Travis is a pretty, hunky young amateur boxer who needs to win his way out of Southside, a no-hope hole in a post-industrial wasteland, to the promised land of Las Vegas (no less). Jacko is his best friend, older and a serial loser loathed by both Travis's coach and his girlfriend. Throw in doting mother and tyrannical Alpha-male father unable to put meat on the table. To punch his way to Vegas, Travis has to defeat Sangster, another pretty boy with whom he has an unsettling pre-fight encounter in the men's room, unaware it is his opponent. The rest of the movie spirals off in a riot of homophobia vs tacit homosexuality, which leaves corpses in the street and the most implausible and extended locker room conversation imaginable - above all after a fight.
This movie deserved a better plot. It starts so well, unforgettable location shots, good music, strong first scenes, good performances. It is nearly always nice to look at, but the story trails off into near farcical implausibility you can't expect even best buddies to behave this way, or believe the fight-winning potential of the guilty secret that emerges.
Curiously 'A Cock and Bull Story' is based on a play of the same name by Richard Crowe and Richard Zauduc (yes, exactly) - so you are warned that it will be long on words, short on action. Is it possible the authors. dazzled by pink innuendo, forgot the title's main meaning? Because that is what A Cock and Bull Story richly lives up to.
