It's brother against brother in this latest inspirational sports drama from Gavin O'Connor (Miracle), as ex-Marine-with-a-tragic-past Tommy Conlon (Inception's Tom Hardy) enlists the help of his estranged, recovering alcoholic dad (Nick Nolte) to train for the biggest winner-takes-all event in mixed martial arts history, one that will find him facing off against his (also estranged) younger sibling, Brendan (AnimalKingdom's Joel Edgerton). If you think that's a spoiler, then you've never seen a Rocky film before. Alas, although the acting's uniformly strong, and the film has kitchen-sink grit to spare, it errs more on the side of 1985's Rocky IV than John Avildsen's '76 original, what with its "unstoppable" Russian fighter (Kurt Angle) and a climax that's never in doubt. Who cares if the ultimate winner is handily beaten in the muscle, weight class, and charisma departments? This is MMA — anything can happen.
