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Warrior

Warrior (Review)

Warrior


2011
Directed by Gavin O’Connor

Warrior is an MMA film about a family torn apart by alcoholism and abuse by their father, and the consequences on the family. It is also about brother against brother, with father against both sons as he seeks redemption. The film doesn’t father the traditional narrative, there is no real villain, both brothers have their motivations to fight and both makes sense in their own way.

Tommy (Tom Hardy) – The abuse from Paddy led to Tommy disappearing with their mother, who soon after died of cancer. Tommy has become jaded, bitter, and doubly so after other revelations are revealed. Tommy spends most of the film using his mother’s maiden name, preventing most people from realizing he’s brothers with Brendan
Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton) – Brendan is the brother who stayed behind with his father, mostly due to being in love. After eventually marrying Tess and having a family, Brendan has also cut off his father, the relationship limited to telephone and letters. Uncle Owen! No wonder he didn’t want Luke to go off to fight in war…
Paddy Conlon (Nick Nolte) – Patriarch of the Conlon clan and recovering alcholoic and abuser. The only thing he was ever good at was coaching Tommy at wrestling, which is why Tommy returns to him for training for an upcoming MMA tournament.
Tess Conlon (Jennifer Morrison) – Brendan’s wife, who through she watched Brendan fight for years has tried to leave that life when they had children. But life gets in the way sometimes…

Transformers

Transformers (Review)

Transformers


2007
Directed by Michael Bay

Transformers were the pinnacle of 1980’s toys. They had classic characters and endure to this day. Transformers are among the first toys I remember getting for Christmas (of 1984, where I got toys including Megatron) and are toys I still have stored away in the attic. Even my favorite toy line (Battle Beasts) are just a spin-off of Transformers. I saw the original movie in the theaters and cried when Optimus Prime died. So to say I was interested when it was announced there would be a live action film is an understatement to say the least.

However, the interest soon waned when I found out Michael Bay was to be the director. Problems also arose when preview art of the Transformers showed them to be very ugly-looking. I realize this is not the Generation 1 line but a new universe. I don’t expect tape-recorder robots. I do expect writing that matched Beast Wars at the least, not writing that pales in comparison to the original cartoon. A cartoon where and entire episode revolved around a girl falling in love with Powerglide (who subsequently beat her around a bit). How hard can it be to write something that doesn’t suck? All you had to do was just be average and let the robots do the rest. Instead, we have 2 ½ hours (way too long) where robots don’t do much of anything until the last 25 minutes. And also the robots pee. Seriously. It’s a disgrace. Not to Transformers, but to audiences everywhere. The movie thinks the audience is stupid. The army regularly endangers civilians for no reason. There is a plot about hackers. Every piece of modern technology came from a frozen robot. The sun seems to be stuck at the edge of the horizon (or setting every five minutes) giving every shot an orange glow. More Transformers are killed by humans than Transformers. The robot fight sequences are cool, but were needed earlier. The movie is more than meets the eye, more terrible than the eye could ever meet.