Rightly compared to the first Rocky film.

Rating: 8/10 (20 February 2011)

I have now seen all 10 films that are nominated for best picture in the up coming Oscars and although The Fighter is not the best of them it certainly has everything you would want in a film about Boxing. This has been compared to Rocky , for obvious reason and i would agree it's pretty similar to the first two movies and in some respect better. The boxing action is far more realistic than in Rocky and the camera work really does make it feel like it is archive footage. This is the boxing equivalent of The Wrestler and it's certainly comparable. All the talk is of Christian Bales performance but i think that's a little harsh on Mark Wahlberg. Wahlberg gives a much more natural performance than Bale , who i think tries a little hard at times. Amy Adams is also very good and this is a far cry from her character in Enchanted. If i had to criticise this film i would say it's a little predictable at times and that the director makes that awful mistake that a lot of Americans do and confuses Irish with British in the final scenes but over all this a very entertaining film. Incidentally of the 10 nominated films for this years Oscars , my favourite is Toy Story 3 but we all know that wont win it.