3.5/4  The Wrestler, a Mr. E Movie Review
The Wrestler, a Mr. E Movie Review

(Run time: 109 min. - Directed by: Darren Aronofsky - Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei)

The dramatic masterpiece The Wrestler has been called Mickey Rourke's comeback role. I say he just wasn't... (read full)

3/4  Fascinating
This could be subtitled The Mickey Rourke Story. It's touching and emotional, you feel for Randy "The Ram" as he tries to cling onto the last remnants of his broken life. It also gives you an insiders perspective of just how "fake" wrest... (read full)

3.5/4  Mickey is the man.
I never liked wrestling. Is one of the very american stuff that didnt dig. Not for any bad judge on it, but simply because i don't get it and it doesnt appeal to me. So, I started watching this, not expecting too much. And I'm glad i did i... (read full)

2/4  don't waste your time
I love to watch WWE and was interested in this movie. I got the story and what they were trying to do. Throw in Hulk Hogan instead of 'The Ram" and it is the back story of what I watch every Monday night. I thought it was a good 'charater... (read full)

3/4  See It
I would say that this movie was horrible because of the ending, but I can't. I wanted so bad to see Randy change his life around and just let Pro-Wrestling go. Get together with Cassidy and become a loving and responsible father to Stephan... (read full)

  The Wrestler did it for me
True grappling fans will find this a great movie. Think of all the legends of the past like Jake the snake Roberts, Terry Funk, Scott Hall etc. Did they just hang up their boots & retire or do they continue to battle the addiction of the s... (read full)

3/4  The Wrestler Quick Review
Good movie. Touching, emotional, and great performances. Not really too Oscar worthy and they left the ending strangely open.

2/4  The Wrestler Quick Review
This movie was ok, but never got me on the edge of my seat. It had some good parts, but overall is an over-hyped up oscar flick.

3/4  The Wrestler Quick Review
Not quite as good as everyone is making it out to be. But, still pretty damn good. Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood always play in good movies. So, it's well worth watching.

5/5 A WOLF WITH A TAN AND BREATH AS FRESH AS MONKEYS BREATH BROTHER
  by Tyrone (L.A.)
There's something in this film that had me watching it a dozen or so times. The depicftion and peeling away of the non existent middle class America that is revealed here is scorching. The failure in this film is unromanticized and so beautifully dreary from the Hallmark card failure presented to Tormei to the heart wrenching attempts to reach out to a daughter with statements like "I'm just a broken down sack of meat", paraphrased here. This film can stand with the best of Tony Richardson's British New Wave films. There is something here that really has me on the edge of my seat wondering whats next for Arronofsky. The man he presents here for us knows himself so well that all the roads which yawn open to him he will place a foot on ;the man at the deli counter, the middle aged guy with the heart problems, the perenially youthful alleycat in firemans boots, the last shot at fatherhood and I guess the one that got me a rebirth & redemption thru love affair with a whore with the heart of gold ... a foot on all of these and then rejecting them out of hand. The anti hero here gets out on the ropes here certain heart failure for him and all of us. I find myself going back to John Osborne's great play "Look Back In Anger" ...................JIMMY:...There are cruel steel traps lying about everywher, just waiting for rather mad , slightly satanic, and very timid little animals. Right? Alison nods. {pathetically}. poor squirrels! ..................ALISON (with the same comic emphasis). Poor bears!She laughs a little. then looks at him very tenderly, and adds very, very softly.) Oh, Poor, poor bears!...Slides her arms around him....CURTAIN

1/5 You'll Sit, You'll Talk, You'll Do, You'll Make.
  by Salvatore Rossellini
Vats vith all dis running, jumping, flying and spritzing?

This is alright for a nice Irish boy like Mickey Rourke, but for me you can forget about it altogether.

Listen, I wish Mickey Rourke a lot of luck. With the one star I'm giving his movie, he should live and be well. But, personally, and believe me no one asked my opinion, personally, Mickey my boy, the running, the spritzing, the jumping and the flying through the air, without even a trapeze or a trampoline already, what? you need this? They couldn't have given you a part in a movie where you were maybe a nice Irish priest or, as a stretch, a quiet, thoughtful rabbi?

What, after all, would such a role require? You sit around, you talk, you have a meal. If outside cars are chasing, bullets are flying and buildings are exploding, what do you care, you're inside counting the house.

Okay, so maybe not a priest or a rabbi, but next time at least play a guy who wears a suit. For such a role you'll break not one bone, you'll chip not one tooth, and you'll hurt not one tuchas. Instead -- you'll sit, you'll talk, you'll do, you'll make.

If you play a businessman, you'll smile, you'll schmooze, you'll sit behind one of those feency-schmeency desks, and you'll rob people blind.

Come lunch time, three martinis, more conniving, then you'll take a spritz in the sauna, you'll strip to the waist, and the girls will go wild.

But Mickola, boychick, all this leaping and yelling, and in tight pants no less. Let's face it, a spring chicken you're not. I see here on my Commodore 64 computer that you were born in 1952. Back That's so far back, I was dating Sophie Tucker at the time. Ho boy! Now there was a wrestler!

But, what? you asked me about her? Of course not. What do you care what I did with Sophie Tucker and what she did with me. (Sigh.) What we're here for is for one thing and one thing only: to put your career back on track, to get you back on your feet again acting-wise. Yes sir! With my help we need to find you some peppy-perky part, some part where you're safe, you're unhurt, both feet are on the ground and where nobody in the movie makes a face where it looks like they ate a bad lox. Okay? So it's settled? You'll listen to me?

So now, if I may, let me give you some advice, even though it's true you never asked me, even once. ... Mickola, listen to me now, I didn't get to be 96-years-old banging my head in the middle of a facockta wrestling ring. ... I didn't get to be 96-years-old pumping iron. Pumping Sophie Tucker, among others, believe me, that was more than sufficient. ... And while we're on the subject of coronaries, I didn't get to be 96-years-old having a heart attack trying to schtup Marisa Tomei. (She Jewish? You could fix me up maybe?)

What, you think I got to be 96-years-old jumping on people like one of The Flying Wallendas? (God bless him, the father, Abe Wallenda, I knew him. The s.o.b., he owed me money. But what the hell, he should land and rest in peace.)

Mickola, make a long story short, so that I can finish already and take a nap; in a few words what it comes down to is this -- SLOW DOWN, MY BOY! Smell the bagels. Have a cup coffee. Eat some dairy. You want to exercise? Fine. Hit a ball, punch a bag, chase a puck. But, please my boy: jumping, flipping, spinning, flying -- not for you.

Instead, a part that requires extensive and repeated schtupping, what's the expression nowadays? -- "go for it, man! Yeah, baby!"

A part where you play a crooked goniff -- you have my blessings. After all, in these difficult economic times, kids need role models. How are they going to know how to hand people the short end of the stick unless they see it in a movie? ACTING! That's the ticket! That's what it takes!

Lemme see, I got it. How about a remake of "Fail Safe"? Huh? You like it? Now there's a movie where you're going to be ... safe. Without fail. (Did you see? Did you see what I did there? Fail / safe.) *Safe.* This is the operative word. No jumping, no colliding, no flying through the air like a crazy nut-boy. All you do, you get on the phone, you make small talk with some Russian, you order out for deli and, before you know it, all the bones you broke in this mishugah wrestling movie -- good as new!

With a nice safe, calm, quiet movie, your career will make a big comeback, your star will skyrocket like if I swallowed a bowl of Viagra already. (Did you see what I did there?)

Till then, trusting all is well, and let's hope you put a few dollars in the bank,

Your pal,

Yasha "The Body" Banana

4/5 The Wrestler
  by B. Haas (Bellmore, NY)
I was very satisfied with this purchase. Fast shipping, arrived in the exact condition as it was described.

2/5 Mediocquium for a Dream?
  by Denzel Lockheart (Edmonton, Canada)
The first time I saw The Wrestler, I was looking forward to it so much. It was a much-hyped film from the imagination of Darren Aronofsky, who directed Requiem for a Dream- one of the most powerful movies of the decade. However I was expecting to be disappointed after that majestic turd that was "The Fountain". And the first time I saw the movie, I thought it was disappointing. But actually, upon a second viewing, that seems to be an understatement- It's a bad movie.

OK, yes, Rourke did great in his performance, seeing as not very many can pull off the gritty "Washed up wrestler" type figure that has mainly been done (to death) several times before. ANd Yes, it is rather unfortunate he was snubbed. However, I think his performance is what alone saved the movie from a 1 star rating.

Basically, the storyline is nothing special. A washed up wrestler moping and whining about his life. IT's pretty entertaining for a bit, but, as it turns, it's more of the same the more the movie unfolds. THe fight scenes are brutal, not pretty, but very well done- they seem to capture the spirit of Wrestling, which is a brutal as hell sport. But the look of the film is not well. It may be the grainy blu-ray look, but the film has muted and washed-out visuals, combined with headache-inducing shaking camera that does get distracting.

THe film, thankfully, is not too long- That seems to be a thing with Aronofsky, he keeps his movies short and sweet (thank God for that. Had he done the opposite with Requiem for a Dream, I'd OD on Prozac, LOL!) However, there's almost nothing redeeming about this film, except for Marisa Tomei looking like she usually does, Mickey Rourke's amazing performance, and the fight scenes. But aside from that, this is not a good movie at all.

4/5 Pretty Good But Could've Been A Lot Better.
  by *Bling-Bling* (Lompoc, CA)
The film has a pretty promising plot line about an old man way passed his glory days and yet refuses to accept the reality. I've really felt for this pass time wrestler as the issues he is facing was down right heartbreaking and had me teary-eyed and everything. The one thing That disappointed me the most in this film was the ending or the should I say, the lacking of. There was no significant closure for this character whom which you've grown a heart for throughout the whole entire progression of the film, which left me completely disheartened and disappointed. Darren Aronofsky had another good one here but then blew it at the very end of the film. Unbelievable. Hence, the 4-Star rating. Don't believe me, watch it for yourself and you'll see what I'm talking about.