This really had me pretty enthralled at the beginning when it seemed to be a character piece about Stallone being a shitty brother and having to learn to be better. Original? No. But entertaining premise nonetheless.
However, around an hour in Stallone loses control over his brother, Victor's, career and it seems like he's going to have to learn his lesson after watching Lenny and Victor do what he was doing far better and more respectfully. Good escalation of the premise, I thought. But no, that's not what happens.
All of a sudden Lenny and Stallone switch places, where Lenny becomes the man using Victor for money and Stallone is where Lenny once was, worrying about Victor. Out of nowhere! Flip of a switch! Not only that, but the love interests of both Stallone and Lenny dip out in the last 30 minutes without any real send off. Then the ending comes and oh boy... A good wrestling match occurs, but then theres a very unearned happy ending to top it off!
It's a well-directed movie, and individual parts of it are written well, but the whole piece comes together to be quite a frustrating mess of unearned lessons learned. I've heard this was a big product of studio meddling which I can definitely see. But I can only judge the film based on what is in front of me, not what was on the cutting room floor. A much better movie I'd imagine.
This really had me pretty enthralled at the beginning when it seemed to be a character piece about Stallone being a shitty brother and having to learn to be better. Original? No. But entertaining premise nonetheless.
However, around an hour in Stallone loses control over his brother, Victor's, career and it seems like he's going to have to learn his lesson after watching Lenny and Victor do what he was doing far better and more respectfully. Good escalation of the premise, I thought. But no, that's not what happens.
All of a sudden Lenny and Stallone switch places, where Lenny becomes the man using Victor for money and Stallone is where Lenny once was, worrying about Victor. Out of nowhere! Flip of a switch! Not only that, but the love interests of both Stallone and Lenny dip out in the last 30 minutes without any real send off. Then the ending comes and oh boy... A good wrestling match occurs, but then theres a very unearned happy ending to top it off!
It's a well-directed movie, and individual parts of it are written well, but the whole piece comes together to be quite a frustrating mess of unearned lessons learned. I've heard this was a big product of studio meddling which I can definitely see. But I can only judge the film based on what is in front of me, not what was on the cutting room floor. A much better movie I'd imagine.
