The Fighter Movie Review …

Mark Wahlberg stars in Paramount Pictures’ inspirational docudrama exploring the remarkable rise of Massachusetts-born, junior welterweight title winner “Irish” Micky Ward. A determined pugilist whose career in the ring was shepherded by his loyal half-brother, Dicky (Christian Bale), a hard-living boxer-turned-trainer whose own career in the ring was nearly sent down for the count due to drugs and crime.

The Fighter recounts the tale of how the perennial underdog Irish Micky rebounded from a disheartening series of defeats to win both the WBU Intercontinental Lightweight title with nothing more than a fierce combination of determination and hard work. But as it turns out for Micky, the battle in his own life with his tight knit extended family is just as fierce as the battles in the ring.

The moment The Fighter was released, there was instant Oscar buzz of this film and of the actors, and all that attention is well deserved. For some reason, boxing films have always done well in Hollywood, and The Fighter is yet another great addition to the vast collection of boxing films. But how does this film featuring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale stack up against the rest? The best description would be that The Fighter has the heart of Rocky (1976) and the grittiness of Raging Bull (1980).

The story of Micky Ward, like most other sport films, is the story of the down trodden reaching for greatness with nothing more than perseverance and determination. Ward’s transformation from a “stepping stone” in the boxing world to his eventual championship is a remarkable metamorphosis. For most sport film, it is this aspect that the film embraces, which creates a heart-warming and pleasant film, but often leaves the film lopsided. The other half of the film, which fills most of the movie’s 114 minute running time, shows a gritty, yet realistic, view on the world outside of the ring.

In the case of Micky Ward, the dark side of his life is his tight-knit extended family that is, perhaps without their knowledge, being over-controlling of Micky’s boxing career. The other baring insight that the audience learns is that Ward’s step-brother, Dicky, is a former boxer turned trainer trying to get his own career restarted, but his life has been ruined by a heavy addiction to cocaine and other drug use.

Where The Fighter is a lot like every other sport film that have been made over the years and is quite predictable because we know that it is a true story, it is perhaps one of the best acted boxing films ever made. The three lead actors give the performances of their careers to make The Fighter a truly fantastic film. In the forefront of the film is Mark Wahlberg who plays the great boxer Micky “Irish” Ward.

When the film began, I thought we were going to get another typical “Mark Wahleberg” performance, but what we get is a subdued boxer that is living in the shadows of his brother’s once rising career. Forced to make the tough decisions in order to please his family, his new girl friend, and his own life goals, Wahlberg plays a man shackled by his own need to be a good person.

The surprise performance in The Fighter is Amy Adams’ who plays Ward’s new love interest Charlene Fleming. In a lot of ways, Charlene is exactly like Ward because she tried to make something great out of herself by going to college but ended up serving drinks in the local pub. She’s smart, independent, and quite attractive, but more interesting, she acts as the voice of Micky who is unable to voice his own opinions about his own career to his controlling family. But the show stealer of The Fighter is none other than one of my long time favourite actors, Christian Bale.

In a move that is reminiscent of his film The Machinist (2003), don’t feel bad, almost no one saw it, Bale has lost almost all of his weight to look like the disgustingly gaunt and aged Dicky Eklund, step brother of Micky Ward. Eklund is trying to regain his boozing status as being the first boxer to knock down Sugar Ray Leonard during a professional match. Eklund taught Ward everything he knows about fighting, but the time for a successful future in boxing for Ward runs against the successful past in boxing for Eklunds.

Eklund is now trying to spank the monkey on his back known as crack. In fact he is the subject of an HBO documentary about crack. Eklund gets high, misses training sessions, and breaks laws to feed his addiction. Bale’s depiction of Dicky Eklund is amazing spot on from his charismatic nature to his many drug problems, but his character is the most dynamic of the film, and his transformation through the film is amazing. And like I already said, I’m a huge fan, and this is easily his best performance to date.

The great thing about The Fighter is that it is an Oscar worthy film that is actually watchable by the majority of people because it isn’t such an incredibly heavy or dark film. The Fighter is full of great performances, has a heart warming story featuring the underdog, and features some great boxing sequences. What’s really great about the film is its realism.

When there are boxing sequences, it looks like there are really boxing because they keep their hands up to block punches, unlike Rocky who liked to block punches with his face, and there are no cheesy training montages, only real life training in a gym. There are also some wonderful performances in The Fighter, in particular Christian Bale, who will probably receive an Oscar nomination, with a strong chance of winning in the supporting category. In the end, we have a great film that I highly recommend to everyone. For those who have seen other boxing dramas, you will probably know how this film ends, but whether it is predictable or not, the end of the film is a well worth the pay off.

The Fighter Movie Trailer

American Psycho Movie Trailer

Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is an attractive young businessman, reaching the peak of his late twenties during the 1980’s. His job title is as immaterial to the audience as it is to Bateman himself, who is far more interested in where to be seen, what to be seen in and who to be seen with as he rides the yuppie trend. But Bateman’s obsession with shallow tokens of money and fashion is only rivaled by his bloodlust, which drives him to mutilate, murder and maul without remorse until his crimes begin to catch up with him.

If the introduction, the title and the many screenshots of Christian Bale wielding all kinds of household tools while splattered in blood weren’t enough to warn you: American Psycho is not for the faint hearted. It is originally based on a book of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis, which had to be considerably watered down to be a plausible screenplay for audiences and received criticism for its themes of sexual and physical abuse against women. Whether the Patrick Bateman of the novel had a hatred of women is debatable, but onscreen Bateman is willing to kill anything and everything that stumbles into his path without even a touch of guilt.

Like many psychopaths, Bateman wants to fit in and walk among the rest of the world unnoticed for what he truly is, which is why he becomes so obsessed with the details of the fashion of his particular era. A work colleague with a superior business card to his own has a deeper impact on Bateman than any one of the women and men who meet their sticky end on his lounge floor to the sounds of Genesis or Huey Lewis and the News, and depending on your sense of humor, American Psycho is actually a very black comedy and an excellent and clever satire.

Christian Bale has received more than his fare share of criticism for over dramatic outbursts, but in my opinion this is one of his best performances as charming but demonic Patrick Bateman. There are times when you can sense his hysterical desperation and marvel at the complete glee he takes at some of the murders, but American Psycho never gives in and allows us to believe that there’s something salvageable about Bateman.

He desperately wants to feel something, but not even his beautiful, privileged and ultimately self-centered girlfriend (Reese Witherspoon) or his endearing secretary (Cara Seymour) mean anything to him. Willem Dafoe plays the detective who eventually catches on to the string of horrific deaths surrounding our protagonist and Jared Leto appears as a rival yuppie who keeps besting Bateman in their shallow world of fashionable restaurants and hair products, but there’s no doubt that Christian Bale steals the show.

It’s difficult to say whether I would recommend American Psycho. I find it funny and fascinating, but there’s more unwarranted violence here than most people could stomach, and you obviously have to have a very specific sense of humor to pick out the satire and irony between tramps being kicked to death and chainsaws being taken to prostitutes. The other problem is that American Psycho is the story of Patrick Bateman, who makes for a very interesting subject with a severe mental disorder but is not the kind of man who you could sympathize with.

If you do feel for this relentless murderer, you have bigger problems to deal with then picking your next movie to watch. American Psycho is not a moral story and without saying too much, there aren’t any Disney endings here. Personally I love the honesty of a film that doesn’t shy away from the story it’s telling to please the audience and I’m not the type of person who gets morally outraged faster than you can say “politically correct”.

American Psycho was made to be enjoyed. It’s not a documentary, it’s just entertainment like a film should be, so if you think that you can put aside the blood and guts and watch it for Christian Bale’s wild-eyed performance (apparently based on a TV interview with Tom Cruise) and the creative use of the work of Phil Collins, it’s unmissable.

American Psycho Movie Trailer

Steven Spielberg is known for some pretty successful movies and this one, at least in my opinion, deserved those 6 Oscar nominations. But let’s try and recall some of the “action” and maybe see clearly what made this movie such a great experience for me.

We’re taken back in time to the World War II. Instead of seeing the war in Europe as we might be used to (at least from another Spilberg movie perspective), we travel even further, to Shanghai. Japan invaded China and the war is more real than ever.

A small smart and still “bratty” boy, Jim Graham (Christian Bale) is more interested in planes and his normal child activities than the tragedy hitting their family. While trying to flee the country, his British parents are separated from the kid. He is now alone, in a crazed crowd, learning to survive. Living alone in their rich villa, with no one to care or feed him proves to be a task he’s able to manage pretty well.

But his life will take a stranger turn, when Jim is taken to the Soo Chow confinement camp. He is able to still keep on developing as a teenager, learn and instill optimism and dignity in the people who share his destiny. It’s amazing to see how a kid can get through all these horrors without sacrificing his passion and innocence.

There are lots of lessons to be learnt for him. Treason doesn’t come always from the clear enemies, friendship can come in the most unexpected ways and a common passion can rebuild relationships an entire war tries to destroy.

We meet John Malkovich (one of the actors I love dearly) as a not so honest person .. well, to be fair, I think he is the NORMAL man who has the normal reactions an adult would have in the given situation. He’s not a kid anymore and there are values he no longer believes in.

The movie is JUST BEAUTIFUL. Excellent directic job, at least in my opinion. A very powerful movie, maybe with an easy to foresee end, but still an amazing production. It’s been years since I first watched it and it’s been a favourite of mine for quite some time. If you haven’t seen it yet, please take it as a personal recommendation to try watch it. If you know it, then please tell me if you liked it as much as I did