Warrior, come out to play-ay…

Another night, another advanced movie screening courtesy of Sky Movies.

This time it was “Warrior”, which is aiming to be the MMA equivalent of Rocky and stars Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte.

Two brothers have separately escaped their abusive dad and gone their separate ways. One is a school teacher, the other a former marine. All they have in common is fighting (which they do, a lot). When the elder brother’s house is due to be repossessed he enters the “Sparta” tournament, a sixteen man elimination MMA event, in the hopes of winning the $5million cash prize. However, his younger brother has reunited with their estranged father and is training in the hopes of winning the same tournament…

I appreciate that this will make me sound old, but there is absolutely NO WAY that this film should be a 12a. A lot of films get a 15 rating based on swearing. Whilst this doesn’t contain any naughty words, it contains extremely brutal violence. Lots of it. Not that it’s a bad thing, but I’m sure there was enough to warrant making this a 15. I looked on the BBFC website about this, but at the time of writing there was no further classification information available. Oh well.

The film itself is better than I expected. As predicted it is (of course) primarily about the fight scenes, but Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton give the film some heart as the two brothers, whilst Nick Nolte gives powerful support as their father trying to make amends for his past misdeeds. Wrestling fans will also enjoy the appearance of former WWE wrestler and Olympic Gold Medallist Kurt Angle as the “best MMA fighter in the world” Koba.

On the negative side, Jennifer Morrison, who was annoying in House and annoying in How I Met Your Mother, is annoying in this. Another problem is that both characters have reasons to win the five million dollars, and the film ends without explaining whether the loser resolved the problems he needed the money for, which is slightly unsatisfying. It’s also long (think it came in about 140mins), so could have done with being 30mins shorter; however I wasn’t ever really bored so that’s not a major concern.

The fight scenes are really what people are going to want to see the film for, and there’s an interesting mix of different types of fights. I found the mixture of brutal knockouts (Hardy) and ground-based submissions (Edgerton) entertaining. I’ve only got a fairly amateurish knowledge of MMA, however I would question how gripping they might be to someone who had no knowledge of the sport.

Ultimately it’s a fight movie with heart, though not as much heart as Rocky. Worth a watch if you’re in the mood for some brutal violence.

Unprofessional Environment

So my office seems to be an increasingly geeky place to work, which can only be a good thing.


The white board by our printer has somehow become the place to post existential comments, which lately has evolved into complete geekdom, with a drawing of a Flux Capacitor (I'm convinced that's what it is), along with the comment "It's what makes time travel possible").


There are also random quotes from Adam and Joe, including "Why be Denny Different" and "Maybe you shouldn't be printing HERE!" - a direct riff on  Pierce Brosnan in "Taffin".


Maybe I've just got Graduation Goggles on (esoteric HIMYM reference), but all in all, if I end up leaving soon I think I'll be sad to go.

She taught a bad, bad thing

After the startling mediocrity of Green Lantern, I dragged myself to see Bad Teacher, thinking a comedy might lift my spirits. Instead it completed a double bill of so-so movies.

Maybe I’m being too harsh. It was an OK comedy that had a few laughs. It’s nice to see Cameron Diaz doing full-on comedy again – she’s good at it and I think she’s a great example to give stupid sexist idiots who say that women can’t be funny.

She had a great supporting cast around her. Jason Segal is solid as always, and I think may be the person doing the best off the back of How I Met Your Mother (although Cobie Smulders is going to be in The Avengers so let’s wait and see). Phyllis Smith and Eric Stonestreet (from The US Office and Modern Family, respectively) have small but entertaining parts and Justin Timberlake (who has never wowed me in serious roles) is good as the dorky object of Diaz’s affection. It’s weird that the international sex-symbol seems his most comfortably playing a loser, but perhaps hanging around with Andy Samberg has honed his comedy skills.

The real breakout star in this is Lucy Punch, a British actress who I’ve only really seen before in Hot Fuzz (briefly) and ill-fated American sitcom The Class. She is hilarious and has a real future in comedy. Her character (although technically the antagonist to Diaz’s antihero) is the one I ended up routing for, and I felt quite sorry for her by the end – perhaps the uncomfortable feeling of her being unnecessarily punished is one of the reasons I didn’t enjoy the film more.

Ultimately it’s just Bad Santa, but not quite as good.