A movie review

Preface: I am not a movie critic. I do not watch movies the way critics watch them. I'm very simple. A movie should have one goal -- to entertain. That is what I hope to get from movies.

I stepped foot in a movie theater for the first time in a while tonight. Just to set the scene: the last time I actually went to the theater was to see The Dark Knight, which was amazing, by the way. When I was in high school and college, you could just about find me at the theater once a week. I loved going to movies. I still enjoy movies. It's just with working all the time, it's hard to find the time to go to the theater. Then, there's the costs involved with purchasing two tickets and then the inevitable popcorn and coke that I must have, much to Elizabeth's chagrin. I just feel it's so much easier to wait and watch once it comes out on DVD.

But tonight I wanted to go to the movie. I haven't done much since moving to New Braunfels, first of all because I was working six days a week, and then recently I've been with Elizabeth on my days off. This weekend I didn't go back to Alexandria, and Elizabeth didn't come out here, which meant I actually had a Monday off with nothing to do. So I killed some time by going to a mall to do some browsing (it's not "shopping" if you don't buy), and then went to watch a movie.

Honestly, I didn't even have a clue what was out there. Like I said before, it's been awhile. While I was in line, I called Elizabeth and asked her about Taken. All she had to say was, "It's the movie with Sean Penn ..." OK, so another choice. My caveat with Elizabeth was I wouldn't go see a movie that I thought she and I would enjoy watching together. So out goes Underworld: Rise of the Lichens, because we saw the first two Underworld flicks together. Also, since I think we'd enjoy He's Just Not That Into You, I wasn't going to see that one. I narrowed my list down to Paul Blart: Mall Cop, a light-hearted comedy that I thought would probably make me laugh a bit but ultimately would leave me unfulfilled in the entertainment department, and The Wrestler, the critically-acclaimed masterpiece that I felt might not be entertaining enough for me because, well frankly, I usually don't agree with the critics.

But I chose The Wrestler, simply because I wanted to see Mickey Rourke's performance that I'd heard so much about. I'm not disappointed, but it certainly wasn't the greatest movie I've ever seen.

First of all, I thought Rourke did a fantastic job as Robin Ramzinski, aka Randy "The Ram" Robinson, an old washed-up wrestling star from the '80s who can't seem to give up his past glories. As an old wrestling fan, I can appreciate the subtle behind-the-scenes wrestling aspects of the movie.

Take The Ram's real name. Robin Ramzinski. There are plenty of wrestlers whose ring names are so far away from their unglamourous real names, or in the case of Randy in this movie, are a play off an aspect of their real names (The Ram = Ramzinski, Robin = Robinson). In the technical aspects of the wrestling industry, this movie was spot on. I rather enjoyed it.

And the storytelling was great. It followed the ups and downs of a real man who lost everything in the pursuit of hanging on to the past. The Ram falls in love with a stripper, played by Marisa Tomei, as the two of the them fight with giving up their current plights (wrestling and stripping) and being together. Without giving away the ending, I will say I was very disappointed with how the movie ended on several platforms. However, it didn't take away from how I rated the movie. I mean, it didn't ruin it. I would still recommend seeing it.

I guess my only real complaint about the movie -- aside from the stripping scenes (if nudity bothers you, do not go see this movie) -- is just how slowly it went. The Wrestler is a two-hour movie that feels like a three-hour movie. But it's still entertaining. And in a way that slow, deliberate pace fits with the theme of the movie. Since The Ram is a beatdown old wrestler who doesn't move as well as in his prime, the wrestling scenes are a little slower, the action isn't quite there, and quite frankly, his life really just isn't that exciting, and the slow pace of the movie bears that out.

Again, I'm no movie critic. Because the critics loved this movie. While I didn't love it, it was better than average. On a scale of five stars, I give it a 3.5.