Sunday, October 9, 2011

Warrior

I'm so happy I finally got to see Warrior. I'm a huge fan of Tom Hardy and believe it or not, I like watching MMA (mixed martial arts). Although I haven't watched it recently.

Yes it's set in the world of MMA, but at the center of the movie is a family drama concerning two brothers Tommy (Tom Hardy) and Brendan (Joel Edgerton) and their alcoholic father Paddy. Years ago, Tommy left with his Mom after Paddy had basically beaten the crap out of her. Brendan, for his own reasons, didn't go with them.

Fourteen years later, Tommy is a former Marine and an Iraq war hero. He still holds a lot of anger towards both his father and brother. But he wants to get into fighting and needs someone to train him, which was really the only thing Paddy was good at. I can't remember the details, but I believe Paddy was involved with boxing at some point in his life.

Meanwhile, Brendan is now married and has two young daughters. He works as a high school physics teacher and to earn extra money, participates in small fights at night in parking lots. Despite this, he and his wife are struggling to make ends meet. Plus the bank is about to take their house. After getting suspended from his job as a teacher when word of his parking lot fights reaches the superentendint, Brendan decides to get back into MMA (at one point he was part of the UFC, but he wasn't exactly the best fighter out there) and compete in a big tournament in Atlantic City where the big prize is five million dollars.

Tommy ends up in the tournament as well. They both have a series of fights that ultimately lead to the championship where they must fight each other.

The fight scenes in the movie were some of the best I've ever seen. They're very brutal and intense. I cringed several times. But I couldn't take my eyes off the screen as they were playing out.

I think the best part of Warrior, for me anyway, was the acting. Tom Hardy was just incredible. You can really feel for his character and understand why he is the way he is. And the amount of training he had to do to prepare for the role... Wow! When you see him, he'll scare the crap out of you. He's huge! There's no doubt in my mind that Tom will make a great Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, which comes out next summer.

Joel Edgerton is really good as well. While he may not be as huge as Tom Hardy, he's just as intense. This is the first movie I've seen Joel in and I look forward to seeing more of him in the future.

Nick Nolte gives a brilliant performance as a father desperately trying to recconnect with his sons. His character did many horrible things and Tommy and Brendan have every right to hate him. But Nick does such a good job with the role that during one scene in particular, I kinda felt bad for him. I really think he's going to get nominated come award season. This role just screams Oscar.

The movie does have pretty much every cliche you've ever seen in a sports movie. But unlike most sports movies (where one opponent is usually more likable than the other), in Warrior it's really hard to pick a side. I liked both brothers so much and found myself routing for both of them. Warrior is so good that you can look past the minor flaws.

It's almost two and a half hours long but it doesn't feel like it at all. I got so caught up in the story and was on the edge of my seat. I never wanted it to end!

I can defiantly say that Warrior is one of my favorite movies this year. You don't have to be a fan of MMA to enjoy it. PLEASE go and see it if you get a chance. Hopefully you'll love it as much as I do.

My Rating: 10/10

No comments:

Post a Comment