My goodness I’m so behind on reviews. As often as I’m seeing movies I’m going to have to start doubling up. So today I will do these movies which I actually saw a couple weeks ago. While these two movies are nothing alike, they do have one big thing in common. They are true. The Fighter being a “true story” and The Rite being “inspired by true events.”
We will start with The Fighter since I saw that one first. The Figher is about the real life boxer Micky Ward and his brother, also a boxer, Dicky Eklund. The story follows Micky as he tries to make it as a boxer, being managed by his slightly crazy mother and being trained by his crack-addict brother Dicky. The script is very well written and the whole movie is very artistically shot. It feels like a documentary, which unfortunately at times makes the movie feel a little slow. What keeps it going is the characters. Either you know people like these characters, or you have trouble believing people like this really exist (they do…). And the characters are so compelling because of the incredible actors that bring them to life. There is a reason that most of the cast is up for Oscars. Melissa Leo is almost unrecognizable as the mother of the boxers (and of many daughters as well). I hated her character, which means Leo did her job. Amy Adams also stepped away from her typical rom-com, peppy character type to play Micky’s supportive, strong-willed, independent girlfriend. The only main role not recognized by the Academy was Mark Wahlberg as the star role. He did a good job of course, but there was nothing jaw dropping about it. (Is anyone else like me and sometimes have trouble listening to him talk without thinking of Andy Samberg on SNL?) The show stealer for me though was Christian Bale, who was absolutely amazing as Dicky. He’s already won every award he’s been nominated for so far and he’s up for his first Oscar…I have no doubt that he’ll take the golden statue home.
However, while I thought it was an excellent film and I enjoyed it. I’ll probably never watch it again. Which is what separates it from movies like Inception and The Social Network, both of which I could not wait to watch again and again. I’ve seen both more than 5 times and will see them many more times. Not only will I probably not own The Fighter, I really just don’t see myself watching it again. Maybe a few years down the road, but if I don’t, that will be okay. There’s nothing against the movie, as I said, it was excellent. And I would definitely recommend it to everyone. If for nothing else than Christian Bale’s performance. 🙂
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While entertaining, The Rite cannot hold a candle to The Fighter. However, as long as I’m entertained and never bored, I consider it to be a decent movie. The Rite is about a young soon-to-be priest named Michael (Colin O’Donoghue) that begins questioning his faith and is sent by his Father Superior to Rome to take a course on exorcism. There, his teacher introduces him to a friend, Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins) who conducts exorcisms on a regular basis. I really won’t say anymore than that, because I don’t want to ruin anything. I went into the movie, expecting it to be scary, but it was not. If you are easily creeped out or scared by demon possessions, then you could have a different experience than I did. I liked the fact that we are seeing this story from the point of view of an atheist-type figure trying to find faith, it almost makes the story feel that much more real. Because how much do we really believe in “demonic possession”? It seems like a thing of the movies. As they joke in the movie, you expect spinning heads and pea soup, so seeing this from the eyes of someone that doesn’t believe and watching him change his mind, makes you feel like it’s changing yours too.
So both movies are ones I wouldn’t really watch again, but still both movies that I would recommend to others. Therefore, both enjoyable movie experiences. Stay tuned for a review of No Strings Attached which I saw last weekend. It will be paired with Just Go With It which I plan to see this coming weekend.
blogging.by.HER 