Warrior is at times almost gravely self-important. The gifted director Gavin O'Connor (Miracle) brings the film an affecting, ripped-from-the-guts spirit, even if he can't really hide how many old-movie tropes are floating around in it
Warrior has real emotional resonance, vivid, finely crafted performances and a story that will seize you from its opening moments. Action movies are never this good
this is in some ways a more powerful and disturbing motion picture. It offers a catharsis but there's something bittersweet about the way in which Warrior concludes
the film so audaciously piles on a series of shameless, head-shaking contrivances and is so happy to milk them for all they're worth that it starts to feel like, heaven help us, a mixed martial arts version of "The Help"
it weaves the best elements of "The Fighter," "Million Dollar Baby" and "The Wrestler" into a story so heartfelt and well-acted that any objections to what's been adapted from elsewhere seems to matter less as the movie goes on
combine the sibling tensions and hopped-up dysfunction of The Fighter with the working-class underdog heroics of Rocky, pile on big heaps of corn, and throw it all into an Ultimate Fighting Championship cage, and you have the crazily enjoyable Warrior