Warrrior

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

This forum is getting too big. I'm sure DM blabbed about this film here, but I can't find it (Ha! Go look. Do my job for me)

It was a giant cliched bag of goodness. The plot was unbelievable. But it didn't seem to matter. Tom Hardy was terrific as the monosyllabic broken war vet fighting for mysterious reasons. Nick Nolte was good as his trainer alcoholic abusive father. Joel Edgerton is fine as the past his prime UFC physics teacher. It has to be good everyone is a hyphenate.

The plethora of fight scenes were dirty and quick, especially if Hardy was involved. He looked swole, probably a precursor to his role as Bane in the upcoming Batman movie.

If you have critiques for this film, I have no defense for them. They are probably correct. But it was enjoyable if supremely unbelievable.

[Drunk Monk]

it's on my watch list, although fairly far down...

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Odd trivia fact for the day, Joel Edgerton, the brother of Tom Hardy in the picture, was also the young Uncle Owen in the Star Wars prequel movies.

[Drunk Monk]

This should have been called "TapouT informercial." There was a TapouT logo in almost every shot. It was the only thing that felt real about it.

I would say that this is the best MMA flick so far, which isn't really saying much as there hasn't been a really good MMA flick yet. Greg is right. It's totally cliched and preposterous. I don't know why I can accept cliches and preposterousness with Kung Fu films and not MMA films. Maybe it's because I watch MMA as a form of entertainment on its own. Is this more preposterous than a baseball/football/track film? Well, ya, sorta. Maybe it's because I know some MMA fighters and their lives are nothing like this. Then again, the same can be said for Kung Fu films. So I don't really know why I reject cliched preposterous MMA films. That being said, the performances are good (although cliched, especially the wife SPOILER not wanting to see her lover get the crap beaten out of him and then shows up to the fight anyway END SPOILER) and the action is engaging (although preposterous, especially the finale fight SPOILER having actually seen arms broken in an MMA fight firsthand and live, well, it looks nothing like that END SPOILER). But it's engaging enough to watch. There would be some totally preposterous or cliched scene, and then there would be a bloody fight or some decent acting, and I would be engaged again. Nolte rocked his role. Hardy was good too. I'm glad to see Bane unmasked. There was also a poster for Shamrock vs Gracie in the background, which was the first major MMA event that I ever attended, which was nostalgic for me personally.

A high school teacher moonlighting as an MMA champ who brings his school together? It's going to make a great double feature with Here Comes the Boom. ;-)

[cranefly]

I just saw this and will align more on the Greg side of the fence. Yes, it was full of cliches, yet it sucked me in and got me emotionally involved and my heart pounding. I felt cheap and dirty for it (giving me flashbacks of an old whore with a tic at the end of the bar), but hey, what can I say? The movie was a matter of balancing various aspects: acting, MMA realism, gore and brutality, story versus action. The big winners were the critics, who raved about the acting. The big losers were probably hardcore MMA fans, who would have preferred wall-to-wall cage-fights rather than so many emotional scenes and so much back story.

BTW, I thought the injury to the Tom Hardy character was credible, as it wasn't a broken arm but a dislocated shoulder. Barring shock from the pain, I think he could have continued as he did, especially with all those buckets of adrenalin coursing through his veins (thinned, I suppose, by some steroids -- my goodness, it never ceases to amaze me what some actors will do for their craft! He looked pumped as big as Brock Lesnar!)

Things I would have liked: 1) Seeing Nolte actually train the one son. There was absolutely none of that. It seemed a huge oversight. Then again, the director had to juggle a lot of characters and subplots. 2) More Fred-Astaireish fight choreography. "Back away from the fighters," I kept wanting to say. Show what the heck they're doing. Admittedly, the two actors likely busted their butts making it look as good as it was. But I've been spoiled by the likes of Jackie and Jet (and so have a lot of other martial arts aficionados).

The relationship between father and two sons was ... well, a little messed up. I don't think I've ever seen one so utterly damaged. It was like the Titanic sitting on the ocean bottom. Nolte the father would try to inflate the prow and bring it towards the surface, but the two sons kept armbarring the anchor. (This analogy is brought to you by TapouT, official clothing line of clothelines and other MMA techniques.) Okay, I'm wandering all over the place. Must be finished.

All in all, much better than it probably should have been.