Posted December 18, 200816 yr I thought it'd be Nic Cage or Tom Cruise... but Mickey Rourke? Mick Foley (aka Mankind) loved this movie and says so in this slash film article on The Wrestler. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3238/3102848393_29122040d6.jpg Typical sports movie, The Wrestler starts with a washed up hero looking to rebuild his career. Randy “The Ram” Robinson was at the top of his game in the nineteen eighties, but twenty five years later he finds himself starting over again every night at the low end of the business. Mickey Rourke is a warrior with a lot of old wounds in Darren Aronofsky's movie; rather than retire on his earnings, Randy still fights young men for money, simply to survive. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3244/3102848763_6fc340d41b.jpg This isnt the WWF 'professional' wrestling where everything is just play acting, but rather this is the bone crushing B circuit weekend matches where life hurts in painful untelevised fights in front of local crowds, screaming for blood. Any wrestling fans out there?
January 1, 200916 yr Any wrestling fans out there? No but i've got a brother who was...he might want to come and see with me...looking good really want to see this...even tho never got round to seeing Darren Aronofsky's previous films yet that i've got...those i've put on the first few minutes of the fountain like a million times and then felt the vibe wasnt right
January 19, 200916 yr I thought it'd be Nic Cage or Tom Cruise... but Mickey Rourke? The film would have absolutely no credibility whatsoever with either of those two hacks in it.... :rolleyes: Mickey Rourke has been a semi-professional boxer and has been in some pretty hefty prize-fight bouts, so with that in mind, The Wrestler with him in it, does have the air of realism about it that it wouldn't with any other actor....
January 19, 200916 yr The film would have absolutely no credibility whatsoever with either of those two hacks in it.... :rolleyes: Mickey Rourke has been a semi-professional boxer and has been in some pretty hefty prize-fight bouts, so with that in mind, The Wrestler with him in it, does have the air of realism about it that it wouldn't with any other actor.... I don't think the film would have been bad if Cage was, but it'd nowhere near as good as with Rourke. He's gives such a good performance, because there's so many parallels to him with the character he plays it's amazing. But ultimately it's just such a good film. It's so well scripted, and all the secondary characters give equally good performances as Rourke. Very emotionally powerful, and the ending is just so good. They couldn't have ended the film in a better way.
January 20, 200916 yr I don't think the film would have been bad if Cage was, I disagree, Cage has just gone so far down the "lost it" road, there's really no coming back for him..... About 90% of the films he's been in are utter chaff..... His playing of an Italian soldier in "Capt Corelli's Mandolin" was just plain excruciating... It honestly reminded me of the Italian character in Allo Allo.... WHAT-A-MISTAKA-TA-MAKEA indeed..... :rolleyes:
January 20, 200916 yr Nicholas Cage is AWFUL! I really cannot stand him! There's only one film which I like and he's in, and that's 'Face:Off' That was a good film. But overall I agree with Grim, over 90% of his stuff is literally Shiit.
January 22, 200916 yr Just how did he lost his game 25 years ago? God knows.... It's not as if he was always cr@p - I mean, Wild At Heart, Red Rock West, Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas, all pretty damn good films, and Adaptation, Face/Off and Lord of War were good also.... So, just what the hell went wrong with him.....? :huh:
January 27, 200916 yr He was pretty good in this movie, but I think as with Heath, they're fan favorites because of their personal lives, nontheless, great performance.
January 28, 200916 yr He was pretty good in this movie, but I think as with Heath, they're fan favorites because of their personal lives, nontheless, great performance. Rourke is not a "fan favourite" of mine particularly... To be honest, when he was at the height of his fame, I found him obnoxious.... But, at the end of the day, it's his recent performances that spoke pretty loudly... He was about the only good thing about the disastrous "Domino", his performance in Sin City was fantastic also, definitely the best one of that film, and now The Wrestler, which I regard as a career-best performance.... I measure a performance in how deeply the actor becomes enmeshed in the character he/she plays, I've got a huge respect for method acting, Sean Penn clearly does this in Milk, and Mickey Rourke does this here.. Also, suspension of disbelief is important, ie, "do I buy this guy as the part he is playing..?", well with Mickey Rourke in this role playing a broken down old pug trying to recapture his former glory, abso-fukkin-lutely I believe it, I believe Rourke a hell of a lot more than I would any other actor in this role.... It's more than just a "pretty good" performance IMO, Aronofsky has managed to draw something out of Rourke that no other director really has, and Rourke has shown us something of himself that he never has before.... It's a blinding performance, as good as De Niro in Taxi Driver or Raging Bull, as good as Will Smith in Ali, as good as Stallone (if not better) in the original Rocky...
February 2, 200916 yr Kinda funny that my favourite performances by Cage and Rourke both came within about 6 months of each other in the early 80s - Rourke in Diner and Cage in Valley Girl. I watched this at the weekend and it's a brilliant central performance from Mickey. I understand his main rival for the Oscar is Sean Penn who was equally fantastic and wholly believable in Milk - so either or will be fine. SPOILERS WARNING.... As far as saying "this is not WWE" - it is and it isn't. The Ram is a character somewhat like the massive, steroid using wrestlers of the late 80s and early 90s - many of whom, if not already dead from heart failure, are still trying to make a living on the independent circuits. However, the Ram's early career seemed to parallel Hulk Hogan's (look at the press cuttings in the intro) so he had one hell of a big fall from grace. Just like Hulk Hogan managed to make a comeback as fans began to get nostalgic, he is given his chance for a return at a bigger event (ROH which I understand is televised) and may have resurrected his career on a bigger, better paid stage. But it effectively explains how some former stars have nothing else to fall back on and allows you some, but not a lot you understand, empathy for the 'celebrity reality' circuit suckers out there.
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