Homeboy

A simple self-destructive drifter and tough small-time boxer with a brain injury that could kill him meets and falls for a cute beach carnival owner, Ruby, but also befriends a sleazy friendly criminal, Wesley, who's planning a big score. Johnny Walker is a drifting cowboy and boxer on the path of self-destruction. He's tough, with a very short fuse, and has a habit of spitting on people who give him trouble, but he's also nice, very shy and simple-minded and he seems to be suffering from a brain injury caused by the years of fighting that's getting worse. He's in love with a nice cute no-nonsense girl Ruby, who owns and runs a small amusement park at the local beach, but he cannot get himself to tell her that. He's also getting too old to keep on boxing, but it's the only thing he knows how to do, even though it will probably kill him. Wesley Pendergass, a friendly slimy pompous street-smart small-time criminal befriends him and introduces him to his own street philosophy as well as the big score he's planning. Can Johnny stop himself before he finally goes over the edge? With his best days behind him, Johnny Walker, the ageing, washed-up prizefighter from Arkansas with the fragile health, ends up in a run-down seaside amusement park. There, as the punch-drunk boxer finds solace in the financially hard-pressed carousel owner, Ruby, the petty thief and small-time performer, Wesley Pendergrass, takes a shine to Johnny, introducing him to a dangerous dead-end world, and his next daring, smash-and-grab diamond robbery. Now, against all logic and his physician's advice, a last-minute, ten-round title fight seems like the only way out of Johnny's misery, even though he already knows that this lucrative boxing match may be his last. Will Johnny find redemption in the ring? —Nick Riganas