The Wrestler

[Tim-Æ]

I'm not a huge fan of Darren Aronofsky. I was disappointed by "Pi;" "Requiem for a Dream" is one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen and have no desire to ever see it again, and as far as "The Fountain" goes, I was told it was a disaster.

But I'll give him credit where its due, he is a visionary. Recently, his film "The Wrestler" debuted at the Venice Film Festival and took the top honor. That's a big deal. And now, the news is pouring in that star Mickey Rourke is on his way back to the spotlight. Rourke's always been talented. It's just taken awhile for him to get the national recognition, but apparently he's phenomenal in this, and its leading to huge Oscar buzz despite it being so early in the season.

It also stars Ernest Miller (The Cat!). The basic premise of the film is that Rourke is a professional wrestler that ends up retiring because of a heart attack (or fear of one). He runs a deli, falls in love with a stripper (Marisa Tomei) and then gets coaxed back to the ring by his old "nemesis." Should be good. Comes out in the US on Dec. 19th.

[Bryan]

it sounds interesting;  I will give it a look when it comes out.

[Duckman]

It also features Ring of Honour heavily as they filmed all the in-ring stuff at one of their shows in New Jersey and I'm pretty sure a lot of ROH guys will appear in the film!

Peace

Duckman

[Black Death]

are you saying it the Wrestling verson of Rocky ... sounds interesting , will check it out

[Exile]

its not the wrestling version of Rocky. Honestly what he did was try to make a cinematic version of Jake the Snake Roberts. Arnofosky is one of my all time directors. I love Pi. Requiem for a Dream was understandingly brilliant, and The Fountain was one of the most beautiful and moving films I have seen. Tim, lots of people said it was a disaster, those people are also morons who cant understand what the movie was really about.

This isnt a sit up and cheer for the old guy has he makes one more run, this is about a man who has sacrificed his life and has nothing left. Stripped of everything as they dangle one last paycheck in front of him with no concern for his wellbeing, mental or physical health and the lure that pulls him back into it. Its about ignoring all of the things that mattered in your life until you realize that the stuff you clinged to was fleeting and what really was important you pushed away so much that they want nothing to do with you.

This is going to be a very tragic film but I think it will also be brilliant. However don't expect this to be a highlight or endorsement of professional wrestling, its going to show a very dark, dirty underside of it. The steroids, drinking, drugs, and abuse that destroys the performers lives.

[Black Death]

if you put it that way.... I want to go see it more now...   

[Cory]

....Necro Butchers in it. Schweet

[Jack Kaiser]

I never really heard about this movie, but it does sound interesting.  I'm definitely going to check this out.

[Jimmy Chisel]

Will it match up to "The Wrestler" of 1974? Which saw Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch beating up a bar after Odd Job from the James Bond movies coming in and causing trouble and has Verne Gagne as an Executive Producer, and also features a cameo from Bobby Heenan's bags!

This is the question that we all must ask.

[Jimmy Chisel]

Bump. I present the trailer.



http://www.traileraddict.com/emb/7450



Golden Globe Nominations:

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler (2008)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler (2008)

Best Original Song - Motion Picture
The Wrestler (2008)("The Wrestler")

[Demonology]

Sweetness. I'd read about this movie a lot, but could never find the trailer.

Thank you Jimmy Chisel for posting that. I hope my local theatre plays this cause I wanna see it.

[Ian "Wolfie" Trumps]

Looks very good I am going to state the following

1) This could pick up a bit for wrestling as a industry

2) Mickey Rourke will be the new fan boy pic for ewrestling

3) Vince will take some hasbeen wrestler and try and recreate this with a WWE spin on it

4) I will be encouraging everyone to see this cause its wrestling and doesnt look like it will embarrass me

[Jimmy Chisel]

Irony is, Chris West at G-2 has been using Mickey Rourke for a year or so now. And Ram is very close to the West character in terms of being an aging faded star type.

[Demonology]

The following article came from Entertainment Weekly.

Certain movies about losers have a special, desperately moving appeal. By showing us men whose lives have fallen dramatically short of their dreams, they speak to â€" and for â€" all of us. Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, with Mickey Rourke as a broken-down professional wrestling star still clinging to his glory days from the 1980s, could touch a chord in audiences the way On the Waterfront and Rocky did. It has that kind of lyrical humanity. Aronofsky doesn't speak a sentimental cinematic language. Shooting in a grainy, bare-bones naturalistic style, full of jump cuts and raw light and a handheld camera whooshing about, the director of Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain now strips away all frills, tapping a classic Hollywood myth â€" a has-been looking for redemption â€" and, at the same time, transcending that myth. The Wrestler is like Rocky made by the Scorsese of Mean Streets. It's the rare movie fairy tale that's also a bravura work of art.

Back in the pumped-up, heavy metal '80s, Randy ''The Ram'' Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was a big deal, a golden-god gladiator with his own action figure and videogame. His Madison Square Garden bout with a wrestler known as the Ayatollah was seen by a million and a half people on pay per view. But that was then. Now, 20 years later, Randy is a wreck on painkillers, with pulverized bones, a hearing aid, and a face that's been mashed so many times it resembles a wad of dirty Silly Putty. But he still wrestles before small crowds in VFW halls, eating up the bluster of the adoration, which is mostly nostalgia for the bluster of two decades before.

That's something Mickey Rourke must know a lot about. As a young star, he was a bow-lipped bad boy who wooed women on screen with his soft voice and twinkly, knowing smile. Now, it's not just his look that has changed; he seems stunted â€" all muscle and scar tissue, a figure of damaged loss. Miraculously, though, the softness remains. In The Wrestler, Rourke is at once an authentic former wrestling superstar, a Here's How They Look Now! tabloid curiosity, and â€" more than ever â€" a great actor. With platinum hair down to his back, he's like some bloated, freakazoid Sammy Hagar, and he makes you feel every crunched bone and pained breath, the way that Randy subjects his body to punishment to remind himself he's alive. Aronofsky plays off Rourke's fallen-icon status by feasting on that spectacular, pulped wreck of a face. Yet from within that mountain of wounded flesh, Rourke gives Randy a deep, slow voice of disarming gentleness. Randy is the soul of decency encased in a monster's physique, with a buried sadness that, pushed far enough, explodes into rage.

The movie burns through the fakery of wrestling in a touching way, by letting us see how the trumped-up ''enemies'' in the ring actually love and support each other. And they're not just sham warriors. Randy slices his forehead open with a fragment of razor to make sure he's putting on a bloody good show. In one gruesome bout, he gets lacerated by barbed wire and a staple gun. Is such a scene needed? Let's just say it expresses the cutting edge of Randy's pain-freak authenticity.

When he's not in the ring, Randy is basically a polite, saddened middle-aged man who lives in a New Jersey trailer park and works part-time in a supermarket. Aronofsky, working from a script by Robert Siegel, brings us piercingly close to the life of a relic: the visits to the tanning salon, the courteous way that Randy treats even the people who make fun of him, the two-decade-old fan paraphernalia he brings to a pathetically underattended ''legend signing.'' We see how scared he is â€" an insecure dude who never got over his given name, Robin. He's a loner, almost completely isolated, yet he tries to reconnect to life through two women: Cassidy (Marisa Tomei), a stripper who has taken a liking to him (but still makes him pay for his lap dances), and Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood), his furious estranged daughter, who now wants nothing to do with him. The movie lets us see how Randy was a bad father whose selfishness has broken his own heart. He's a man who has lost nearly everything. Yet he can still reach for grace: Standing up on the ropes, preparing to do his theatrical pounce, he looks triumphant, tearful, and ready to enter heaven.

I'm not sure I like the fact that he referred to wrestling as "fakery" but the article definately had me interested in the film even more.

[Tim-Æ]

The film currently holds a 97% on Rottentomatoes, which is excellent. The Dark Knight was a 94%. The consensus is that this is Rourke's comeback, and almost assuredly secures him an Oscar.