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The 50 Greatest Sports Movies
We rank the very best sports films
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Page 31 of 50 |
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Warrior (2011)
DIRECTOR Gavin O'Connor
STARS Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison
It may be huge in the States but, apart from a vague knowledge of Randy Couture's background and those Friends episodes where Jon Favreau played Monica's boyfriend, a billionaire with a hankering for getting his head kicked in, MMA had largely passed the UK by. Hard to see why: Warrior shows that it's a sport as visually compelling as boxing, only about a thousand times harder. The real trick of O'Connor's movie is to be as emotionally compelling as the great boxing movies, too, with its possibly been-there-done-that fractured relationship between two brothers (Hardy the 'bad' son from the wrong side of the tracks; Edgerton the 'good') given real richness and depth by its astonishing central performances. Nick Nolte, as the boys' errant, drunk dad, got an Oscar nom, but really they could have been spread around equally. The fight scenes – with amusing commentary from real-life commentator Bryan Callen – are brutal and bruising, and show just why Batman would have such a hard time with Hardy a year later.
Read Empire's review
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THE SPORT
MMA
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THE PLAYERS
Tommy Conlon, Brendan Conlon
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DOCUMENTARY?
No.
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DEFINING MOMENT
Not the fight between Hardy and Edgerton, but their pre-fight pow-wow on an empty Atlantic City beach. Their first meeting in years, the air is thick with resentment and unspoken subtext.
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KEY TACTICS
Hang in there. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Survive the first punch, and you can win.
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Page 31 of 50 |
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Have your say Agree with the list? Which sports movie would you add to the list? Register or login now to have your say.
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| 1 | See Also
Karate Kid, The Waterboy, The foot fist way, Hot rod, Caddy Shack, The mighty ducks, coach carter, blades of glory, mean machine, leatherheads, the ringer, nacho libre, kicking and screaming, baseketball, remember the titans, brians song, don king: only in america, cinderella man, million dollar baby, somebody up there likes me, the boxer, knuckle, bend it like beckham, fever pitch, zidane Read MorePosted on Saturday September 15, 2012, 18:42 by bnicholson50 | | | | | 2 | RE: What the Hell!?
l largely an excuse for Chaplin to show off his legendary slapstick skills and rubbery physical abilities while poking fun at sports clichés and underdog stories, but it's still more entertaining than most of the films it skewers.
ow exactly does Chaplin, in 1915, skewer films that are very very far from being made and poking fun at sports clichés that do not yet exist? Read MorePosted on Wednesday July 25, 2012, 00:42 by Evil_Bob | | | | | 3 | RE: Rocky - third place
BASEketball should totally be in here. Okay it's not a real sport, but it is a sport movie. And it's funny as shit wise a pretty damn solid list. (Rocky 2-4 should be included as well, but maybe that's being a bit greedy...) Read MorePosted on Tuesday July 24, 2012, 13:55 by Whistler | | | | | |
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