Out this week is MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) family drama Warrior. Tom Hardy hulks up to play Tommy Conlon a former marine who returns home to be trained by his estranged father (Nick Nolte) for a tournament with a huge cash prize for the winner. Tommy’s older brother Brendan was a former MMA fighter but now lives the quiet life as a teacher and looks after his family. Brendan has a distant and difficult relationship with both his brother and his father.
As Tommy quickly makes a name for himself in the ring, Brendan finds himself as the unlikely underdog in the same tournament. Soon the two brothers fight it out for the title in an unforgetable match that has more than just money riding on it.It might look a bit like The Fighter with kicking, but the reviews have been universally great and Tom Hardy is always watchable it’s about time he had another leading man role. It looks like it will be packing an emotional punch as well as the brutal looking fight scenes. I will let you know what I think of it over the weekend after I have seen it.
Also out this week is slick new heist movie Drive. Ryan Gosling has alway been an interesting actor to follow, he had huge success with The Notebook but didn’t make the standard jump into big summer movies or light as air rom-coms. Ok well he has made a rom com which is out now as well, Crazy Stupid Love but it looks pretty good (as rom coms go). Gosling went down the indie road, turning in great performances in Lars and The Real Girl and Blue Valentine, here he plays a stunt driver by day and a getaway driver by night, known simply as Driver.
After a heist goes wrong a price is put on his head, so he does what he does best and Drives as if his life depended on it, which it does. It’s a indie version on Transporter with brains and a dynamite supporting cast. Carey Mulligan , Albert Brooks , Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman and Mad Men starlet Christina Hendricks it looks loud, sexy, violent and nicely shot so what isn’t there to like. I will review Drive as soon as I have seen it. Both movies are on release now.