his super early films is a pretty good time. I'm getting to see his elements starting out a little bit smaller, but still pretty great. This is a pretty well done short story with wonderful cinematography. Kubrick just knew where to put a camera and how to light it since his birth I guess.

Only problems I have are with a bit of the acting. The female character especially is just kind of flat in her delivery if you ask me. Also, you could probably trim about 10 minutes or so off to pace it better.

The biggest problem though, is not on Kubrick at all. The production company forced him to do a happy ending, and it frankly doesn't feel right.

Overall though, this is a really enjoyable watch. I mean, I'm already older than he was when he made this. That makes me feel so useless.

It's alright. Much better than Kubrick's first movie "fear and desire". I still found the story a little slow and hard to follow. The dialogue and acting is good.
This is the movie where Kubrick's cinematography really hits its stride. There are many amazingly framed scenes that are a pleasure to look at.
With all that said I would still only recommend this movie if you want to watch everything in Kubrick's filmography, otherwise I'd still skip this one