Warrior

 Ironically, I love inspirational sports movies, but get bored and confused by everything on ESPN.  I enjoy the family elements that are added to the films, as opposed to watching an actual game I do not understand, nor really care to.  This is precisely the reason why I enjoyed “Warrior.”  My new found love for Nick Nolte probably didn’t hurt either. 

Nolte plays a former boxer and alcoholic who has been sober for a couple years. He has two sons, Tommy (Tom Hardy) and Brendan (Joel Edgerton) who happen to be into mixed martial arts, which I assume is similar to wrestling or boxing. Brendan needs to win the championship to provide for his family, and his brother’s reason is less heartwarming.  He would just like to win the large amount of prize money.  

Naturally, you wouldn’t have any conflict in a movie unless the entire family is emotionally hurt by each other. The perfectly cast actors do an outstanding job at conveying this.  All of the scenes between the three primary characters always felt genuine. One of the acting highlights for me was a brief scene of Nolte’s character gravitating back towards alcohol. 

The film was also incredibly well shot, with a great deal of dimly lit scenes, many of them between Nolte and Hardy. This added to the dramatic aspects of their relationship. Also, the fighting scenes were shot using handheld cameras, getting up close to the action, and adding to the entertainment value and intensity.  Aerial and long shots of Atlantic City (where the championship is held), and the adjacent ocean only add to visual appeal.  

Finally “Warrior” had a nice mix of emotions. You have your usual inspiring moments (just without Sandra Bullock this time…a brief “The Blind Side” reference ), as well as some dysfunction, and a couple jokes thrown in there for good measure.  Also, the pacing of this movie was perfect.  It clocks in at over two hours, but is always engaging.  

Essentially what all of this means is that if a combination of “Rocky,” “The Fighter,” and every other sports movie known to mankind, sounds appealing to you, then by all means give “Warrior” a try.  

3 1/2 out of 4 stars

-Joseph Sbrilli 

Contagion

How many actors can we fit in one movie?

   What if we lived in a world where the Bird Flu wasn’t all hype and ended up killing more people than falling vending machines? This is the basic premise of “Contagion”: a deadly virus spreads its way across the world and kills millions of people. This isn’t a far-fetched premise, it happened in 1918. The Spanish Flu killed between 20-40 million people before it petered out.

   

 Star-studded casts are usually reserved for awful romantic comedies but “Contagion” pulled together more award winners than the Oscar broadcast. Laurence Fishburne is the lead doctor for the Center for Disease Control, and works frantically to find a cure for the virus. Gwyneth Paltrow is patient zero, the first one to contract the disease in Hong Kong and carries it to the United States. Matt Damon is her immune husband who watches the world around him die. Jude Law is an internet blogger who exploits the widespread panic to profit from the disease. Kate Winslet is the first responder sent to organize contingency plans and Marion Cotillard is the World Health Organization’s representative in China who gets kidnapped and held for ransom in exchange for a vaccine against the virus.

  

If this sounds like a lot of threads to keep track of, it is. But director Steven Soderbergh (The “Ocean’s Eleven” series), knows how to handle a lot of plot points. Each character is well developed and none are denied any screen time (except maybe Cotillard). When it’s necessary, Soderbergh isn’t afraid to kill off characters. Gwyneth Paltrow is the first to go in a death scene that is terrifyingly real and must have been a blast to act in.

    

And that is the driving point of the film. The way it’s laid out feels like it could happen tomorrow. Brian Williams could be telling America about a new disease by the end of the week. While “Contagion” can suffer from boring montages of empty gyms and gene sequencing, its poignancy in a world obsessed with hand sanitizer can’t be overlooked.

    

“Contagion” is the scariest movie since “Inside Job.” The acting is superb, and if there is one film that will make you change the way you live (or at least the amount of times you touch your face) it is this one. People with queasy stomachs should probably steer clear of “Contagion” but if you’re ready to become a hypochondriac, then I’d catch this virus.

3 and a half out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell

Our Idiot Brother

"Aw, can we keep him mom?" "No."

Family. That one word conjures up some very good memories, and probably some very bad ones. Memories of people that you have to love, whether you like it or not. Our Idiot Brother is a story about family: a highly dysfunctional family with more drama than an episode of Gossip Girl, but a family nonetheless.

           

Ned Rockland (Paul Rudd) is the happiest guy around. He works on an organic farm with his girlfriend Janet and his dog Willie Nelson. Ned has the childlike ability to see the good in every person. If a stranger offered him candy, Ned would hop right in the van without a second thought. Unfortunately, this gets Ned into trouble. When a uniformed police officer informs Ned that he’s had a really hard week and he needs something to help him deal with it, Ned eagerly offers him a baggy of marijuana.

         

   After being arrested for the sale of narcotics and getting dumped by his girlfriend, Ned needs to get back on his feet. He turns to his three sisters for help, but there’s some bad news; they’re the ones who came up with the title of the movie. Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), and Liz (Emily Mortimer) don’t think highly of Ned. In their minds, Ned is the dysfunctional one and they are the functional ones. But as Ned moves in and blunders about in his sister’s lives, he exposes the underlying problems in their seemingly perfect worlds.

             

Paul Rudd carries the entire movie. Channeling his inner dude is working out for him. Lately he’s been playing uptight guys who need to loosen up (Role Models, I Love You Man), but in Our Idiot Brother Rudd plays the relaxed version of yourself; the version that can watch all the bad events on the news and still leave the house with a smile on. Rudd has always been an everyman, the actor you can relate to, empathize with, and root for. Ned Rockland is all that and more. Having a giant beard and a smile in every scene certainly doesn’t hurt either.

           

His idiocy, gullibility and general lack of what adults like to call “a filter” lend itself to some very funny situations. Ned uses his parole officer as a personal psychiatrist, accidentally telling him illegal things he’s done. While playing with Liz’s son Ned kicks a door shut on his nephew’s fingers and he lets slip that Miranda and her longtime friend totally look like a couple.

            

 Our Idiot Brother can be summed up by Ned’s creed for how he lives his life, “I like to think that if you give people the benefit of the doubt, they’re going to want to live up to it.” His family eventually comes around to his way of thinking.

            

 Our Idiot Brother is a lot better than it should be. Its simplicity should be boring but it allows the audience to see themselves in the characters. The jokes come often and mostly revolve around the comedy of real life. Paul Rudd gives his best performance yet. If his smile doesn’t get you, his inherent charm will. This is a family member you won’t want to shut the door on.

3 out of 4 stars. –Christopher O’Connell Rated R for sexual content including nudity and language throughout.