Warrior – 3 1/2 Buckets

My review of Gavin O’Connor’s searing new mixed martial arts drama, Warrior, is now available via The Daily Trojan. Here is a preview, followed by a link to the full piece:

Hollywood loves a good sports underdog, and in Warrior, there are two. Filmmaker Gavin O’Connor, who made the stand-up-and-cheer crowd-pleaser Miracle, has struck gold again, this time by turning the sports genre on its head.

Instead of remaking the same conventional sports movie — where the little guy dramatically beats his towering opponent in an upset — O’Connor and co-writers Anthony Tambakis and Cliff Dorfman build Warrior to a gutwrenching, final battle between dual protagonists who are equally deserving of the affection.

Read on at the Daily Trojan website (link will open in a new window).