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Friday, September 9, 2011

MOVIE REVIEW
Warrior
Main Event: Brothers In Arms And Fists For Family Title


Nick Nolte as Paddy and Joel Edgerton (foreground) as Brendan in Gavin O'Connor's drama "Warrior".  Lionsgate
  
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        FOLLOW                                            TWEET
Friday, September 9, 2011

Muscular slabs of gladiatorial human meat slap, kick, punch, lock and grapple in Gavin O'Connor's rousing drama "Warrior", an overlong, amped-up spectacle specifically geared to crowd please and evoke the successful "Rocky" films of the 1970s and 80s, with mixed martial arts instead of boxing.  Mr. O'Connor co-writes the film about a family of men estranged, looking to redeem themselves or their loved ones. 

Two brothers barely talk to each other about their departed mother, and neither cares a lick for their alcoholic father Paddy (Nick Nolte), whom they blame for their dysfunction.  Tom (Tom Hardy) is a disillusioned U.S. soldier back from a tour of duty overseas who apparently has PTSD and wants to fight it out of his system in a mixed martial arts tournament.  Brendan (Joel Edgerton) moonlights as a MMA fighter to supplement his school teacher job and keep his wife and child secure as their home is threatened for foreclosure.  Tom beats the living daylights out of a seasoned fighter, and his predictable rise begins.  Brendan arrives to class with bruises and welts.  His eight-graders think it's oh-so-cool.  Go, Teacher!  Beat his behind.  Can you give us an A, Teech -- an A for Ass-Kicking?

Occasionally gripping, mostly scattershot and always predictable, "Warrior" knows a collision course between its protagonists is coming, as do we.  The movie's posters have advertised it for at least two months.  "Warrior" showcases a fighting spirit as American as apple pie, and Mr. Hardy ("Bronson", "Inception") and Mr. Edgerton ("The Square", "Animal Kingdom") celebrate it well.  One brother is an eruptive, locomotive force, the other a charismatic, compassionate heart.  Mr. O'Connor's camera bobs and weaves, floating like a butterfly to build tension, a fighter waiting to be unleashed.  You know the rah-rah atmosphere lies ahead and that the blows will hit hard, long before they land.

Aside from Mr. Nolte's aching, palpable, Oscar-nominee worthy work as a Burgess Meredith-like fight trainer looking to fit back in to a fractured family, the surface level "Warrior" lacks strength as a drama and is heavily clichéd.  Brendan's wife strenuously objects to the vanity-wrecking her husband gets but you know that once Brendan ascends the ranks and upsets big-name fighters she'll be there in his Rocky corner just like Adrian was.

With: Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, Kevin Dunn, Maximilliano Hernández, Denzel Whitaker, Vanessa Martinez, Nick Lehane, Kurt Angle. 

"Warrior" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association Of America for sequences of intense mixed martial arts fighting, some language and thematic material.  The film's running time is two hours and 22 minutes.

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