Wahlberg, Bale put up their dukes in 'The Fighter'

Prestige boxing movies win Oscars. Plain and simple.

"Rocky" and "Million Dollar Baby" walked away with best picture wins while Robert De Niro brought home his first statuette in Martin Scorsese's operatic "Raging Bull." Others deservedly garnered plenty of nominations.

Whether "The Fighter," starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, will swing its way to the Kodak Theater early next year remains to be seen, but it seems David O. Russell's drama wants to land a scorecard with some little gold men.

As the talented underdog "Irish" Mickey Ward, Wahlberg channels his inner-contender in hopes of getting a title shot for his middle-class Boston neighborhood. Training him is a seemingly gaunt Bale, in full method-acting mode as Ward's troubled half-brother.

Consider me a sucker for a good boxing drama, the last great one being 2005's "Cinderella Man" with Russell Crowe. I hate the sport, now so boring that the even more boring mixed martial arts has supplanted it as our country's go-to mainstream combat sport. But stepping into a ring is different on the big screen.