This was not as good as The Fighter. Not even close to the same level. The poster is pretty cool but that's about all this movie has going for it. I don't know how, but Gary O'Connor managed to turn MMA into some sort of touchy-feely therapy session. I can't approve of that. Tommy (Tom Hardy) and Brendan (Joel Edgerton) are brothers, estranged over their parents' divorce as children. Tommy went with their mother, who died, then joined the Marines. Brendan stayed with their alcoholic father (Nick Nolte), married his childhood sweetheart (Jennifer Morrison), had two daughters and became a high school physics teacher. Tommy comes back to their dad for training after he enters a $5M MMA championship in order to exorcise some of his demons. Brendan signs up for the same tournament in order to keep the bank from repossessing his house. The fight in the octagon isn't nearly as tough as the fight in their hearts, or some such shit.
Honestly, I just wanted to see some dudes beating the shit out of some other dudes. There are moments of that but they are sprinkled far and few in this movie. There is the obligatory training montage but it is irritatingly split-screened between the two protagonists. There are also absolutely no surprises plot-wise. Nick Nolte does a good job but, from what I hear, Christopher Plummer has got this award sewn up in a bag. We'll see what happens.
On a side note, Tom Hardy looks like a freakin' mountain range of muscle. I was worried how much of his body would have to be bulked with CGI (like they did Billy Crudup in Watchmen) to play Bane in this summer's The Dark Knight Rises but now I feel a little better about it.
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