TheRetroCritic

Directed by David O. Russell, The Fighter sees Mark Wahlberg play a boxer managed by his brother (Christian Bale) who used to be a professional himself before becoming a junkie screw-up. The struggle becomes to figure out a way to juggle family, relationships and a career without anything blowing up in anyone's face. The idea of a gritty warts-and-all look at a fighter's life isn't exactly a brand new concept, especially since The Wrestler only came out two years prior to this movie, but The Fighter is a well-made enough film that it remains compelling from start to finish regardless. The dynamics between the different members of this family are electric and Bale's Oscar-winning portrayal of Dicky Eklund is impressive to say the least. Of course, the actor lost a freakish amount of weight for the role and that physical metamorphosis crossed with a memorably hyper, shifty-eyed performance makes it one of Bale's must-see movies. Mark Wahlberg is much more unders

Before Sylvester Stallone breathed new life into the Rambo franchise with a particularly violent new outing, he gave Rocky one more shot with Rocky Balboa and miraculously did not mess it up. This sixth Rocky instalment should have been a disaster or at least an unforgivably bland retread. Instead, Sly takes what made the old Rocky movies great, updates all the characters to what they would be like in present day and makes it work. He doesn't go down the dumb, "let's make Rocky into James Bond" route Die Hard 4.0 style focusing more on the emotional baggage those much older characters are carrying. Adrian has died, so has Mickey, Rocky's on his own running a restaurant, his son (played by Heroes ' Milo Ventimiglia) wants nothing to do with him and although he's got the respect of those people who recognise him as the legendary boxer he is, there's just something missing. Meanwhile, some new boxing champion is dissatisfied with the criticis