The Wrestler

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Plot The Wrestler is a dramatic tragedy about an aging pro wrestler who is alienated from his daughter and whose only friend is an aging stripper. Randy "The Ram" (Mickey Rourke) is a tragic figure who was a popular entertainer when he was young, but now is old and washed up. He has no close friends or family, and when he gets heart disease, it all seems bleak. He decides to wrestle one more big match even though he is really too sick.

Review: The Wrestler is a lonely, tragic American. The movie plays on the duplicity between the entertainer as a role model/hero and as a real person with real problems. Both Randy and Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) the stripper had entertainment personalities and real life problems. We are sympathetic with Randy the Ram, and I kept waiting for the introductions to end, and the real movie to start. There was little delivery for all the set-up. It is not that entertaining watching someone being lonely.

Cast and crew:
Micky Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood; directed by Darren Aronofsky




Rating
2.5
1/2

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Mickey Rourke gives a very good performance, but movie is not as good as that.

Coraline

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Plot Coraline 3D is the story of a girl who moves into a new house, that happens to be the doorway to a parallel world. At night she journeys to a parallel house with a parallel "Other Mother" and "Other Father" who are better and nicer than the real ones. She likes it there at first, but slowly she realizes that the "Other" world is an evil trap, and the movie becomes a horror movie where she must rescue other children and save her parents.

Review: The beginning of the movie is dark and creepy. All the characters are unlikeable and the scenes were dreary. This is the main reason that I dislike the film. It is not until her second trip to the "Other" world that the movie gets better. The plot turns more into a traditional horror movie, and the creepy cat becomes the first friendly character. The 3D animation is serviceable, but not outstanding. The dancing mice were fun. The dreary art direction is the biggest limitation. It is a derivative of the Nightmare Before Christmas and the Corpse Bride -- we have seen all this before -- though not in 3D.

Miss Forcible, the treacle-sweet, but soon grotesque and topless claymation lady, is disturbing and original. She embodied the different, better, creepy feeling of the "Other" world.

Rating: 2.0

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Teenage girls wrestle in their heads with good and evil versions of their mothers. Coraline plays that out literally.