“I thought we agreed not to raise our children in a family where their father gets beat up for a living!” yells Tess (Jennifer Morrison). “We’re not losing the house. This is our home. We’re not going backward,” responds Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton) after finally admitting that he hasn’t been moonlighting as a bouncer but instead has secretly been getting back into the amateur ring and MMA fighting in the drama Warrior.
Struggling to make ends meet as a public high school teacher, Brendan reaches out to his ex-trainer and best friend Frank Campana (Frank Grillo) to work with him and get him ready for some real fights. His unlikely rise as an underdog sets him up to compete in the big tournament in Las Vegas for the biggest award ever in the sport. This puts Brendan on a collision course with his estranged younger brother, Tommy Riordan (Tom Hardy), a Marine who returned to their old hometown, Pittsburgh, and teamed up with their recovered alcoholic father (Nick Nolte) to train for the same mixed martial arts tournament.
Haunted by his past, both from his rough childhood and the tragic events while serving in Iraq, Tommy channels his fury and hatred in the cage, making him an unstoppable fighting machine.
The stage is set for the two brothers to face off in and outside the ring to deal with their unsettled past and battle in the ultimate fight of their lives.
Warrior is a compelling sports drama that strives to be in the same league as such films as Rocky and The Fighter but comes up short. This is a good film – not a great one. What is great about the movie? Nick Nolte’s performance as Paddy Conlon, the grizzled, old father struggling to stay sober and desperate to reconnect with his two sons. It’s hands-down the best performance in the film and one of the best of Nolte’s career. Here’s hoping he grabs an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor this Oscar season.
Tom Hardy delivers a memorable performance as Tommy, the angry, brooding, raging, unforgiving younger brother who refuses to come to terms with his troubled past. He is determined to punish everyone around him in and out of the cage. Joel Edgerton is solid as Brendan, the older responsible brother who has gone back into the ring to save his family’s home and to eventually try to make amends with his kid brother.
The film also has a stirring soundtrack and some very effective and overly violent fight scenes. There are some problems with the movie, however, including its over-long running time of 2 hours and 19 minutes which could and should have been trimmed down to under two hours. The film drags in the middle and has an incredibly unoriginal and uninspiring training montage that’s stolen right out of ALL the Rocky films. There’s also a silly and forgettable subplot with Brendan’s students trying to get permission from the principal to watch their teacher’s big fight in the school’s auditorium.
Exciting and dramatic, Warrior is a fight film that will have the audience cheering and routing for both brothers in and out of the cage while struggling with the reality that there can only be one champion.
GRADE B-
Warrior hits theaters on September 9, 2011 and is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense mixed martial arts fighting, some language and thematic material.
Announcing the honor, Screen Actors Guild National President Ken Howard stated, “Mary Tyler Moore won our hearts as Laura Petrie and Mary Richards, our respect as her production company became synonymous with quality television, our awe as she tackled difficult subject matter in film and on Broadway, and our admiration she turned her public recognition into a catalyst to draw attention to critical and deeply personal health and social issues. She truly embodies the spirit behind SAG’s Life Achievement Award, and we are honored to proclaim her as its 48th recipient.”
Mary Tyler Moore Biography [Courtesy of SAG]:
Holder of seven Emmys®, a Tony® and an Academy Award® nomination, among numerous industry and philanthropic accolades, Mary Tyler Moore first rose to prominence when she was cast at 23 as Dick Van Dyke’s wife in his eponymous sitcom, based loosely on the experiences of comedy writer Carl Reiner. Smart, feisty and down-to-earth in capri pants and fashionable tops, Moore’s Laura Petrie was new kind of television wife and mother. The audiences loved her and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded her two Emmys and a nomination during the show’s five-year run.
Following The Dick Van Dyke Show’s successful run, Moore combined her acting, singing and dancing talents in 1967 as Julie Andrew’s co-star in the 1920’s film musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. She was Elvis Presley’s final leading lady in 1969’s Change of Habit and the same year made her television movie debut in the drama Run A Crooked Mile.
When CBS beckoned with the offer to develop her own television series, Moore formed a production company, MTM, with her then husband Grant Tinker. Their groundbreaking comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show premiered on September 19, 1970. While other comedies had been set in the workplace, Moore’s chronicled the career, friendships and dating life of a single, thirtyish, spunky, independent, career woman, in the unseen world of local TV news. With a brilliant cast, the character-driven series redefined the meaning of ensemble comedy and of family. In its seven-year run garnered 29 Emmys, including four for its star. Nearly 25 years later Moore was present as TV Land dedicated a statue in downtown Minneapolis depicting the iconic moment in the show’s opening credit’s when a hopeful Mary Richards tosses her hat in the air.
Moore and Tinker’s MTM Enterprises continued to produce an impressive list of landmark comedies and dramas including The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hill Street Blues, The White Shadow (starring current SAG president Ken Howard) and St. Elsewhere. Characters from The Mary Tyler Moore Show became the focus for several successful spin-offs in the 1970s: Rhoda starring Valerie Harper; Phyllis starring Cloris Leachman; and Lou Grant starring Ed Asner (SAG’s 38th Life Achievement recipient), which significantly took Asner’s gruff but soft-hearted journalist from TV newsroom comedy into a hard-hitting newspaper-set drama.
Moore showcased her dramatic talent in her Emmy-nominated depiction of TV correspondent Betty Rollin’s battle with breast cancer in the 1978 CBS telefilm First You Cry. In 1980 Moore was nominated for an Oscar® for her riveting portrayal of Beth Jarrett, a bitter mother coping with the death of one son and the attempted suicide of another in the Robert Redford-directed drama Ordinary People. The same year she continued to explore painful subject matter onstage in the hit Broadway play Whose Life Is It, Anyway? which earned her a Tony for playing a quadriplegic sculptor fighting to determine her own destiny, a role originated by Tom Conti and rewritten for its female star in her Broadway debut.
Other feature films include Six Weeks opposite Dudley Moore; David O, Russell’s Flirting with Disaster; and Peter Calahan’s dark comedy Against The Current opposite Joseph Fiennes and Justin Kirk, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.
Moore’s success in telefilms has continued across decades: In 1984, she delivered an Emmy-nominated performance in the ABC television movie Heartsounds opposite James Garner (SAG’s 41st Life Achievement recipient),; received a Cable Ace nomination for HBO’s Finnegan Begin Again opposite Robert Preston and Sam Waterson; delivered a stunning portrayal of disturbed first lady Mary Todd Lincoln in the 1988 NBC miniseries Gore Vidal’s Lincoln; and won her seventh Emmy in 1993 for her performance as a spinster trafficking in illegal adoption in Lifetime’s Stolen Babies.
Other telefilm credits include TNT’s Miss Lettie and Me and the CBS television films Like Mother, Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes, Snow Wonder, and Blessings based on the Anna Quindlan novel. She and Dick Van Dyke showcased their old spark in a PBS version of D. L. Coburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning nursing home-set stage play The Gin Game, then reunited with a large number of their former cast mates in TV Land’s nostalgic The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited.
Moore’s television guest roles include: a recurring run as Tea Leoni’s mother The Naked Truth, an appearance as Ellen DeGeneres’s Aunt Mary in a Christmas episode of Ellen, a recurring stint as a high-strung TV host on That 70’s Show and a multi-episode arc in NBC’s Lipstick Jungle. This year, on the season premiere of “Hot in Cleveland,” Moore reunited onscreen with Betty White for the first time since The Mary Tyler Moore Show, sharing a jail cell with White’s character, Elka, who was arrested in the season one cliffhanger.
Moore returned to the stage in 1987 to star opposite Lynn Redgrave in A. R. Gurney Jr.’s Sweet Sue and has performed numerous benefit readings of Gurney’s two-person Love Letters, starring opposite James Earl Jones to benefit, the Poughkeepsie Day School, Patrick Stewart to benefit the Ethical Culture School and Gene Wilder for the North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center Association, as well as opposite Gurney himself.
Moore’s first autobiography, After All, published in 1995, was a frank exploration of her childhood, personal challenges and career. Her second book, Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes is a candid, humorous and illuminating detailing of her battles with the disease since she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (then called “juvenile diabetes” for its prevalence among children) in 1970 at age 33. The book includes conversations with remarkable people who live with the disease and those who work on the frontiers of medical research. Moore donated all her profits from Growing Up Again to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the world’s leading funder and advocate for Type 1 diabetes science.
Moore has been JDRF’s International Chairman since 1984. She has also chaired JDRF’s biennial Children’s Congress since its inception in 1999, leading up to 200 children with Type 1 diabetes to Washington, D.C. to meet face-to-face with congressional representatives. Moore has been at the vanguard of JDRF’s visit on Capitol Hill, testifying before the House and Senate on behalf of increased National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for Type 1 diabetes, which affects as many as 3 million children and adults. Moore and her husband, Dr. S Robert Levine, have been generous supporters of JDRF’s research programs and in 2003 established JDRF’s “Excellence in Clinical Research Award” in recognition of outstanding diabetes researchers. She herself was honored by JDRF in 2007 with its Humanitarian of the Year Award.
Among many other accolades, Moore received the 1984 Women in Film Crystal Award, was immortalized in 1992 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was presented with the American Screenwriters Association first David Angell Humanitarian Award in 2002 and in 2009 was honored with the National Association of Broadcasters Distinguished Service Award.
Moore co-founded Broadway Barks with Bernadette Peters in 1999. The annual event held in Broadway’s Shubert Alley promotes the adoption of shelter animals, seeks to end euthanasia of dogs and cats in New York City and fosters a spirit of community among the number shelters and rescue groups working throughout the city. New York Major Michael Bloomberg proclaimed this year’s July 9, 2011 event as “Broadway Barks Day.”
The Brooklyn-born daughter of George Tyler Moore and Marjorie Hackett, Moore, Moore had moved with her family to California at 8 and aspired to be a dancer. After graduating Immaculate Heart High School, she broke into commercials, then gained acting credentials in television, first as the only partially-glimpsed switchboard operator on Richard Diamond, Private Eye and in guest roles in more than a dozen popular series, such as Hawaiian Eye, 77 Sunset Strip, and Wanted: Dead or Alive.
The 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be produced by Jeff Margolis Productions in association with Screen Actors Guild Awards®, LLC. Jeff Margolis is the executive producer and director. Kathy Connell is the producer. JoBeth Williams, Daryl Anderson, Scott Bakula, Shelley Fabares and Paul Napier are producers for SAG. Gloria Fujita O’Brien and Mick McCullough are supervising producers. Benn Fleishman is executive in charge of production. Rosalind Jarrett is the Executive in Charge of Publicity. Jon Brockett is the Awards Coordinating Producer.
Screen Actors Guild is the nation’s largest labor union representing working actors. Established in 1933, SAG has a rich history in the American labor movement, from standing up to studios to break long-term engagement contracts in the 1940s to fighting for artists’ rights amid the digital revolution sweeping the entertainment industry in the 21st century. With 20 branches nationwide, SAG represents more than 125,000 actors who work in film and digital theatrical motion pictures and television programs, commercials, video games, corporate/educational, Internet and all new media formats. The Guild exists to enhance actors’ working conditions, compensation and benefits and to be a powerful, unified voice on behalf of artists’ rights. Headquartered in Los Angeles, SAG is a proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO.
50 Cent stars in 'All Things Fall Apart' from Image Entertainment's One Village label. (Photo: Business Wire) All Things Fall Apart, a dramatic film from director Mario Van Peebles, has found a home at Image Entertainment. Image announced today that they’ve picked the film which stars Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, Ray Liotta, Lynn Whitfield, and Van Peebles.
All Things Fall Apart is the story of a “Heisman-bound college football star whose career hits a wall when he is diagnosed with a tumor only inches from his heart.” Jackson, who also produced the film, lost 80 pounds for the role.
“50 lost so much weight I started calling him 25 Cent,” joked Van Peebles. “But what impressed me was his willingness to evolve past his rap persona and totally commit to his first dramatic lead without relying on guns. No backup, this is 50 like you have never seen him.”
Warrior, starring Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton and Nick Nolte, opens in theaters today and in support of the film’s release, Lionsgate Films has a new music video to show off. Check out The National’s “About Today” music video featuring clips from the dramatic film:
Official Synopsis: An ex-Marine haunted by a tragic past, Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh and enlists his father, a recovered alcoholic and his former coach, to train him for an MMA tournament awarding the biggest purse in the history of the sport. As Tommy blazes a violent path towards the title prize, his brother, Brendan, (Joel Edgerton) a former MMA fighter unable to make ends meet as a public school teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family after being suspended from his day job. Even though years have passed, recriminations and betrayals keep Brendan bitterly estranged from both Tommy and his father.
In the press release announcing Shame‘s acquisition, Fox Searchlight Pictures Presidents Nancy Utley and Stephen Gilula stated, “Steve McQueen’s courageous exploration of modern life’s extremes is breathtaking. He has crafted an extraordinary film that probes some of the deepest and darkest issues ever portrayed on screen with amazingly gifted performances by Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan.”
“This is a brave statement and an important move by Fox Searchlight. I am very happy they came on board to release Shame in the U.S. It’s great to be working with a team that is so passionate about cinema,” stated writer/director McQueen.
Iain Canning and Emile Sherman produced the film with Tessa Ross, Robert Walak, Peter Hampden and Tim Haslam executive producing.
Fox Searchlight will release Shame later this year.
You know those Dos Equis beer commercials with “the most interesting man in the world?” Well, DreamWorks Animation has created a Puss in Boots promo modeled after those successful commercials.
Nickelback "Here and Now" - (PRNewsFoto/Roadrunner Records, Travis Shinn) Nickelback just announced they’ll be releasing their seventh album, Here and Now, on November 21, 2011. The first two singles – “When We Stand Together” and “Bottoms Up” – will be out on September 26th. Nickelback will be touring in support of the album in 2012, however they haven’t released the dates yet. An announcement on the upcoming tour is expected soon.
Their last album, 2008’s Dark Horse, was certified 3-times platinum and has more than five million digital single sales.
“We’re four people who love making music, the way we like to make it,” said Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger in the press release announcing the album. “We entered the studio this year with a vision, and it all came together. We’re extremely happy with the results, and can’t wait to share them with our fans.”
Roadrunner Records President Jonas Nachsin added, “Through our many years of working with Nickelback, we have always been amazed by the band’s continuing ability to record songs and albums that inspire and thrill millions. After hearing the newest material, we are sure they have done it again, and we are dedicated and eager to promote the band across the globe.”
More on Nickelback [Courtesy of Roadrunner Records]:
Nickelback is one the biggest rock bands in the world having sold almost 50 million albums worldwide. Since their 2001 breakthrough hit song “How You Remind Me,” Nickelback has sent 18 singles rocketing onto various Billboard charts.
Nickelback’s now classic All The Right Reasons insured Nickelback an indelible place in rock history, spending a staggering 112 consecutive weeks in the Top 30 of the Billboard Top 200, certified 8-times platinum in the U.S. and having sold more than 11 million copies worldwide, topping charts in four countries. All The Right Reasons spun off seven multi-format singles and made Nickelback the first band in Nielsen BDS history to send five singles onto the CHR charts. All five of the album’s videos hit No. 1 on VH1’s playlist, while Nickelback has sold more than 12 million single digital downloads and more than 9 million ringtones of the album’s songs. All The Right Reasons won the American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Album and helped the quartet to three Billboard Music Awards in 2006 and a pair of Juno Awards in Canada. And on the road, Nickelback has sold more than 2 million concert tickets over the course of the album cycle.
But no matter what his ultimate role is in the project – producer, director, actor – the fact Gibson, who has made anti-Semitic remarks in the past, is associated at all with a film based on the life of Maccabee has sparked controversy. Anti-Defamation League (ADL) National Director Abraham H. Foxman issued the following statement in response to the news:
We would have hoped that Warner Bros. could have found someone better than Mel Gibson to direct or perhaps even star in a film on the life of the Jewish historical icon Judah Maccabee. As a hero of the Jewish people and a universal hero in the struggle for religious liberty, Judah Maccabee deserves better. It would be a travesty to have the story of the Maccabees told by one who has no respect and sensitivity for other people’s religious views.
Not only has Mel Gibson shown outward antagonism toward Jews and Judaism in his public statements and actions, but his previous attempt to bring biblical history to life on the screen was marred by anti-Semitism. Rather than listen to respected religious leaders, both Christian and Jewish, who voiced concerns then about the insensitive elements of his depiction of the last hours and crucifixion of Jesus, Gibson showed contempt for those voices and refused to make changes that might have helped turn his passion of hate into a passion of love.
While we do not argue with Mel Gibson’s right to make this film, we still strongly believe that Warner Bros. should reconsider Gibson’s involvement in this project.
There’s no word yet on when production is expected to begin on the untitled Judah Maccabee biopic.
Back for the Future: Introducing the 2011 NIKE MAG (Photo: Business Wire)
For years Back to the Future fans have been after Nike to make the special ‘futuristic’ sneakers worn by Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) in Back to the Future II, and now the company’s finally done it. Nike has made 1500 pairs of the 2011 NIKE MAG shoes and they’re all to be auctioned off on eBay to benefit The Michael J Fox Foundation.
The rechargeable shoes are exact replicas of the shoes worn by Fox in the film. According to Nike, the only change from the original design is additional foam support in the ankle and toe box.
“This project is exciting to me because it brings together three very passionate audiences: the Parkinson’s community, sneakerheads and Back to the Future fans,” stated Michael J. Fox in the press release announcing the auction. “With their support we can accelerate our objective of finding a cure for Parkinson’s.”
“We wanted to translate the excitement people have for the ‘greatest shoe never made’ and for the Back to the Future into positive action,” said Mark Parker, Nike CEO, who was on the Back to the Future II set in 1988 when Fox donned the original NIKE MAG shoes. “But the long-term objective is to raise awareness so the Foundation can achieve their goal of eradicating Parkinson’s disease.”
In support of the fundraising effort, the Back to the Future creative team and executive producer Frank Marshall came up with the idea of a lost scene “to honor the original Back to the Future films and characters, capturing Doc Brown’s efforts to make Marty ‘fit in’ during his visit to 2015.” Christopher Lloyd and Donald Fullilove reprise their roles and are joined by Bill Hader and NBA star Kevin Durant in the special lost scene video.
How the Auction Works:
Each day for the duration of the ten-day auction, one hundred and fifty pairs of the 2011 NIKE MAG shoes will be made available via eBay’s Fashion Vault, a differentiated platform for select designer and branded fashion events. The auction began on September 8, 2011 and will end September 18. In addition, the shoes are listed using eBay Giving Works, the company’s innovative online philanthropy program that enables millions of people to easily connect with and donate to organizations they care about. The auction is managed by Auction Cause for the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton star as estranged brothers who battle it out in the Mixed Martial Arts arena in the dramatic film, Warrior. Directed by Gavin O’Connor (Miracle, Pride and Glory), Warrior is much more than a fight film – although the MMA scenes are simply incredible.
In this interview video, Hardy and Edgerton discuss the appeal of starring in Warrior, director O’Connor’s vision for the film, injuries, and getting into shape to step into the MMA arena.
The Plot: An ex-Marine haunted by a tragic past, Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh and enlists his father, a recovered alcoholic and his former coach, to train him for an MMA tournament awarding the biggest purse in the history of the sport. As Tommy blazes a violent path towards the title prize, his brother, Brendan, (Joel Edgerton) a former MMA fighter unable to make ends meet as a public school teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family after being suspended from his day job. Even though years have passed, recriminations and betrayals keep Brendan bitterly estranged from both Tommy and his father.
But when Brendan’s unlikely rise as an underdog sets him on a collision course with Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront the forces that tore them apart, all the while waging the most intense, winner-takes-all battle of their lives.
