The drama is good, don't know so much about this MMA stuff

Rating: Null/10 (22 September 2011)

Warrior is set in the world of MMA - that stands for Mixed Martial Arts, apparently. Heaven only knows what the rules are, other than that there don't seem to be any. It ends up with a knockout tournament for a $5 million prize.
However, it turns out that this is no more than a hook on which to hang a tale of two brothers (Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton), estranged in their teens by virtue of an abusive alcoholic father (Nick Nolte), and his attempts to re-connect with them. In some respects, this is all a bit soap opera, yet these three people come across as real people, with credible problems and behaviour, and you care about them. The film is at its best when dealing with the family drama.
Having said that, the action is well presented, and visceral, and the performances are all good. I find Nolte's croaky delivery increasingly difficult to understand, but he is unquestionably very good here, as are Hardy and Edgerton. In fact, the film fails only at the end when the result of the final bout of the tournament is used as the end, leaving too many plot threads unresolved.