Bronson

Tom Hardy gives a truly Oscar winning performance as Michael Peterson, in fact I would go so far as to say it was Eastwood (Gran Torino) beating. Sadly for me though it was really only his performance that carried the movie along. I freely admit that I didn't know much about the man before I saw this movie, but most of the film seemed to be Bronson beating prison guards up in various different locations & not much more. I know he got re-married - where was this? OK he spent most of his life behind bars, but surely there was a bit more to the mans life than what we saw? I've read that Bronson was quite happy about this movie & that it has given him some immortality, however I'm not sure that it really is going to leave people with the impression of him that he thinks. I certainly didn't leave the cinema thinking of him as a "billy the kid / Jessie James" anti-hero, but instead pitied him as a lost, out of control man who knew nothing but violence - more of a tortured soul.

Another major crap released. The atrocity of these filmmakers who would create sucky movie and then call it "art". "Well it's art, you can't argue with it, you either like it or not" Bulls***! It's crap dressed pretty. The fact that this movie has a very weak storyline, weak premise, trying too hard and very weak impression should tells us that the producer, director and whoever else involved in making Brunson is out of their mind. In no way this is a breakthrough. This must rank way way down in its own genre, which I'm sure will be called "crappy movies lacking imagination". Oh wait a minute, the music sucked too. I would think that's one of the area they could get right since, well, it's not so hard picking good music. All in all, they are trying to hard to make a certain kind of movie and it fails. A big, fat, major failure. If you ever had the misfortune of renting this, make sure you don't bring your loved ones to see it, they don't deserve it.

I cannot believe the praise heaped on this movie that tries to be too many things at once and fails at them all. It fails as: a) a serious biopic, b) a black comedy, c) an homage to Kubrick/A Clockwork Orange. Hardy is a fine actor (or this would be a 1 star review), but the tone is all wrong and far too many scenes were uncomfortably hard to watch. The attempts to elicit humor were cringe-worthy. After it was over, I realized I would have much rather seen a serious documentary of Bronson. However, if you really want to see an insane person play with his feces and/or you really love Tom Hardy and want to see his junk flopping around then this may be the movie for you.

A film about the most violent man in the British Prison system really should have a lot more substance to it than this. For me this attempt is a meandering, self pandering effort. The over artsy theatre scenes (WHY?). The lack of a feeling of time (one minute it's 1974 and Bronson is doing an armed robbery, the next well you never have a clue, the narration says 24 out of 26 years in solitary then ending text says it was 30 out of 34) all just cause a sense of bemusement. This film has next to nothing to do with the man, little to do with violence and more to do with a director and cast attempts at making something so far from the subject that they should have picked something else. Bronson's story is a sad, harrowing and eye opening one. Having read biographies of the man which tell the story so much better I was left expecting far more from this movie. This film covers none of his motivations, it barely explains why he attacked the inmate in Rampton (the film gives you the hint that he was a 'nonce' by him mentioning a 9 year old, but if you weren't paying too much attention then you'd have no idea.) It wraps it all up into a neat ball of 'I wanted to be famous'. it tells in a very confusing and odd way the story of why he ended up back inside, according to this he stole a ring and that was that, in truth there was a lot more going on (sure stealing the ring was the crux of it, but this ignores all of what was going on.) All in all I'd say if you want to know more about this man then read one of the biographies, you'll learn a lot more and be far more 'entertained', this film is an overblown 'lovey' type experience.