The Fighter- Brotherly Love

Not since The Dark Knight have I gone into a movie with such high expectations, and left thinking that it was even better than expected. The Fighter was that good. With a great underdog story, fantastic acting (especially from Christian Bale), a lot of emotional moments, and a surprisingly high level of comedy, you really need to get yourself to a theater and see this right away.

Spoiler alert...Below are more in depth thoughts on The Fighter. So before reading any further, watch the movie, bring a cake to some crack heads, then read what I have to say.

This is not just my Christian Bale bias right? That was unbelievable performance. From the two minute clip during the credits of the real Dick Eklund you could tell how spot on Bale was with his portrayal of the cracked out ex-boxer. Seriously, how good is this guy with accents? I've heard him do so many and they always make me forget that he is from Wales. "Let me see, a cracked out dude from Lowell with no teeth? Yeah I got that accent in my back pocket."

Bale had me feeling bad for Dicky, wanting to punch his lights out, and laughing hysterically at everything he said for the entire movie. That's not to say that the other performances weren't also great. Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams were fantastic as the leading couple. Of course they didn't have as difficult a role as Bale, but both did a stellar job making me care about whether Micky Ward succeeded.

Funniest movie of the year? I haven't seen many this year, but it's hard to imagine laughing more than I did at The Fighter. Literally every time the seven butt ugly sisters came on screen, I lost it. Between their hair, their faces, and their ridiculous comments in ridiculous accents, I just couldn't handle it. There's no way they went into making this movie thinking it would be this funny. Add to that both Bale and Adams who had terrific comedic moments throughout, and you have yourself a great comedy if you wanted to label it as such.

But at the end of the day this was a movie about two underdog brothers. One, a former boxer turned crack addict, who would do anything to live vicariously through his little bro's success. And two, the little brother boxer that has never received any attention because big bro Dicky knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard once upon a time. It was great seeing Amy Adams's character convince Micky to do it without his mom and brother, because I knew that he would have success that way, but when he demanded to bring Dicky back on as his trainer once out of jail, that's when I was sold. Really Micky's love of his brother, and the fact that they fought for the title together, made this such a great story. Thankfully Dicky turned his life around, and got new teeth, while in the big house. With big bro in his corner, Micky won the welterweight championship of the world and everything is good.

Not being a boxing fan, I was glad that I had no idea what was going to happen heading into Micky's title fight. Knowing that it was a true story, my gut told me that Micky would lose. I was both surprised and excited when that Englishmen hit the ground for good.

I give it an A, and I give Christian Bale's performance an A+. If he doesn't finally win an Oscar for this I am going to throw a fit.