The Fighter

2.5/4 stars

Micky Ward is a struggling welter-weight boxer, who is managed by his mother and trained by his half-brother Dicky. Micky has been used as a stepping stone to assist in advancing the careers of other boxers.

Dicky Eklund's 15 seconds of fame was a match with Sugar Ray Leonard. Since this pinnacle career match Dicky turned to drugs and eventually finds himself in prison for it.

In Dicky's absence, Micky see's an opportunity to work with people in the boxing industry that won't set him up with matches where he'll just take the fall. This doesn't bode over too well with the manager/Mom.

Micky manages to get his mom and Dicky (who is released from prison at this point) to accept the fact that he has people in boxing that are not trying to use Micky as a money maker and secretly steal Micky's winnings, but that they are really interested in his career to eventually get a shot at the world welter-weight championship.


The ClearPlay experience
Language:
This movie had enough muted-swears to power a small country, coupled with actors that oft-times mumbled or whispered their dialogue made this a semi-difficult movie to understand how people were communicating.

There is a lot of vulgarity used that was muted which caused me to miss out on some of the conversation information to make sense of what people were talking about. Seriously I can't remember the last movie I ClearPlay'd where there was so much muted dialogue.

Despite that I couldn't understand entirely what was being said, you get the gist of it and eventually pick up on what's happening.


Sex:
In only 1 instance could I recall that any sex at all was implied got skipped seamlessly, which is always good to skip - but to have it happen seamlessly is the icing on the cake. Taking out the sex from The Fighter did not leave me feeling at all uninformed.


The Fighter is rated R, but with ClearPlay this one has a common sense rating of PG-13. Those younger than 16 might be bored, due to the 2nd act of the movie surrounding Dicky's drug troubles and eventual incarceration. The movie started feeling like it was dragging a little at this point, but it isn't terribly long before we get back to focusing on Micky.

Rango (Reviewed by Ed)

2.5 out of 4 Stars

 

“So you want something to believe in?  Believe in that there sign.  For as long as it hangs there we’ve got hope.”  This line from the movie really sums up what Rango is all about.  When I first saw the poster I didn’t have high hopes for this movie but when I saw the trailer my perception of the movie went up a little bit…but not much.  I reluctantly took my 8yr old and 13yr old to see this movie.  I wish I wouldn’t have.  While Rango has a lot of great moments in this movie I had a very hard time with the amount of swearing that they put in.  Basically it was the same two swear words (Hell and Damn) but the way they were used were pretty strong.  These words were used probably a total of 10 times throughout the movie and for a PG “kids movie” it was a bit shocking.  If I were to see this with some adults I wouldn’t have been as uncomfortable, but with my own kids (one of them being under 10yrs old) it was hard to watch. 

 

Rango (Johnny Depp) is your average homebody lizard that has a knack for theatrics.  He loves using the surroundings and props around him to do his theatrical shows.  When he finds himself out in the middle of a desert, after he falls out of the car that he was in, he is put on a journey to find the town of Dirt by an armadillo that he finds run over in the middle of the road.  Rango finds the city of Dirt, an untamed western town tormented by villains and desperately short on water.

 

Rango must use his ability to role play, and after standing up to some local thugs and killing the bird that terrorizes the local townsfolk, the mayor of the town (Ned Beatty) makes him sheriff.  The story comes down to how is Rango, the new sheriff in town, going to help the local folks get water to survive.

 

The story is well written and I found myself wanting to find out more of what was going to happen next.  The characters in the movie were strange, scary, funny and all around wildly exaggerated.  The animation was top notch and the actors they brought in were some pretty big celebs (Johnny Depp, Abagail Breslin, Alfred Molina and Bill Nighy just to name a few). 

 

I just had a hard time getting past the typical sexual references (most of which would go over a child’s head…but not all of them) and all the language that was scattered throughout the movie.  Yes it is a PG movie but it’s a PG animated movie so I guess I assume that they will be kid friendly.  Well unfortunately this movie isn’t kid friendly.  I probably would’ve given this movie 3.25 or even 3.5 stars but it only gets 2.5 stars because of the un-kid friendliness of this movie.

 

Rating of whether I would see the movie again:
1 = Definitely not!
2 = Probably not.
3 = Maybe.
4 = Probably.
5 = Absolutely!

Would I see the movie again in the theaters? 1
Will I rent it on DVD and watch it at home? 3 (I think ClearPlaying this movie would make it better)
Would I buy the movie? 1

 

"Rango" is rated PG for Action, Language, Rude Humor, Smoking, Violence, Mild Sex References, Mild Violence, Scary Scenes, Not Recommended for Young Children.