9.5/10 stinky bananas
This movie fucking rules. I love it. It’s up there on my sports movie rankings.
I‘ll start with the nitpicking. 1. The two commentators during the MMA tournament are extremely annoying. They straight up suck. 2. There are some major weight discrepancies. There is a zero percent chance that muscle man Tom Hardy is anywhere close in weight to Joel Edgerton. Gun to my head, I’d probably say Tom Hardy has 25 pounds on that guy.
Now onto the good stuff. 1. Tom Hardy is a man possessed in this movie. He is beyond jacked. He looks like the green monstar from Space Jam. 2. Great character development in the early going. Good acting + good storytelling = likable characters. That’s the formula. Take notes Scorcese. 3. The MMA action was awesome. Looked friggin great. 4. Frank Grillo is the unsung hero of the movie. He plays a great cornerman. “Don’t tap, don’t you dare tap.” Great line. He was getting me pumped up and I was just laying down on my couch, eating cookies. Pretty impressive. 5. UFC guest appearances were cool. Anthony Rumble Johnson. Nate Marquardt. And Kurt Angle? Yes, that’s right. Kurt Fucking Angle plays a Russian. I don’t even think he speaks in the movie. He just runs around slammin people. Bad ass.
This is a must watch movie. It kicks ass. I highly recommend.