Giant (2025)
There are certain sporting figures from the 1990s who lodge themselves in the cultural memory not just because of what they achieved, but because of how they achieved it. Prince Naseem Hamed was one of those figures. The Sheffield-born featherweight, son of Yemeni immigrants, rose from the steel city's working-class streets to become one of the most recognisable faces in world boxing, his unorthodox stance and ringwalk theatrics as much a part of the package as his knockout power. He did it, too, against a backdrop of casual racism and Islamophobia that Britain in the 1980s and 1990s was only beginning to reckon with publicly. That his story has taken this long to reach the cinema is, depending on your perspective, either baffling or quietly telling.
Rowan Athale, the British director whose earlier work (the crime thriller Wasteland, among others) marked him as a filmmaker with an eye for grounded, character-led drama, takes on the biopic here with a production backed by AGC Studios and Balboa Productions. Sylvester Stallone serves as an executive producer, which may raise an eyebrow or two but turns out to be more than a vanity credit given his association with the boxing genre. The film traces the partnership between the young Hamed and Brendan Ingle, the Irish-born Sheffield trainer who spotted something singular in the boy and shaped it into a world-beater, a relationship that sits at the moral and emotional centre of the whole picture. Amir El-Masry, Egyptian-British and best known to many from Limbo and Star Wars: Andor, takes the lead role, bringing the kind of physical commitment and quicksilver personality the part demands. Opposite him, Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle, and it is a casting choice that rewards patience. Brosnan has spent much of his post-Bond career in polished but unremarkable thriller territory, and seeing him strip that away for something this textured is something of a revelation. Toby Stephens, Katherine Dow Blyton, and Asan N'Jie round out a cast that keeps things grounded in the specifics of time and place rather than letting the film drift into generic sports-movie territory. The boxing sequences, shot with real kineticism, owe something to the long tradition of British sports drama but feel fresh enough to stand on their own terms. It is the kind of film that, like Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, trusts the audience to feel physical and emotional stakes simultaneously, even if the two pictures couldn't be more different in scope and setting. There is also something in the film's treatment of class, identity, and the weight of expectation that recalls the quieter, more reflective sports-adjacent drama of Paolo Sorrentino's Youth, though Giant is considerably louder.
I still vividly remember my dad shelling out for Prince Naseem Hamed’s pay-per-view fights back in the day. I was just a kid, absolutely mesmerised by the flamboyant, unpredictable showmanship of the "Prince," and we’d watch those bouts together with wide eyes.
Now, as a grown adult, seeing that legendary story unfold on the big screen in Rowan Athale’s 2025 biopic Giant is a genuinely surreal experience. Amir El-Masry does an amazing job capturing the manic energy and physical brilliance of Hamed, but it’s the emotional grounding of the narrative that really pulls you in and makes the nostalgia hit so hard.
However, as brilliant as El-Masry is, it is Pierce Brosnan who absolutely steals the show. Playing the legendary, Irish-Sheffield trainer Brendan Ingle, Brosnan delivers what is easily the best performance I’ve seen him give in his entire career. He completely sheds his suave, cinematic polish to become a gruff, fiercely loyal coach. Fair play to him, it is a genuinely Oscar-worthy turn that anchors the film's heart and provides a cracking, deeply human counterweight to the flashy ego of his star pupil.
The story itself is a cracking piece of work, unfolding at a brisk, engaging pace that never lets you check your phone. You can absolutely feel the influence of executive producer Sylvester Stallone in the ring sequences; the boxing matches are shot with a kinetic, bone-crunching action that puts a lot of modern sports dramas to shame. The camera work inside the ropes is phenomenal, making every jab and hook feel like it has real, devastating weight behind it, perfectly capturing the sheer violence and poetry of the sport.
But the true standout for me is the finale. Without giving away the specifics, there is an amazing, poignant "what if" moment in the final act that completely caught me off guard and tugs fiercely at the heartstrings. It elevates the picture from a standard sports biopic into something profoundly moving about the fleeting nature of glory and the heavy cost of ambition. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best boxing movies I’ve seen in years.
At 110 minutes, Giant arrives as a confident, well-mounted piece of British sporting biography that earns its emotional payoff without leaning too hard on nostalgia alone. It is the kind of film that works on multiple levels: as a portrait of an era, as a study of an unlikely friendship between a cocky kid and a quietly brilliant mentor, and as a reminder that the best sports films are rarely really about sport at all. Athale and his cast have made something that feels personal and particular rather than assembled by committee, and that, in a genre prone to formula, counts for rather a lot. Naz always said he was special. Turns out the film about him might be, too.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2025 | Watched: 2026-08-01
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Giant (2025) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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