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61 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Possible film of the year already!, 26 Jan 2009
`The Wrestler' stars Mickey Rourke as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a superstar wrestler from the 80's who is now living in a trailer park, has numerous health problems, is working in a supermarket to make ends meet and does weekend wrestling gigs in school gyms to keep him still in the game.
Although we're only 26 days into 2009, I can't help but think that it is going to take something really incredible to top this as my film of the year already...it is brilliant! "The Ram" is a gentle giant (much like Stallone in Rocky) and this is his heartbreaking tale of what it is like once you step out of the spotlight and how he copes with holding onto the one thing that he truly loves in life - wrestling.
A very clever and moving part of the story that I liked in particular is Randy's friend Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) who is a lapdancer and is a bit older than most of other strippers in the club, as it is sort of a parallel to what Randy is experiencing in his life too.
I don't know if I enjoyed this more because I was a wrestling fan back in the "Golden Era" (the days of Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior and The Legion of Doom) so I can appreciate a lot of what is going on on the wrestling side of it, but then again my friends who have also seen it loved it too and they have never watched wrestling in their lives.
Overall this is one of the best films I've have seen in a long, long time and I highly recommend it to anybody. Any awards that this film wins this year are definitely well deserved.
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59 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The fighter still remains, 20 Jan 2009
Impressed by Mickey Rourke's Golden Globe winning speech, I decided to go see this movie.
Randy 'The Ram' Robinson fought the Ayatollah in Madison Square Garden back in the 80s, and still battles today. Ill met by fate, bruised and battered, his sinewy muscles scarred, his bones creaking in protest he still has the fight, and like a One Trick Pony he sticks to what he knows. It's a desperate life.
As you may recall in Raging Bull, Robert De Niro put on about 40 pounds to play fighter Jake La Motta as he got older, and he won an Oscar for his dedication to the role.
Mickey Rourke does something no less astounding here, putting on huge bulk to assume the persona and convincing physique of a professional wrestler. It's the most amazing acting performance of the year. The lines between actor and character blur and disappear. The kind of pain you see on Randy's face cannot be pretended. It can only be relived from the actor's parallel experience, which is what makes Rourke's performance so compelling.
For female companionship, he goes to a local bar, where a fetching stripper played by Marisa Tomei, Academy Award winner for My Cousin Vinny, gives him a lap dance for a fee. He can barely make rent, yet he has priorities.
Marisa gives an incredibly authentic performance, and it's a welcome surprise see her take it off in the name of art. I applaud her courage in doing so. Her physique is simply amazing, and her body art is very intriguing.
Evan Rachel Wood plays his estranged daughter. Previously, she played the female lead part in Across The Universe, and already has a quite impressive filmography under her belt. Here she sports a different look, and gives a perfect performance.
Some of the wrestling sequences are truly outrageous, and not a little disturbing. Having cut my finger on a ham slicer early in life, seeing people operating ham slicers gives me the heebie jeebies. If you have a problem with the sight of blood, I caution you that there are some disturbing sequences in the movie.
The Academy's actor awards tend to go to actors in two types of role:
1.Psychopath- No Country for Old Men, The Usual Suspects, There Will Be Blood, Training Day, Silence of the Lambs.
2.Mentally Disabled, Social or Physical Handicap, overcomes great adversity or discrimination- Shine, As Good as It Gets, A Beautiful Mind, Ray, Scent of a Woman, Capote, Philadelphia, The Pianist, A Beautiful Life.
Randy definitely has a handicap, and last year was the year of the psychopath, with both Daniel Day Lewis, and Javier Bardem winning Oscar.
I hope you find this review helpful.
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31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Warning: Forced/unskippable trailers & commercials completely ruins this great movie, 2 July 2009
**This review is for this particular "Region B" _locked_ release, not the movie in general**
I will not go into details about the movie itself, other than to say that it is highly recommended. Rourke's (and Tomei's) performances, coupled with Aronofsky's filmmaking makes this a gritty, heartfelt & authentic piece of work. It is probably Mickey Rourke's best since 1987's "Angel Heart" (directed by Alan Parker)--which brought out some truly amazing performances as well. Obviously, "The Wrestler" is a much more personal flick as it parallels Mickey's own strides in life throughout almost a similar amount of time which is covered in this movie.
On to the criticism about this U.K region B release from "Optimum Entertainment" (or "Optimum Screwheads", if you will) --
When I *buy* a specific release I do want to watch that release *only*--not get flooded by irrelevant previews or commercials which cannot be bypassed (even with "top menu") before getting to the main feature.
It seems the UK is much more prone to these despicable practices as it is AFAIK the only release which I haven't been able to bypass unwanted attempts at pitching another sale (or, indeed, several other sales--including a subscription to SKY HD.)
Most Blu-Ray's (at least North American releases) even go right into the feature automatically without any fuss whatsoever, let alone flood the customer and forcing he or she to sit through (or feverishly fast-forward) these "important messages".
To the morons at Optimum (and elsewhere) responsible for this detestable practice: treat your customers with some respect. I place orders for discs several times a week, and I will not stand for this at all. Return label has already been printed.
I encourage everyone to else to do the same and return such inferior products to the retailer.
Still, I can't believe they get away with this in the first place.
(At least it didn't have several unskippable anti-piracy ads the likes of "Your wouldn't steal a car"... etc. Talk about ultimate idiocy, as only law-abiding customers ever see these messages...")
So, in short, I recommend this movie very highly. However, do whatever you can to pick up any other version than this specific U.K release (even if that involves getting a region-free player!)
It'll be worth it.
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