The movie is so skillfully made, and the performances are so convincingly real (Hardy is sensational), that, as it reaches its cathartic, winning finish, it achieves a surprising compassion and honesty. full review

Warrior ends up feeling a lot bigger than you expect it to. full review

It's too corny to live. But the picture is a slam dunk. I mean a ground-and-pound double-leg takedown. It's really gripping. full review

Warrior's three principle characterizations are compelling - Nolte in particular gives a tempered performance as the shambling, sad-eyed wreck of a dad - but not enough to mask the film's lesser elements. full review

The beats are familiar, the stakes are high, the fights are brutal, and the rewards are just. full review

O'Connor films the fight scenes, and the fight training scenes leading up to them, with the requisite oomph. full review

For all the contemporary references, it's essentially a spin on the story of Cain and Abel, which may be the reason it feels timeless. full review

It's also a fight movie that knows all the fight movie cliches and doesn't shy away from embracing them wholeheartedly. But it hits its marks and hits them well, and feels fresh even as it traffics so deeply in the familiar. full review

Warrior is a weirdly affecting hybrid, a 100-proof melodrama that's two-thirds Sylvester Stallone and one-third Eugene O'Neill. Think Rocky's Long Day's Journey into Night. full review

Director Gavin O'Connor comes out swinging in this flawed but fiercely moving family drama...Strong stuff. full review

While "Warrior" does offer enough jaw-snapping action to sate any 'roid-ragers in the audience, it works on deeper levels as well. full review

Nolte's performance is masterful, marshalling together pain and regret and a slowly dawning comprehension in a single wince. But all this film has going for it besides him are its incredibly brutal fight scenes. full review

A cheap exploitation picture wrapped in miles and miles of stale would-be Oscar scenes... full review

This fictional drama about two men struggling with the anger planted in them by their abusive father has moments of power that push through a fake-out script. full review

Yes, the coincidences are fast and furious, but both Edgerton and Hardy give powerful performances as damaged men. full review

Hits things so hard, both literally and metaphorically, that it's hard not to feel pummeled yourself by the time it's over. full review

The plot is Shakespeare meets Balboa. full review

The set-up sounds gallingly crude and derivative, yet "Warrior" turns it into a one-two punch of gripping action and powerful drama. full review

The two leads, Edgerton and Hardy, pull off their respective roles - rising above the cliches and the melodrama - with ferocity and focus. full review

All the director and co-writer Gavin O'Connor does is apply old boxing-film tricks to what is, for the movies, a new sport. Then he doubles them. full review