Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Warrior in 300 Words or Less

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If you've seen the trailer then you know the movie to expect, and that is exactly the movie you should expect. For a movie about "two men who don't follow the rules!" Warrior follows the rules to a tee. It doesn't much try to add side-dishes of flavor to the stew like David O. Russell's The Fighter did - it's the same straight-forward recipe we've been tasting for decades. I won't spoil the ending for you - I'll leave that to every other sports movie ever made to do.

But! There is a but! (Unfortunately there aren't any butts though. They got in this kind of shape and couldn't find a single shower scene? Really?) Back to the but - Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton are two extraordinarily talented young actors and they take this material and they work little wonders with it. The moments where the director allows the stock story to rest for a breath, his actors express effortless power. Hardy for me especially - with him it's as if the quieter and stiller he gets the more you can feel this explosion being muffled up inside, and he underplays every turn of a movie screaming out for screaming out with real grace. Edgerton too - they make a rock-solid (god they're solid) pair, KO'ing cliches left + right! (Spoiler: The cliches win on a technicality.)

But if you're not as cynical as cynical ol' me this is an easy movie to get swept up in - it hits all the beats that drive an audience looking for their "Ooh-rah!" experience to their feet with a cheer. They bring in a Drago-esque Soviet villain for us to hiss at! Hiss! Hiss! The end.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

omg i am glad you enjoyed (?) it!! was worried it would be lame. still waiting for this movie...