Warrior

How many inspirational sports movies are there? Well, let's name a few examples.

Boxing has had Rocky, Baseball has had The Natural and Hockey has had Miracle. And now, Gavin O'Conner, director of the last mentioned film, has an inspirational film for Mixed-Martial Arts out called Warrior.

Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton) "used to be one of those animals" duking it out in MMA rings. Now, he's a physics teacher in serious debt. His brother Tommy (Tom Hardy) has also fallen on hard times after a stint in the marines. All he wants is to support the family of a fallen compatriot. There's an MMA tournament in Atlantic City with a $5 Million Grand Prize. Perhaps that's the solution to their problems.

Well, it's not that easy. Not just for them, but the audience.

The script, co-written by O'Conner, makes both brothers perfectly valid protagonist. There's no obvious bad guy here except for the brothers' personal demons. They both have good intentions but they have bad blood between them. Now, how'll the audience cheer for one when the other loses?

Not helping matters is the great performances of both on-screen brothers. They looked so much like brothers that at some points, I lost track of who was who. Seriously.

And then there's Nick Nolte as the brothers' sober wreck of a father and Tommy's trainer Paddy. His performance was on equal footing with his on-screen sons. It's truly the best of the supporting cast and a name to remember in a few months.

Surely, there were the usual cliches of the format. But in this film, they felt more natural than artificial. It's an awesome film overall and it wins on the first round.