Warrior: Critic Reviews

Warrior is an epic, beautiful film, a must see!

It's about broken families coming together. It's about economic desperation and about America getting off the ropes and recovering its fighting spirit.

It is appropriately blunt, powerful and relentless, a study of male bodies in sweaty motion and masculine emotions in teary turmoil.

Has to conform to the lunkhead straitjacket of the tournament format: one dufus pounding another in extreme close-up for what seems like an eternity.

Yes, the coincidences are fast and furious, but both Edgerton and Hardy give powerful performances as damaged men.

While "Warrior" does offer enough jaw-snapping action to sate any 'roid-ragers in the audience, it works on deeper levels as well.

All the director and co-writer Gavin O'Connor does is apply old boxing-film tricks to what is, for the movies, a new sport. Then he doubles them.

Old line-gargler Nolte remains an effortlessly moving presence, while Hardy and Edgerton embody their archetypes and handle the physical demands.

This fictional drama about two men struggling with the anger planted in them by their abusive father has moments of power that push through a fake-out script.

A double-barreled Rocky for the mixed martial arts generations, the practically epic fight film Warrior is one of the most exhilarating surprises of this summer movie season.

It's too corny to live. But the picture is a slam dunk. I mean a ground-and-pound double-leg takedown. It's really gripping.

The movie is so skillfully made, and the performances are so convincingly real (Hardy is sensational), that, as it reaches its cathartic, winning finish, it achieves a surprising compassion and honesty.

This is a rare fight movie in which we don't want to see either fighter lose.

Every time you start resisting, somehow the film makes the sale, again.

For all the contemporary references, it's essentially a spin on the story of Cain and Abel, which may be the reason it feels timeless.

The two leads, Edgerton and Hardy, pull off their respective roles - rising above the cliches and the melodrama - with ferocity and focus.

The set-up sounds gallingly crude and derivative, yet "Warrior" turns it into a one-two punch of gripping action and powerful drama.

It's also a fight movie that knows all the fight movie cliches and doesn't shy away from embracing them wholeheartedly. But it hits its marks and hits them well, and feels fresh even as it traffics so deeply in the familiar.

Hardy is as good an actor as there is working today; his intensity here is amazing. Nolte hasn't been this good in a long time. And Edgerton holds his own with both.

Skillfully made and adrenalin-fueled, Warrior is nothing like what I expected. It overcomes inescapable boxing and martial arts cliches and leaves you thoroughly sated, energized and wanting more.

An improbably effective and affecting mix of raw emotions and exciting smackdowns.

A cheap exploitation picture wrapped in miles and miles of stale would-be Oscar scenes...

"Warrior" is a straight genre picture, a fight movie of the old school. But it's a mixed martial arts tale, and as such, it's the best MMA movie ever.

Lovers of the sport and macho men in general be warned: Warrior is so beautifully constructed and emotionally engaging, the tears are almost certain to fall. Bring a hankie and/or a very discreet companion.