Mike's brutal honesty is very admirable to say the least. He accurately picks apart his own life with such an objective attitude its almost surreal to see the contrast of him as such a wise man now reflecting back upon his immature youth. Cheers to the greatest fighter to ever step into the ring.

the BADDEST MAN ON THE PLANT

Tyson is clearly unstable, but that is why it's so fascinating.

Despite his difficult childhood, despite his remarkable success in the ring, despite his sensational and tragic problems and incarceration, and despite his general candour, emotionality and, indeed, vulnerability, Tyson nevertheless somehow turns out to be an only moderately interesting interviewee (judging at least from what we are shown here). Cinematically uninspired. The opening titles were good.

Very tense.

Less a documentary and more of an extended interview with the former heavyweight champ. By training his camera on Tyson and letting him tell his own story, largely without interruption and entirely without contrasting voices, Toback seems to be aiming for the accidental revelation that is the hallmark of Errol Morris's approach. Instead, he's complicit in a self-created hagiography that allows Tyson to match his brief moments of contrition with nasty attacks on those who he feels wronged him.

He is a sad figure, and this film confirms that.

A fascinating portrait of a very interesting person... I always kind of liked Iron Mike, and this documentary reinforced that. For all his faults (and they are many) he is an almost frightfully honest person

It's very interesting to see Tyson telling his own story. It is a self-reflection, almost a therapy sessionm, of a person totally lost and fickle, but also one of the greatest boxers ever.

"Toback excises any counterbalancing voices from the project and leaves the final word in every case with Tyson, even as the boxer exhibits a marked tendency toward self-contradiction." - Andrew Schenker

This is a great documentary with Mike Tyson himself providing the narration. This is an interesting look at a great boxer but a very troubled man. This documentary is a good example that money can not buy happiness.

Fuck Mr. Dream, Tyson is the original.

Tyson is a mirror portrait that gets under our skin. Through film, [Director James] Toback achieves what even his mentor Norman Mailer's magnificent writing on boxing was never able to accomplish.

An incredibly candid self-evaluation. Tyson's soft and easy-listening voice is made all the more magnetic by the brutally poetic way he handles his language. Your opinion on this film may vary depending on how you feel about the man, though.

It might be conventional in its storytelling, but Tyson's sincere statements are hypnotic: he doesn't know if he is a hateful beast or the greatest champion of the world. We also don't know that. But Toback's film almost did it.

As a fan of boxing, the montage to start the movie was fun to watch. They do a good job of letting Tyson tell his own story, and in his own words, which just made the whole thing more real. I think the stuff about him and Cus D'Amato is really good too. I always read how important the guy was to Tyson. The way he talks about him left me with no doubts that the guy was the single most important figure in his early boxing life. He pulls no punches when speaking which makes him more genuine.

The man is deeply scarred and deeply flawed; he knows it, too, and the film is fascinating when Tyson receives those revealing flashes of clarity. A man that swings so violently between melancholy and misogynist rancor is a fascinating subject, indeed. It's too bad the split screen made ME want to punch someone.

its a nice docu about a fascinating personality, a bit short though, and he sure is one of the greatest boxers of all time and its a good thing that he admitted that he only fought the last few for the money, and after seeing this you maybe even wont think about tyson as a monster as the press shows

A fascinating look into the life, career and mind of one of America's most famous and interesting athletes. It's almost surreal hearing him discuss an event in his career or emotional moment in his life for sixty seconds and then finish by saying something completely fucked up. He's an unbelievably flawed human being, but his honesty and willingness to discuss some ugly, ugly stuff makes this very compelling. I think Tyson has a good heart, he just lost the guiding force in his life too early.

Experiments with and frankly abuses some split screen techniques early on, but then Toback gets a miraculous hold on the trick--using it to accentuate the many facets of the man and occasionally to highlight his stutter. The psychology of Tyson is fascinating as a man who was groomed to be a champion, attained it quickly and subsequently spent the years, regaining and pissing it all away. A great example of how age and experience tempers you. I ultimately came to love him.

Decent talking-head documentary. For me it was very informative because I never cared about boxing or Tyson, but most importantly it takes a look at the Tyson as at the human, not as a sportsman. At first I found it a bit embarrassing, mostly because of his strange voice, bursts of emotions, but as the documentary progressed I felt like I got to know him. Obviously he isn't very intelligent person, but as they say - wisdom comes with the age.

If this film wasn't about the life of Mike Tyson, it'd be awful. He carries this movie completely.

Take Tyson's perspective with a grain of salt, but it provides valuable insight into why he did what he did during defining moments of his career; plus he seems quite honest. Tyson displays raw emotions during the film's gripping interviews. On a side note, his vocabulary is rather odd and guaranteed to cause amusement.

I have followed Tyson's career since I was a little boy, and this documentary gives the viewer first hand account of what Tyson went through, through his eyes. Very powerful doc. and you can see how much Tyson has changed as an individual. Such a magnificent athlete that fell from grace. A must see for boxing/sports fans.

I found it interesting to see Mike Tyson in a more human light rather than the raping monster the media paints him as.

Told entirely and narrated fully from one of our nation's most fascinating and fantastic boxers of all time's perspective, Tyson is an honest and deep look into his sorrows, mistakes and daily productive and mediarized time spent each and every day. Every interview with him is gold from start to finish. Great.

Here's an idea: Make a documentary about one of the most dominant and interesting boxers the world has ever seen. Then base it all around him and his views. You would expect it to be insanely one sided but it's not because Tyson is as honest as he is fascinating. He speaks about his flaws and his accomplishments, never giving himself more or less than he deserves. You can't help but feel sympathetic towards him sometimes, and you can't help but believe what he says.

Fuck sports

Biased in that it's quite sympathetic towards Tyson, no doubt because it's told from his perspective as he narrates the entire documentary, however it does provide some much needed depth to a man that's been completely demonized by the media. I still think Mike is certainly "off" but this documentary explains why. Tyson opens up in the interviews and you get to see him as a real person and as a father; Tyson faux-boxing with his daughter was a beautiful thing to see.

A truly excellent piece of work. Free of any political agenda or racial vendetta, the man we once called Iron Mike is exceptionally honest about his mistakes, and to see him open up is equally scary and moving.

Toback, who had known Tyson for over 20 years and had used him previously in Black and White, gets him to talk and talk, a virtual monologue with no audible questions, amounting to a talking-head movie tricked up with split screens and switched camera angles (a clumsy stab at multifacetedness) and of course archive footage and photos.

Watch one of the scariest, most interesting, and ugliest people of the 20th century make up various words to express himself. It's good stuff, trust me.

"When I was wrongfully accused of raping that wretched swine of a woman." A deeply intriguing look into a deeply disturbed mind.

More like Mike Types-on, a keyboard

1sided as Tyson gets last, 1st& all words in middle here& tho it would benefit from other opinions (especially those of a psychiatrist) the man's pretty fascinating all by himself. Surprisingly well-spoken & clear-headed he embodies nurture vs. nature as extreme changes in his environments force small but significant changes(?) in him. Interest flags slightly about 3/4 in as Tyson himself appears 2 grow more subdued, but should more than hold the interest of anyone interested in what shapes us

Mike Tyson tells us how he perceives the events of his life and no other point of view is needed.

The film comes off as pretentious at times, with Tyson wistfully staring out at the ocean while he discusses something totally reprehensible or messed up using voice-over. I also wasn't a fan of the technical aspects of the film. The split screens were over used and totally unnecessary. Tyson's ramblings were edited so tightly together that at times it felt like the auditory equivalent of TYPING WITH ALL CAPS AND NO PUNCTUATION BUT ALSO WITH MULTIPLE VOICEOVERS TRACKS PLAYING AT THE SAME TIME

A great documentary, and not only because of the intrigue of Tyson's career and life. But also because it revealed the genuine thoughts of a controversial and disturbed American superstar.

A reasonably entertaining documentary on a legendary (for good and bad reasons) sports figure, Tyson is hampered by its singular perspective and some annoying presentation decisions.

Ive said this before, and Ill re-iterate despite some of the things that Mike Tyson has done he is a misunderstood person, who seems like he grew up far too late and knows it. When Tyson was in his prime, Im certain that no one could beat him, no one.

I certainly didn't expect to find this...a subdued Tyson painstakingly accounting his life story (true or not?...you decide) without much of a filter or regard to how it will sound to anyone but him. Just listening to Tyson speak (his relationship with the English language always has the potential to go veering off the tracks) was enough to keep my attention but Toback (a friend of Iron Mike's apparently) expertly intercuts some great footage into the interview portion. Nary a dull moment here.