The Prestige

9 out of 10 stars

Cast

Christian Bale........................Alfred Borden

Hugh Jackman.......................Robert Angier

Michael Caine...................................Cutter

Scarlett Johansson..........Olivia Wenscombe

*****WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*****

Can we all just take a moment to remember that I am a huge Christopher Nolan fan. And this movie is the reason for that. Now before I had seen this movie, the only two Christopher Nolan films I had seen were Inception and the Dark Knight. And when I realized those two had been created by the same person I was like "alright, he's a pretty cool guy."

Then I saw this movie. 

And holy crap my pants, this movie changed everything. When I saw that Christopher Nolan was responsible for bringing this beautiful masterpiece to life, I began to realize how much I admired his directing and story-telling. 

Mind you, the first time I watched this movie was at my house. It was on TV and my dad decided to watch it so I joined him. I fell asleep for a little bit in the middle which was a HUGE mistake because once the ending rolled around, I had no idea what was going on. 

But then not two weeks later my sophomore English teacher told us we would be watching none other than The Prestige in class. First I would like to say that only one other person in the class had seen this movie besides me so when the final scene came about, we decided to watch everyone else's faces and it was probably the funniest thing I have ever witnessed in my life.

Let me explain. 

This movie is about two magicians (Bale and Jackman). Former partners turned rivals, these two magicians compete to gain the biggest audience and have the most impressive tricks. Now this isn't some pull-a-rabbit-out-of-a-hat-magic kind of movie. This is a question-life-and-all-known-and-commonly-practiced-science-methods-magic kind of movie. 

If you are one of those people who like to just "sit and enjoy watching a movie," this movie is not for you. At all. This is one of those movies that you may need to watch twice to fully understand what your brain just went through. 

And because this was a Christopher Nolan film, the cast was, of course, phenomenal. 

I do believe I have grown to love Christian Bale simply for his roles in Chris Nolan films. This one is one of his better roles. Christian Bale has to play a family man as well as a slightly arrogant performer. He does both roles brilliantly. At some points, he also really pulls at my heart when it comes to his daughter. 

Alfred Borden is an extremely complex character. I really felt that Christian Bale did beautifully in showing Alfred Borden's constant inner battle between his love for his family, and his love for magic.  At one point in the movie, his wife (played by Rebecca Hall) says to Borden "some days you love magic more than you love me." At the end of the film, you find out why there is such a distinction but I thought Christian Bale did a good job of showing the two sides evenly. 

Hugh Jackman has only worked with Chris Nolan in this one film (it's unusual that Nolan uses actors only once as seen with Christian Bale and Michael Caine), but I'm glad it was this one. 

Robert Angier is also a rather complex character, but he often lets his emotions show more than his rival. In this movie, Robert Angier mourns over the loss of his lover. She was the show girl who worked with Robert and Alfred when they were partners. Due to an unfortunate accident with a water tank, she dies. Alfred, obviously, is upset, but he is able to move on. Robert, however, is stricken with grief. He blames Alfred for the death of his lover (it was Alfred's job to tie the knots that she was supposed to be able to slip out of), and he makes it his mission to avenge her death by becoming a better magician than Alfred.

In my opinion, Hugh Jackman does a wonderful job of showing the emotional battle Robert Angier faces as he embarks on the journey to become the greatest magician. He really captures the anger and frustration as he tries to understand Alfred's techniques. Yet he also captures the sorrow and loneliness of someone who has lost a loved one. I was very impressed with his performance. 

I really enjoyed Michael Caine's role in this movie. Like, more than the 7,000 other roles he's had. Michael Caine's character, Cutter, is Robert Angier's behind-the-scenes guy. He was the behind-the-scenes guy for both Alfred and Robert when they worked together, but when the went their separate ways, Cutter chose to stay with Robert. He still cares about Alfred, and Alfred about him, but he realizes that Robert will only work with him if Cutter only works with Robert.

Cutter is just a nice guy. He really is. He just wants Robert to be able to put on the best magic show he can. Yet, he sees Roberts destructive path of becoming obsessed with beating Alfred. Cutter tries to make Robert see reason, but he comes up fruitless. Only when Robert thinks he's beaten Alfred (that word "thinks" is very important) does he finally give up his one big trick. 

I think Cutter was my favorite character in this movie.

I have a very strong love-hate relationship with Scarlett Johansson. In a couple movies, I don't like her one bit. Yet, in other movies, she impresses me (like Iron Man 2). I think I like her in this movie but I'm still not very sure. 

Now her character, Olivia Wenscombe, is hired by Alfred to be his on-stage assistant. However, she acts as kind of a double-agent. Alfred sends her to work with Robert so he can have an insight into what Robert is doing. The first time I watched it, I was a bit confused as to who she really worked for, but the second time I watched it, everything was clear. 

Scarlett Johansson does a good job at playing the very independent and confident, yet young and eager girl who wants to work with magic. 

Overall, this film was very well-done for me. Not only in the story itself but also in the casting, set design, and costume. I thought everything was very nicely planned out and executed. I do not think that this is my favorite Chris Nolan film, but it's certainly one of the top. It showed me his ability to give an audience a complex story and do it in a way that isn't so confusing that it loses the audience's interest. 

I know the word is ridiculously overused, but this film truly is brilliant. 






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Oz: The Great and Powerful

5 out of 10 stars

Cast

James Franco.............................Oz
Michelle Williams.........Annie/Glinda
Mila Kunis.........................Theodora
Rachel Weisz.....................Evanora


*****WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*****

Okay, I would just like to start off by saying: THIS. IS NOT. A TIM BURTON MOVIE. Do not listen to what other people say. Tim Burton had absolutely no part in the making of this movie. It may look like a Tim Burton movie, but it's not. 

Which does lead me to say that this movie is weird. And I don't mean like disturbing-images-weird, but it's just.... weird. 

First of all, this movie is what they call "visually stimulating." And in the beginning, there is one moment where the colors look really cool. The very beginning of the movie is black and white because it is set in the very early 1900's. When Oz gets sucked into a giant tornado in his hot air balloon and gets thrown into the Land of Oz, everything turns to color and it does look quite nice. But for the rest of the movie, it's very... overdone. 

Also, there were parts of the movie that I didn't understand. If any of you are familiar with the story of Wicked, you know that Glinda is friends with Elphaba. Now this story takes place after Wicked but before the Wizard of Oz. If you noticed in the cast list, there is no Elphaba in the movie. Glinda's there and Oz is there but Elphaba is not. 

When I brought this up at work, one of my managers said how there are supposed to be four witches and only three are shown in the movie so maybe Elphaba was on vacation or something. And while that makes sense, Theodora becomes the "Wicked" Witch and Evanora is evil as well. So there are already two wicked witches without Elphaba, and I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be two good witches and two bad witches.

However, someone told me (and this may not be true) that this movie is supposed to be closer to the original story. I've never read the original story so I wouldn't know. I just thought the whole Elphaba thing was confusing.

Also, I thought the Wizard was named "The Wizard of Oz" because he resided in Oz. But in this movie, he's already named Oz. So I thought "maybe they name the land after him then." But no, when Oz crash-lands his hot air balloon, Theodora is like "Welcome to Oz" or something and I was like "so they're both already named Oz....." Of course, in the movie, the three witches mention some kind of prophecy but it was never very well explained so I was extremely confused throughout the whole movie. 

One other thing, this is a "kids" movie but there are some freaky images in this movie. If you were scared of the flying monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz," you're going to be scared of them in this movie as well.

And as for the actors, well....

I just... I didn't like James Franco's character in this film. And I know that in the beginning, you're not supposed to like him because he's selfish, greedy, etc. But even at the end, I wasn't really feeling it. And personally, Franco just seemed.... awkward in the role of Oz. I don't know, it just didn't feel right. 

Now as the title of this blog suggests, I am very biased. I really like Michelle Williams so she was probably my favorite actor in this movie. This film is similar to the film "The Wizard of Oz" in the sense that some of the characters from the "real world" cross over to the land of Oz. Michelle Williams plays Annie in the beginning of the film. Annie, unlike Oz, is sweet and kind. So in Oz, she is portrayed as Glinda the Good Witch. 

I thought Michelle Williams did a good job in playing Glinda. I thought she captured Glinda's kind of airy personality. She was very much like the White Queen from the new Alice in Wonderland. 

Mila Kunis was probably my second favorite actor in this film. I thought she did an excellent job of playing Theodora who started out as an innocent, curious girl, but because of her sister, she was turned into an evil witch. 

Kunis really captured Theodora's wonder and awe when she first meets Oz when he crash-lands. However, she also perfected Theodora's jealousy and anger when she finds out Oz is with Glinda. Well done Mila, well done.

In this movie, you are supposed to strongly dislike Rachel Weisz's character and I followed through on that thoroughly. Basically, Evanora is Theodora's jerk face older sister who is controlling and wants all the power to herself. 

I did feel, though, that Rachel Weisz did a fine job of playing Evanora. She made me hate her character, which I think is a feat for any actor. I don't know I always wondered if it was hard for some actors to play characters that everyone is supposed to hate. Either way, Rachel Weisz did a good job in this movie. 

But as for the movie overall, I just wasn't liking it. It's kind of supposed to be a kids movie but I don't think it falls under that category. Yet, it's not an adult movie either. I didn't really understand what the target audience was for this movie. As a whole it was just kind of odd and I didn't really understand it. 

And personally, I thought it would've been cool if it ended with Dorothy coming in and killing one of the witches. But alas, that didn't happen. 

No one appreciates my ideas. 







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Now You See Me

6 out of 10 stars

Cast

Jesse Eisenberg.............J. Daniel Atlas

Isla Fisher.....................Henley Reeves

Woody Harrelson.........Merritt McKinney

Dave Franco.......................Jack Wilder

Morgan Freeman........Thaddeus Bradley

Mark Ruffalo....................Dylan Rhodes

Mélanie Laurent....................Alma Dray

*****WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*****

So I will be honest, I found myself getting extremely exasperated with this movie despite my hopes for it to be great. I will admit that when I saw the previews for this movie, I had high hopes. My mistake. I mus say that I was rather disappointed in the movie. 

Don't get me wrong, the concept of the movie, the actual idea of it was brilliant. I am always a sucker for magic tricks, and this film was full of them. And I don't mean cheap cut-the-pretty-lady-in-half kind of magic, I mean that's-not-even-remotely-possible magic. Now it doesn't quite rival Christopher Nolan's the Prestige if you've ever seen that, but it was pretty good.

I just felt like the story could have been told in a much better way. Of course if any of you have read my posts long enough or know me personally, you know that I strongly dislike love stories. And guess what? There was a love story in this movie. It was between Mark Ruffalo and Mélanie Laurent's characters. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded it if it had been between two different characters. It just seemed like the love story didn't really fit in with the rest of the story. The whole thing seemed awkwardly placed and distracting. 

But I think the rest of the movie was pretty good. 

I've discovered that I think Jesse Eisenberg can only play one character. J. Daniel Atlas is remarkably similar to Eisenberg's character in The Social Network. I know that's only two movies but from other short clips that I've seen Jesse Eisenberg in, he seems to always play the narcissistic, conceited, know-it-all. 

But for this character, I do believe he was the right choice. I don't know if I liked J. Daniel Atlas, but I appreciated his character in the movie. Eisenberg's character is a well-known magician who used to work with Isla Fisher's character, Henley Reeves. He was definitely the leader of the Four Horsemen (the group name of the four magicians) and I like card tricks so I guess I did think he was pretty cool. 

Okay so I know I've heard Isla Fisher's name before so I've probably seen her in something, but I can't remember. Anyway, I didn't really like her character. Henley Reeves used to work with J. Daniel Atlas but they split up after many disagreements. Henley went off to work by herself and performs big shows on stage in front of huge crowds.

If any of you remember, I don't often like the main girl characters in movies, especially in action movies. This one isn't a full-blown action movie, but it's kind of action-y. I don't know, I just thought she was annoying and I didn't like her. 

I can't lie, Woody Harrelson was my second favorite character in this movie. Harrelson's character, Merritt McKinney is a mentalist, or as some people call them- "psychic", which basically means he hypnotizes people, reads body language, and plays mind games on people. 

Harrelson was the comic relief of the movie. He always had some wise-crack one-liners. I thought some of his lines were cheesy, but I suppose I can't blame him for the dialogue. I personally love characters who play mind games on people. Plus, I usually like side-characters better than the main characters so while Woody Harrelson was definitely an important character in the movie, I don't think he was one of the main characters so I liked him better than Eisenberg or Fisher's characters. 

Let me rant about Dave Franco. I loved his character. He was definitely my favorite. Dave Franco's character, Jack Wilder, is a small-time magician but a skilled pick-pocket and thief. If there is anything I love more than a mentalist, it's a pick-pocket. 

Anyway, I haven't seen Dave Franco in much, but I thought he did an amazing job in this movie. He was a young, eager, and slightly naive fanboy of J. Daniel Atlas who will do anything the other Horsemen tell him to do. I thought he was really sweet and I from what I heard from the people I went to see this with, he was most people's favorite character.

So what did we all learn a couple weeks ago? No one hates Morgan Freeman. And once again, he was good in this movie. It wasn't his best, but I mean when has Morgan Freeman ever gone wrong? Exactly. 

So Morgan's character, Thaddeus Bradley, is a former magician that goes to current magicians's shows and tries to expose them and how they perform their tricks. Throughout the movie, he tries to expose the Four Horsemen. At first, he struggles, but eventually he finds out how all the tricks were performed. However, when he eventually does find out how it's all done, he's a bit too late. 

Okay one of my dearest friends is obsessed with Mark Ruffalo. I used to not-sort-of-really like him but now because of my infatuated friend, I'm starting to be okay with him. So his character, Dylan Rhodes, is an FBI agent who is put on the case for the Four Horsemen (since the robbed a bank during one of their shows). First off, I really like the name Dylan. But at first, I didn't really like Dylan. HOWEVER, at the end of the movie, I loved him. Well.... not the very end. The last scene of the movie was dumb and irrelevant, but the scene right before that was ridiculous. I liked him a lot for the last ten minutes of the movie.

Hate is a strong word so I'm just going to say that I strongly disliked Mélanie Laurent's character in this film. Like no. Just no. Mélanie Laurent herself is probably a brilliant actress (she's French so I haven't seen her in any other movies), but her character was just...... annoying. 

So overall, this movie was.... decent. I loved the magic tricks because well.... I love magic, but some of the story was dumb. The characters were entertaining, however, and the ending.... whew.

Everything changes in the end. 

Everything.

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The Great Gatsby

8 out of 10 stars

Cast

Leonardo DiCaprio.....................Jay Gatsby

Carey Mulligan...................Daisy Buchanan

Joel Edgerton.......................Tom Buchanan

Tobey Maguire......................Nick Carraway

Elizabeth Debicki....................Jordan Baker

*****WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*****

When I went to go see this movie, I didn't know what to expect. In fact, I set the bar pretty low. A couple people I know had seen it before me and I received mixed reviews. Some said it was fabulous and one of the best movies they'd seen in a while. Others said I would probably hate it so it wasn't even worth watching. 

Now I read the book The Great Gatsby in my English class in school this year, and if there is one thing about me that people don't often know is that I am a huge appreciator of the classics. Of course, I don't know if Gatsby is considered a classic yet to most, but to me, it is. So I decided to go watch the movie. 

And I must say, I was surprisingly satisfied with it. However, if you saw the old Great Gatsby with Robert Redford, I can't guarantee that you'll like this one. My English teacher, who saw the old version, strongly disliked this movie, but my parents, who also saw the old version, rather liked this version as well. 

So you may wonder why I gave it only 8 stars if I liked it so much. Well the only thing I didn't like about the movie was that I feel like the creators tried to make it too "visually stimulating." It was too artsy at some points. Of course, at some points, like during Gatsby's parties, I appreciated the wild colors, but at other points, it was just too artsy and it was a bit distracting. 

However, I felt that the actors did a fabulous job in portraying all their roles.

Contrary to my English teacher's belief, I thought Leonardo DiCaprio did a fantastic job playing Jay Gatsby. The way he played the role was exactly how I pictured Gatsby to be. And it wasn't just the suave, smooth party-guy that DiCaprio played well. He also did a marvelous job in playing the hope-filled romantic who is doing everything just to win Daisy's heart over. 

In fact, it surprised me how much I liked Leonardo DiCaprio in this movie. Typically, I don't like Leonardo DiCaprio's characters in films, especially when he's one of the leads. I don't know why, don't ask me, but I just never really liked him. But I loved him in this film. He did an amazing job.

I don't know that I've ever seen anything Carey Mulligan has been in before, but I've heard her name. I think the first thing that threw me off was that I wasn't expecting Daisy to be blonde. I don't know, that was just weird for me the whole movie. 

But I thought Carey Mulligan did a nice job of playing Daisy. Now I know that you're not supposed to like Daisy, but in the book, i really did like her. In the movie, however, I didn't like her as much. Don't get me wrong, Carey Mulligan pulled off Daisy's role wonderfully, but I didn't like her character.

Mind you if you remember some of my previous posts, you'll know that I am starting to like Joel Edgerton. In this movie, I absolutely hated his character. Of course, you're kind of supposed to hate Tom Buchanan so I guess it all worked out. Joel Edgerton, though, did a great job of playing Tom. He portrayed Tom's snobbish, narcissistic personality. I think he did a great job.

So before this movie, I did not like Tobey Maguire one bit. I didn't like him as Spider-Man. I don't know what it was, but I just didn't like him. However, this movie slightly changed my opinion of him. I guess I just needed to see him in another role. I thought he did a good job of playing Nick Carraway. He showed Nick's kind of lost, go-with-the-flow personality really well. I still don't know if I like Tobey Maguire yet, but I certainly don't hate him anymore. 

When I first saw Jordan Baker in this film, I was convinced that I had seen her before somewhere. Turns out I haven't. I've never even heard of her. But I do think Elizabeth Debicki did a marvelous job of playing Jordan. She really captured the smooth, slick personality that Jordan has, and how Jordan obviously thinks very highly of herself. However, I did feel that the movie didn't do her complete justice. Jordan's character is a pathological liar and they didn't really show that in the movie. Of course, Jordan isn't really a main character, but I thought it would've been much more interesting had they shown that part of her character.

The movie did leave out a few pieces from the novel, like the fact that Jordan and Nick had a brief relationship. It is understandable, though, that the creators of the movie would leave some parts out.

I was rather impressed with how much I liked this movie. But I do think that I understood it much better because I read it in my English class. And in class, we analyzed the book quite a bit. If I hadn't read the book, I don't know that I would've liked it as much. I think I would've just seen is as some movie about a girl who can't make up her mind about who to be in love with. So I suggest reading the book before you go if you haven't already read it. 

So all in all, I do believe this is a movie I would recommend to people. Just do your best to get over the fact that the background looks like a Bob Ross painting half the time.







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Olympus Has Fallen

7 out of 10 stars

Cast
Gerard Butler.................Mike Banning
Aaron Eckhart.............Benjamin Asher
Morgan Freeman.......Speaker Trumbull
Rick Yune..................................Kang


*****WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*****

So, let's talk about Olympus Has Fallen. Overall, this movie was pretty good. It's one of the better action films that has come out in a long time in my opinion. It was violent. There was a lot of language. However, it is rated R. If you are not okay with violence or language, do not under any circumstance come see this movie. You will not like it. You've been warned.

As for me, I was okay with it. I've gotten to the point where language and violence aren't really a big deal to me. It's not that I don't notice it, it's just that for me, language and violence aren't going to take away from the story. I'm able to get past the potty-mouths and gore. Unlike some people. *Cough cough* My mother *cough* (in her words, there "were like, thirty head-shots"). 

So the plot line of this movie is that some North Korean (yes, I cringed as well) terrorists attack the White House while the South Korean prime minister is visiting. The president, the South Korean prime minister, and both men's security teams are placed in the bunker. Mike Banning (Butler) was head of Secret Service but due to an unfortunate car accident where the First Lady died, he was relieved of his duties and went to work for the Treasury. When the North Korean's attack, he runs over to help. 

Some stuff blows up and after a series of chaotic events, there's a hole blown open in the gate surrounding the White House. All these North Koreans start streaming onto the front lawn of the White House. All these security guards come out and there's a huge shootout where quite a few people die. And by quite a few, I mean like forty. 

Mike Banning and these two guards are on the front steps of the White House. He starts running towards the front doors and tells the other two guys to follow him. But surprise, surprise: they die.

So Mike is left alone with about fifty North Koreans patrolling the White House. And because this is an action movie, he of course single-handedly kills about thirty North Koreans. The movie cuts to a scene in the bunker and all of a sudden, the South Korean prime minister's security team starts shooting everyone and taking the President and all his people hostage (this includes the South Korean prime minister. Poor guy, he just wanted to visit America). 

Then the movie cuts to a scene where all these people are sitting around a conference table like "what do we do?" and then.............Morgan Freeman walks in.

Our nation's savior.

God's gift to us all.

Basically, Morgan Freeman's character is Speaker of the House and because nobody knows if the President and VP are okay, he becomes the acting President. So he sits at the head of the table and then this video pops up on the big screen. And it's the head of security for the South Korean prime minister. But really, he's the leader of the North Korean terrorists. So at this point, you're like "oh crap, it's about to get real." 

So the head honcho of the terrorists, Kang (Yune), is holding the President, VP, and a bunch of other important government people hostage in the bunker. He tells Morgan Freeman that he has to recall the 7th Fleet (whatever that is) and pull the troops out of the DMZ or he will attack and kill everyone, etc. 

Now keep in mind that the only reason the NK terrorist is there is to get our codes to cause our nuclear missiles to self destruct. He plans on having them blow up in their silos (basically meaning that the nukes will blow up while they're still on the ground), so the United States will become a nuclear wasteland and we'll all suffer, so on and so forth. 

So because this is a "guys'" movie (in my opinion), Mike Banning starts busting through the White House and single handedly takes out about thirty North Koreans. I mean who needs logic? But anyway, the day is saved. 

So how did the actors do?

Good ole Gerard Butler. I have to say, I think he did well in this movie. Now I haven't seen Gerard in many movies (I know, how is that possible?), but I liked him in this one. I thought he did very well playing a character who is extremely loyal to the president and to his country (which I thought was funny because you know... he's Scottish). And for an "action" role, he impressed me. 

Now if there is one thing (besides special effects) that I am a stickler about, it's accents. If an actor is not American, but has to speak in an American accent in a movie, they better have it perfected. Now Gerard's accent did slip a couple times and I noticed it right away. But because I was enjoying the movie up until that point, I let it slide.
Just this once. 

Aaron Eckhart.... Let me tell you. It was really hard for me to watch this movie and see him as the President of the United States. Instead, every time he came on-screen, I saw him as...... Harvey Dent. A.K.A. Harvey Two-Face. 

The poor guy. I mean maybe I'm the only one but the only real role I remember Aaron Eckhart playing is Harvey Dent from the Dark Knight. Now this role is obviously very similar to Harvey Dent's character which also made it hard for me to see him as playing a different character. It might be because of the fact that I've only seen him in roles that are very similar, but so far, Aaron Eckhart seems to be an actor with only one character. 

I have learned over the course of many movie-filled years that there are four truths to the film industry: 1) No one hates the Bourne Series. 2) No one hates Emma Watson 3) Everyone loves Michael Caine and 4) Everyone loves Morgan Freeman. 

(Side note on the first two. By saying "No one hates" the Bourne Series, Michael Caine, or Emma Watson, that means that you may not love them, but you don't hate them either. I mean think about it...)

So obviously, Morgan Freeman is a legend. And I must say, I was a bit disappointed in his role in this movie. And I understand that Morgan can't have every lead in every film but still, this one was a bit of a let-down. He acted brilliantly as always but I walked away feeling like there should have been more. 

I must admit, I have never seen Rick Yune before. I don't think he's been in any American movies and if he has, I either didn't see them or didn't recognize him. 

I think he did well in this movie. He was very good at being ruthless and cold. 

But I think overall in the movie, the actors didn't do much. I mean they were part of it, yah, but I felt like the movie was more about making it look action-y, not about the story. The dialogue was a bit dry and the characters were kind of static. 

Now don't get me wrong, I love a good action movie. But I really appreciate action movies that can incorporate a story that builds and grabs the audience's attention. It shouldn't just be a constant shoot-out between the good guy and the bad guys, it should have dimension if that makes any sense. I'm being a bit generous when I say it was seven stars. 

Anyway, sorry it's been a while again, I'm trying to be more consistent, honestly I am. Don't worry there's more to come.

I'm trying to think of a good way to end this but I'm failing miserably. So until next time...

Long Live Morgan Freeman.








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Warrior

9.5 out of 10 stars

Cast

Paddy Conlon............................Nick Nolte
Brendan Colon......................Joel Edgerton
Tommy Conlon..........................Tom Hardy
Tess Conlon.....................Jennifer Morrison

***** WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS *****

I APOLOGIZE FOR NOT POSTING I KNOW I'M A TERRIBLE PERSON. In my defense, school ruins my life. Especially honors classes. Never take honors classes. Not if you value sleep, friends, and a stress-free life... But really, I'd like to apologize for not posting because I just get carried away with homework, work, volleyball, and Downton Abbey. But I'm back! And to welcome you all back to my blog from my ridiculously long break, I'd thought I'd review the best movie ever made.

By the way someone came into the theater this week and spilled a FULL LARGE bag of popcorn a FULL LARGE soda and an ENTIRE bag of m&m's on the floor. Um if you're going to do that, you need to leave. Like no, get out of my theater. 

Okay, this movie, give me a second to compose myself. This is by far my favorite movie of all time. Every time someone so much as mentions the word "warrior", I get all worked up. I could go on for days about how much I love this movie. It's that good. Also, I cry every time I watch this movie. I do. It's sad. But what's more important is that it makes my older brother get a little misty eyed. If you can make an eighteen-year-old three-sport-star-athlete, rough-and-tough guy tear up, props to you. This movie is ridiculously amazing and if you haven't seen it, shame on you. 

Now I will admit that this movie wasn't very well advertised. I remember when it first came out. I had seen very few previews for it and I might have seen a poster for it once at one of the bigger movie theaters that my brother worked at. I think this might have been because it didn't have an extremely popular cast. Nick Nolte is a guy that most older-generation folks would know. Hardly any kids these days actually knows who Nick Nolte is. Joel Edgerton is an Aussie and he hadn't really been in many American movies before this one. Tom Hardy had only really been seen in Inception but few people remembered him. And I hadn't really seen Jennifer Morrison before or if I had, I wasn't really paying attention. However after this movie, I gained a lot of respect for all the actors. 

Nick Nolte. Nick, Nick, Nick. He was perfect in this movie. His character was the alcoholic-dad-trying-to-redeem-himself. The movie opens with him coming out of a church and going to his car where he listens to Moby Dick on tape. When he arrives home, he discovers his youngest son, Tommy (Hardy), sitting on his porch steps. When Tommy offers him a drink, Paddy (Nolte) declines saying "I'm done with that now." Also, when Paddy and Tommy are inside talking, Paddy explains how he's 100 (or was it 1000? I can't remember, it's been a while) days sober. My heart really went out for this guy throughout the whole movie. Yes, he was an awful father when his sons were younger, but he's trying his hardest to pull his life together and redeem himself. His main goal throughout the whole movie was to show his sons, especially Tommy, that despite the fact that he's an alcoholic, he still loves them with all his heart. 

The one thing though was that sometimes, I couldn't understand what Nick Nolte was saying. Whether it was because he was mumbling, or because he just has a really rough voice, I don't know. I just know that half the time I had to rewind the scene to catch was Nolte was saying. 

I will admit that the first couple times watching this, I didn't really like Joel Edgerton's character. I haven't the slightest idea why. I just know that I really wanted him to lose even from the beginning. 

But even though I wanted him to lose, I did think that he was fighting to a noble cause. Edgerton's character, Brendan Conlon, is the family man. He was really the only one out of his family that pulled his life together. He married a beautiful woman, had two kids, and got a job as a high school physics teacher. However, when his second daughter was born, she had some heart defects. She was put into surgery. Very expensive surgery. Brendan and his wife can't afford the medical bills. They're at risk of losing their house and time is running out to get the bills paid.

So in order to raise the money, Brendan had to find other jobs. He told his wife Tessa (Morrison) that he was a bouncer for clubs on the weekends. However, in actuality, he's been going to strip club parking lots and fighting in the ring. He makes a decent amount of money, but his wife hates it. She told him that she didn't want to have to tell her kids that "daddy gets beat up for a living." Eventually, after a particularly rough fight, Brendan comes home beat up and Tessa discovers what has really been going on. Brendan tells her that there's going to be a big fight in the Atlantic City and he wants to enter. If he wins, he'll get more than enough money to pay the bills (I think it was somewhere around 5 million dollars?). Tessa declares that she'll stay with him, but she strongly disapproves of him fighting and she will not be standing by him in Atlantic City. 

Brendan starts training in order to fight. He joins up with one of his friends who owns a gym. After the owner loses his best fighter to a knee injury, he agrees to sign Brendan up for the Atlantic City fight. 

Again, I'm saving the best for last so I'll get to Tom Hardy next. But as for Jennifer Morrison, I, personally, had never heard of her before this movie. I didn't really like her character in this movie. And once again I have absolutely no reason for this opinion. I just don't like female leads in movies like this. Plus I thought it was annoying that she didn't like her husband fighting. Like he enjoys it, LET HIM DO WHAT HE LOVES, WOMAN. Granted, eventually, she does come around and watch his last fight in Atlantic City. I was rather annoyed. I really don't have much to say about her except the fact that she should make up her mind and stand by her decision. And she shouldn't be so controlling. Like honestly woman, lighten up. 

Okay, give me a moment to collect myself. This is the movie that made me fall in love with Tom Hardy. He is an excellent actor. He's very young, too, so I am very impressed with him. Plus, Gary Oldman said in an interview that he thought Tom was one of the best young actors he had ever seen. So if you don't think Tom Hardy is a good actor, your argument is invalid because Gary Oldman said he was cool. 

So Tom's character in this movie breaks my heart every time I see it. Every. Single. Time. The movie opens with Paddy Conlon (Nolte) coming home and finding Tommy sitting on his front steps. He seems rather shocked to see him there which gives the viewers an indication that the two of them haven't seen each other in a very long time. Tommy offer's Paddy a drink but Paddy refuses saying that he's "done with that now." This gives the audience a hint that Paddy has a problem with drinking. So Paddy invites Tommy in and they start talking. Paddy keeps trying to be the nice, hospitable father but Tommy is very short and cold with him. At first I was kind of like "Wow, jerk. I mean no need to show your father love or anything, not like you're in his house." However, as the dialogue develops, you learn that Paddy was actually and alcoholic and probably abusive father. Tommy obviously hasn't gotten over that yet and still has some hard feelings towards his dad. 

The part though in the beginning that I didn't like was when Paddy was like "Tommy, I'm a thousand (or was it a hundred, I can't remember) days sober now." And Tommy tells him (sarcastically) how nice that is but he's too late now. At first I was like "whoa dude, harsh." Little did I know that that information was a foreshadow that lead to one of the most heart wrenching scenes in the movie. 

So basically, Tommy comes back from fighting overseas. That's all you know is that he was overseas and everyone is surprised to see him back. He goes to his dad's place and stays there for a little bit. He goes to his old, local gym and signs up for a membership. He starts working out and one day, the best fighter in the gym doesn't have anyone to fight against. The gym manager says that he'll give two hundred dollars to the next person who gets someone to fight this guy.

So Tommy's like "I'll fight him."

And then they all laugh.

And he's like "No really, I'll keep him warm until the next fighter gets here." 

So the head honcho of the gym checks to make sure Tommy has insurance and then lets him in the ring. Keep in mind that everyone in the gym thinks Tommy won't last ten minutes with this guy. So Tommy gets in the ring.

And he absolutely kicks this guys but. Like within three minutes, this guy is on the ground, out cold. 

And then Tommy just walks over to the gym manager and is like "You owe me two hundred bucks." And then he just walks away. 

Sassy.

So independently, Tom Hardy goes to Atlantic City with his dad as his "trainer" so to speak. He totally blows off the press conference that all the fighters are supposed to attend to but his brother (Edgerton) catches a glimpse of him. This is the first time in years that the two have seen each other. 

The fighting begins. And we see Tommy get in the ring first. He has no walkout music. He just walks in and goes to his corner. The other guy comes in and tries to be all showy but Tommy is having none of that. So the ref starts the fight and literally, Tommy throws one punch and the guy is out cold, on the ground face down. And then he just walks out. He just leaves the ring. One does not simply leave the ring after knocking someone out in one punch. But Tommy does.

So this whole beating-everyone-up-in-a-very-short-time thing continues for a while. We see some of Brendan's fights but they're long and not very interesting. 

And then we learn that the reason Tommy came back from fighting was because he went AWOL. When he was leaving, he came upon this tank that was sinking and there was a guy in the tank. Tommy ripped the door off the tank and then walked away. The police say that if Tommy doesn't win, they're taking him into custody. 

And then (again) Tommy and Brendan meet for the first time in years and they have a very emotional talk. Well it was emotional for me, and I think Brendan, but Tommy was just mad and distant. 

And then the most heart-wrenching scene in the whole movie happens. It cuts to Tommy in the hotel room and he hears his dad in the living room kind of rambling around. Tommy opens the door to find Paddy completely drunk and on the verge of an emotional meltdown. And then Paddy starts crying and Tommy hugs him and oh my word it is beyond sad. 

So then, we find out that Tommy and Brendan..... have to fight each other. What. I know, it was incredibly predictable but still very exciting. So Brendan shows up to the ring with his trainer and Tommy shows up a little bit later alone because Paddy's still getting over his drunkenness. And they start fighting. And it's intense. And it gets down to like the second to last round and (this is where I start to get teary-eyed because this really emotional background music starts playing) Brendan has Tommy in this hold.... and he dislocates his shoulder. OH. MY. WORD. I cringe every time. But Brendan's really upset because he didn't want to have to and Tommy's upset because his shoulder really hurts. 

So the next round starts. And Brendan's trainer, like the little jerk that he is, tells Brendan to dislocate Tommy's other shoulder. But Brendan wants to stop the fight because Tommy's hurt. Well Tommy is having none of that and he tries to fight Brendan. Of course Tommy can't really do anything because he has a bum arm but Brendan still puts him in a hold. 

And this is when the tears start flowing. 

Paddy shows up and sees what's going down and knows what's about to happen. Tommy's on the verge of all kinds of collapse. And Brendan is holding him saying "Tommy, please tap out. Tommy please." But Tommy refuses. And then they kick me while I'm down. Brendan says "Tommy, I love you. I'm sorry." 

And then Tommy taps out. And I collapse on the floor in a heap of tears and feels. 

But all these people are trying to swarm the ring and Tommy's on the floor because his shoulder's hurt. So Brendan pushes everyone away (yes, including the policemen who were coming to take Tommy away. Yah, I forgot about them, too) and he helps Tommy up and they walk out together. 

I shouldn't be allowed to watch this movie. 

Sources

Images-Google

Cast-IMDb