Warrior (2011)

If The Wrestler and The Fighter had a baby (while Rocky watched), it would be Warrior. And I mean that as a compliment.

While it may be formuliac at times (and a bit reminiscent of other recent films), there are plenty of things Warrior has going for it. For starters, it's a fresh sport. Most MMA movies so far have been cheesy straight to video DVDs. This one takes the world seriously and creates three dimensional characters that the audience cares about. I think that 15, 20 years from now, it'll be one of those time capsule movies that captures a certain culture in a moment of time, and it will have a very nostalgic quality to it. And luckily, it has a very strong character driven story as well, so it could be in the same league as Rocky. Only time will tell.

The gist of the story is that two brothers enter a mixed martial arts tornument, both for very different but very important reasons. The younger brother is being reluctantly trained by his estranged father (Nick Nolte, in a superb performance), a man neither brother has forgiven for being a drunk. I don't really want to say much more than that, because the movie kind of reveals information when it's ready to give it to you. I'll just say that the characters are well drawn, and the movie really drags you into the relationships they have with each other.

Besides Nolte, both leads give strong performances. Tom Hardy, fresh off Inception and getting ready to take on Batman, is very good as the younger brother. He's an Englishman, and he does a really good tough guy/cool guy voice. It didn't even click with me until mid way through that it was the British guy from Inception. Once I realized that I paid close attention to his accent and I think he is spot on here. Joel Edgerton is the other brother. I recognized him from Animal Kingdom (as one of the more likable characters in that film), and I almost couldn't get over his striking resemblance to Conan O'Brien.

It's a real crowd pleaser, this film. And like most good sports movies, you don't have to be a fan of the sport to get enjoyment out of it. If the characters and the story are there, you can be the world's biggest non sports fan and still find it immensely entertaining. And the characters and story are definitely here, so much so that if I were a filmmaker looking to make a respectable movie set in the world of MMA, it'd almost seem like a pointless task, because Warrior has done such a great job of it. But I'm sure there are other stories that can be told, they just have a pretty big hill to climb.

RATING: 3.5/5