|
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1125849/ If you have a chance to see this, go. You need no prior knowledge of pro wrestling or even an interest in it. Fantastic story and Rourke deserves all the awards he gets. He makes the movie and as many have said he IS the Ram. Everything he is and does is so believable. Very very sad and depressing movie throughout. You just feel so bad for the guy. He was on top and finds himself at the bottom and has no one to blame but himself, and age I guess. The fight scenes are amazingly brutal. At the end I really thought he was going to retire in the ring and when he didn't I felt immediately sad knowing what was coming, but still had a smile on my face at the end. I saw it coming but I was so heartbroken when he missed the dinner with his daughter. You just knew he was going to gently caress it up but still.  Pros: Rourke, Tomei as a stripper and topless, great story and well acted Cons: Could have been some more scenes with his daughter and their relationship, but there's enough there to make its point 5/5
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2008 23:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 03:12 |
|
|
Nobody should be put off by the premise of it being "about wrestling" because it's really not: it could be called The Rockstar just as easily with a few minor script changes. It's a character study of a broken man following his dream further than it is supposed to go, and it's moving, intense, sometimes light enough to be funny and has all-round fantastic acting. This isn't so much a film as feeling you really ARE getting an insight into The Ram's life, everything is paced perfectly and he's a solid, believable, tragic hero, missing many heroic qualities but in ways that make you sympathise. If you have any interest in moving stories, what dreams mean to people, and what dreams can cost people, go see this. 5/5
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2009 21:50
|
|
|
I just watched this a couple days ago. It really did exceed my expectations, which were pretty high already as a wrestling fan. I had been hearing nothing but good things leading up to it. There wasn't anything that was "shocking" to me as I have been reading wrestling horror stories for years. However, I think for a non-wrestling fan, this movie might help them come to grips with the fact that wrestling, although pre-determined, is certainly a far cry from "fake." Like seeing him make a blade and use it. My favorite part of the movie was when he seemingly cut himself on purpose at the deli so he could cut a promo on everyone and quit. He went "into character". It was great. Pros: Mickey Rourke is amazing. Marissa Tomei's rear end is too. 80's hair metal. Cons: I hated the close-up camera shots. Especially during in-ring action. I wasn't thrilled with the ending. I wanted a more concrete, closed-door ending. 5/5 Coffey fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Jun 16, 2009 |
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2009 10:38
|
|
|
Just finished watching this and I was not impressed. The main draw to the film is Mickey Rourke's performance, which is good, but gets weighed down by his constant heavy breathing. The cinematography is decent and gives the film somewhat of a documentary feel. The main problem is the predictable, uninteresting story. While a large portion of the movie is a narrative on this guy's life and how down on his luck he is, the actual plot doesn't pick up until about 30 minutes in, at which point you know exactly how the movie is going to end. The subplot with his love interest, his daughter, and his job all just seem to be filler to delay an inevitable ending. While the movie does succeed in showing how pathetic this burnt out wrestler's life is, it fails to succeed in telling any sort of enjoyable narrative, that culminates in an unsatisfying end. 2/5 Pros: Mickey Rourke Cons: Weak story, predictable, open ending, the subplots, with a few exceptions, weren't really critical to forwarding the story
|
|
#
?
Jan 3, 2009 21:46
|
|
|
All the negative reviews of the movie I've read seem to have the idea that Randy is some kind of pathetic loser and the movie is nihilistic and ultimately sad and meaningless... but I just felt happy at the end. I felt that a lot of the movie was about the balance between performance and actual living; Randy turns out to be a guy who only truly feels right when he's on stage. Sure, it's sad that he has problems with relationships because of this, but he really does seem to feel connected to his audience in a special way. Overall, it was a heartwarming experience for me rather than a cold, cynical one. I really had no problems with the whole movie. 5/5
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2009 07:49
|
|
|
I'd heard a lot of buzz about this film and while it was good I felt that there a couple of serious problems. First, his relationship with his daughter is bizarre. One moment they're frigid, next they're best of pals, then they're frigid again. It never seems organic or true but just felt rushed. I also found the last scene between Ram and his daughter to be pretty poorly acted and generally overwrought. The way the daughter reacted to him missing dinner seemed to come out of nowhere and made me think "wtf? they only made up a couple days ago. now she feels freshly betrayed by him?" My second problem with the movie was the ending. While I can appreciate letting the audience figure things out on their own, the number of narrative elements left unresolved was a little annoying. I can appreciate the larger story arc and the grander themes at play but I would have liked some resolution as to how things would turn out. On the plus side, Rourke and Tomei were really good (though from what I'd been reading Rourke was a best actor shoo-in but I didn't find his performance all that overwhelmingly brilliant, to be honest) and the story is fairly gripping even though it's a series of relatively mundane events. Also, the movie does a great job of making you viscerally understand the pounding and pain he endures in his job. 3.5/5
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2009 08:58
|
|
|
Hot drat, this was a great movie. Boiled down to its essence, it's a story of a man who just can't help but gently caress up everything in his life for his singular obsession--the pop of the crowd. Rourke's Randy (Robin) Robinson tries his damnedest to make amends for those lost years on the road trying to salvage a career on a downward trajectory, but ultimately his love and life is defined by the carny brotherhood of rasslin, innoculated against the less adrenal thrills of ordinary life. Much has already been made of Rourke's performance, but give Marisa Tomei credit too. The gal has got brass balls playing Cassidy--Randy's love interest--not as some stripper-with-a-heart-of-gold, but as similarly detached and despondent with real life as the wrestler himself. The corpses at the Academy need to get their fist out of their rear end and introduce a Golden Boner statuette to award Tomei and her Hershey Kiss nipples. I also enjoyed the stunt casting, including ex-WCW mainstay Ernest Miller as The Ayatollah. In fact, my only qualm would be with the casting of Evan Rachel Wood, who here provides the same shrieking, histrionic performance that terrified sheltered housewives in Thirteen. For any man who's risked the irrevocable loneliness of chasing a dream, see The Wrestler.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2009 18:05
|
|
|
This was a fantastic movie in need of an ending. Rourke plays a wrestler chasing the glory of days long gone. Usually, in stories like these, the viewer expects to see such people fall down a slippery slope, eventually hitting rock bottom. In The Wrestler, Rourke's character falls pretty hard, but the film ends almost on a high note. What are we supposed to make of that? A man who alienates his daughter, does a poo poo ton of drugs, can't hold a steady job, and lives entirely for the thrill of wrestling deserves to have a happy ending? I don't really think so. The open-ended closing of the film is kind of a cheat. The people who want to see him fall get what they want, and the people who think The Ram deserves to hold onto old glory get what they want. I'm normally a big fan of endings that let the audience draw its own conclusions, but it doesn't work here. It's a shame because everything that precedes the ending is so good. The sub-plots with his daughter and Tomei's stripper character get a resolution, but The Ram's character arc is such that we don't see a change from his character at the outset and his character at the end. I think the film is still worth watching, but it feels incomplete. 3/5
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2009 14:16
|
|
|
Very hard to watch in parts (in much the same way as Requiem For A Dream). Aronofsky likes to do your head in with his unflinching eye for human emotion. At the same time, I find parts of this film to be hilarious. I love the locker room banter and the videogame session with his kid friend. I also think the action is loving incredible, and I was unable to look away during the matches. Arnonofksy captures the details so well that it's almost fetishistic. The hardcore match/flashback is riveting. Rourke is also really great. I can't see how people can argue that he's unlikable or even neutral. He tries so hard to be supportive of new guys, he does his best to charm the public, and yes, he does gently caress up sometimes. I found him to be very natural in this role. Despite all this, I feel like the film has some problems. The daughter does not work for me. Todd Barry just stands out as unrealistic to me, as most guys his size would be afraid of being torn apart by a guy like Randy. And maybe the chronology of Randy's surgery and recovery is a bit confusing. But, as a kid in the 80s who watched classic WWF, the moments that work in this film are incredibly engaging. 4/5
|
|
#
?
Jan 28, 2009 05:49
|
|
|
simply fantastic. Mickey Rourke was a great character piece in Sin City, but honestly he has depth and breadth, flavor, color, style, radiance and so much more. Seriously, parts of it are painful to watch but it makes it so much more fulfilling on the whole. e: 5/5 ilshur fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Feb 9, 2009 |
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2009 08:54
|
|
|
I thought Rourke and Tomei were great in their roles, though Tomei's stripper with a almost heart of gold felt cliched. The movie's also fairly predictable, But the film's best moments when Aronofsky utterly captured the Ram's loneliness; trying to sell souvenirs and knowing full well he's a has-been for example. As to criticisms about the character arc, I feel Randy can't change. He tried to, but it just didn't work out. Rating: 4/5
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2009 05:26
|
|
|
Just caught this tonight. To echo what's already been said, it really is a fantastic and touching film. This is one of the few movies that I'd recommend to just about anyone, as I feel the "down on your luck" chasing a dream premise is so well acted and engaging; it should resonate with just about anyone whether they care about wrestling or not. That being said, my two quibbles would be about the same as everyone else's. I could have used better acting from the daughter / that arc fleshed out just a liiiiittle more. Also, the ending's a bit of a tease and felt a bit inappropriate with the story. Although, maybe that's just my incessant need for closure. In any case, highly recommended. 5/5. Oh yeah, and BEWBS. Other hilarious moment that no one's mentioned. When he enters the grocery store manager's area and the guy's watching a porno and makes him re-enter. That had me giggling a bit.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2009 06:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 03:12 |
|
|
Its hella good.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2024 23:40
|
|
